Deception In The Importance Of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest follows Jack and Algernon, two young men living in Victorian England, whose attempts to court Gwendolen and Cecily are complicated by the fictitious identities they have created to escape social obligations. Over the course of the play, their various deceptions are exposed and things get further and further out of hand until a timely revelation brings the matter to a resolution. This play is primarily a satire that serves as a vehicle for Wilde to mock what he sees as the silliness and shallowness of Victorian society. To explore Wilde’s ideas, it makes sense to first examine the main characters of the play. Jack Worthing is a foundling who knows nothing of his lineage in a society where birthright
She is depicted as a wealthy, snobbish society matron who places much importance on station. “Do not speak ill of society,” Lady Bracknell says, “…only those who cannot get into it do that.” This quote provides a brief summation of her entire value system. Twice in the story, she is shown interviewing prospective matches for her relatives to determine their suitability. The questions are entirely concerned with wealth and status. She automatically rules Jack unsuitable for her daughter when he is unable to answer inquiries about his background to her satisfaction, chastising him for losing both his parents, then reacting in disgust when he relates how he was found in a handbag at a train station. “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter—a girl brought up with the utmost care—to marry into a cloakroom, and form an alliance with a parcel?” she protests. Tellingly, she also asks Jack about his politics, but only questions Cecily about her financial prospects for a potential match. The assertions Lady Bracknell makes throughout this work seem ridiculous. She prioritizes a person’s standing over their substance, and that’s the point Wilde is trying to make about the society she