Preview

The Importance Of Being Earnest, By Oscar Wilde

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1369 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Importance Of Being Earnest, By Oscar Wilde
What good does always being earnest do you if you are not "Ernest"? Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", explores exactly this notion, following two men who readily abandon their namesakes in order to win the affections of their respective fair ladies. The play opens in London with a conversation held between these two men, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. However, at the play's origin, Algernon only knows his friend as "Ernest". This rapidly changes with the aid of a cigarette case Algernon has recovered, which is inscribed to an "Uncle Jack" from "little Cecily". Jack insists that the case is his, and thus, it is brought to light that Jack utilizes an alter-ego by the name of "Ernest" as a means of escape from the …show more content…
Jack plans to kill off his pretend brother "Ernest" that has allowed him to run away to the city. Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell -- Gwendolen's mother and Algernon's aunt -- arrive, Jack gets Gwendolen alone for his proposal, and Gwendolen accepts him. However, Gwendolen is fixated on Jack's name, which she believes not to be "Jack", but "Ernest". This is emphasized numerous times, such as when Gwendolen says in the first scene of the first act, "…my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you". This, understandably, put Jack ill at …show more content…
Chasuble, the man set to christen both Jack and Algernon, arrives, and mentioned Cecily's governess. Lady Bracknell recognizes the name and demands that the governess be called to her. Evidently, the governess had left Lady Bracknell's sister with a baby, never to return. Lady Bracknell demanded to know the whereabouts of the child, but the governess was ignorant to them. She claimed that she had mistakenly placed the baby in a handbag that she left at the railway station. It is soon uncovered that Jack, having already mentioned that he had been found in a handbag, was this baby. Jack's true origins are in none other than the Bracknell family, being the child of Lady Bracknell's sister and also the older brother of Algernon. His true name, of all things, happens to be "Ernest". Unbeknownst to him, Jack has been telling the truth all along. His name truthfully is Earnest, and he does in fact, have a slightly scandalous younger
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dramatic Irony: The Misunderstanding Of Gwendolen
    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page

    Dramatic Irony: The Misunderstanding Of Gwendolen

    misunderstanding of Gwendolen. When Jack proposes to Gwendolen , Gwendolen accepts the proposal because she likes the name ‘Earnest’. Pursuing only the name of Jack’s fictional character, Gwendolen, unlike the audience, does not knows that Jack’s name is not Earnest. Jack, on the other hand, constantly tries to convince Gwendolen that ‘Jack’ is as good a name as ‘Earnest’ so that the truth would not affect…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Comparison and Contrast of the Search for an Identity in This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolfe, and Limbo, by A. Manette Ansay
    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A Comparison and Contrast of the Search for an Identity in This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolfe, and Limbo, by A. Manette Ansay

    This lack of a father figure is only exacerbated by Jack's constant relocation. Not only is he unable to learn how to become a man, but he is never fully able to establish himself within a social setting and develop…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff Analysis
    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This Boy's Life Tobias Wolff Analysis

    Jack held idealistic beliefs, which marked his innocence. For example, he states on page 89, "I was tempted by the idea of belonging to a conventional family, and…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Hypocrisy In The Importance Of Being Earnest
    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page

    Hypocrisy In The Importance Of Being Earnest

    Oscar Wilde is known as a comedic playwright to much of the world, although his plays address issues with contemporary society in a nonchalant way by turning these issues into a joke. In The Importance Of Being Earnest Wilde uses irony and mockery to ridicule the narcissistic attitude of the victorian aristocracy as well as to expose their hypocrisy, ridiculous social norms, and their sheer stupidity that results in a myriad of silly and funny situations.…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    lord of the flies
    • 1127 Words
    • 1 Page

    lord of the flies

    As time goes on, on the island Jack begins to change. He turns into a savage and wants…

    • 1127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jack Merridew
    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Jack Merridew

    Jack is the oldest of the group. He is a tall, thin, and bony boy with red hair and a freckled face. He symbolizes responsibility, barbaric behavior, evil, and irrational thinking. He symbolizes responsibility because he was responsible for the actions of his group, the hunters. As the head of the hunters, it was his job to make sure they were always on task and that they bring food (meat) for the rest of the group. He symbolizes barbaric behavior by the way he treats the littluns and Piggy. The natural instinct of any older human being is to comfort the little children when they are scared, frightened, and unsure of their actions. Jack frightens them even more by telling them that there was a beast that they would hunt it down. He betrays Ralph and the rest of the tribe by abandoning them and creating his own tribe, forcing half the group to join it. He is a savage because of the way he does things to get what he wants. Instead of simply asking, he raids Ralph’s camp to get fire and Piggy’s specs. He is evil because he refuses to hear out Ralph and Piggy and insists that he is right the whole time. Jack almost caused almost all of the catastrophes that happened in the book. He wasn’t thinking right in the way he led his tribe to act. He made them think that acting maliciously instead of being civil was the way to go. In the end, he set the whole island on fire just to hunt down Ralph so he could kill him. Jack had a dramatic change in his attitude that started to be revealed in Chapter 5 when he started to yell at Ralph, broke all the rules, and caused the whole assembly to leave. In the beginning, he was following what Ralph says and he was actually up for helping them get rescued. In Chapter 5 and…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Self-Definition In Lord Of The Flies
    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Self-Definition In Lord Of The Flies

    Jack physically reinvents his image to help him illuminate his true inner-self as a barbaric, animalistic tyrant. When Jack first explores the island, he responsibly opposes his subconscious primal urge to kill, remaining morally bound: “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up…The madness came into his eyes again. ‘I thought I might kill’”(Golding 51). Jack proceeds to embrace his true uncivilized and animalistic inner-voice and still avoid the moral burden it would typically entail; Jack changes his physical appearance animalistically to reflect his inner-voice, thereby easing his…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jack- the Lord of the Flies
    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jack- the Lord of the Flies

    Jack is the antagonistic version of Ralph. They both have many of the same characteristics; however there is one extreme difference. Where Ralph rules as…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Importance Of Being Earnest Satire Analysis
    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Importance Of Being Earnest Satire Analysis

    Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest provides a satirical view of the Victorian era, primarily focusing on Victorian standards of marriage and social expectations. Wilde builds his critique of Victorian morality through his humor and wit between the character’s banter, the hypocritical Victorian view of honesty.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Is The Difference Between Jack And Ralph In Lord Of The Flies
    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What Is The Difference Between Jack And Ralph In Lord Of The Flies

    Jack:The other boy who has the leadership skills.Savage,barbaric and egomaniacal. The leader of the hunters and choir.He leads the hunters and hunts animals.He is against Ralph's ideas and he wants to have all power.The more he becomes savage ,the more he is able to control rest of the group.In the end jack has learnt to use boy's fear of the beast to control their behavior.…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnes
    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnes

    Through the play, “we are made to share Wilde’s view of the ludicrous and sinister realities behind the fashionable façade of an over-civilized society where nothing serious is considered serious and nothing trivial trivial” (Reinert 17). In the interactions between people who subscribe to Victorianism, such as Gwendolen and Cecily, the trivial matter of addressing each other while having a conversation is turned into a manner of enormous social importance. In contrast, in the interactions between people who subscribe to Bunburyism, or the total rejection of Victorianism, matters as serious as pretending to have a dead brother Ernest or sick friend Bunbury are treated lightly. Gwendolen and Cecily’s Victorianism leads them to become enraged at each other without reason, while Jack and Algernon’s Bunburyism very nearly leads to their mutual loss of the women whom they love. In this way, Wilde shows that moral ideals should lie in the middle between Bunburyism and Victorianism because of the consequences of taking both ideas of extremes (Reinert 18). Jack sums up the moral best in the last line of the play when he proclaims that he has “now realized the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Earnest 313). Through this play, Wilde states that the key to success is to simply behave without thought for social…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Lord Of The Flies Argumentative Essay
    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Lord Of The Flies Argumentative Essay

    When Jack is first introduced, he is an innocent leader of the choir boys, but as time on the island passes, Jack changes his ways of living to fit in with the society around him. For example, on their way back to the lagoon they find…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Lord of the Flies Paper
    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lord of the Flies Paper

    Jack is the cliché evil character. When we first meet Jack we are told he was “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled, and freckled, and ugly without silliness” (Golding 20). Red hair in literature often represents a type of adventurer or rebel, which Jack is. Jack is strong-willed and egomaniacal, but is a natural born leader. He was the head choir boy at his school after all. He even has a knife for no explained reason. His knife represents violence and danger but can also be seen as a practicality. On the other hand Ralph has fair hair which is a classic cliché for good and light. He has the conch, a symbol of order and peace. He is a representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel; therefore most of the boys follow him at first. Although the boys are first attracted to Ralph, they soon move onto Jack as his sense for adventure and brashness attract them.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Importance Of Being Earnest Identity Essay
    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Importance Of Being Earnest Identity Essay

    The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that trivializes many things: the Victorian society, the nature of marriage and especially the concept of human identity. While identity is typically considered to be something concrete, the characters within the play are constantly in flux. This is especially evident in Jack, whose forms his identities as he goes through life. He transforms from a nameless baby in a handbag, to Jack the thriving member of the countryside bourgeois, then further on to become Ernest, a member of the aristocracy. Jack creates a fiction that is eventually proven to be his actual identity. The army lists show that his father’s name was Ernest John, which prove that Jack was both an Ernest and a Jack, as he was named after his father. Through the army lists, Wilde shows the triviality of one’s nominal identity in Victorian society, and the importance of the art of creating an identity.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Props In The Importance Of Being Ernest
    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Props In The Importance Of Being Ernest

    Lady Bracknell goes as far as to explain that because Jack was found in a cloakroom, he is a social indiscretion and can therefore not be a match for Gwendolen. The handbag is important to the plot of the play because it is the clue to Jack’s identity that completely shuts him off from an engagement to Gwendolen. Additionally, the handbag is the key to Jack’s original heritage. In the end of the play, Jack finds out that Miss Prism worked for the Moncrieff family and that he was the baby she left in the handbag-effectively revealing Jack as Algernon’s older brother (51-53).…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics