The Alter Ego of Jack Worthing
“The Importance of Being Earnest (also called A Trivial Comedy for Serious People)” is a play written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1890's. Although it is comedy, it is also a social satire and it has some serious themes hidden in its lines. The themes here address Victorian social issues. In in the late 19th century, in the Victorian society, the life was not very easy. People were divided in social classes and there was a strict code of morals which people from the upper class had to keep, otherwise they were highly criticized. In this play Wilde criticizes the society in a humor way. The main protagonist of this masterpiece, young man Jack Worthing is a man from the upper class. He is decent, sensible, responsible. At least he likes to people think he is. And how does a man like Jack find some amusement, some distraction from his everyday life? Easy. He goes off and pretends to be someone else. And how does this being someone else changes his character? That is something I would like to focus on in my essay. …show more content…
He was adopted and raised by Mr. Thomas Cardew. Jack lives in Hertfordshire, in a lovely countryside where he owns a country estate. In Hertfordshire he is known by his real name and his real identity. He has numerous responsibilities here, many people who depend on him, as his servants, and mainly he is a guardian to Thomas’ granddaughter Cecily. He is respectable man, known by his reliability and decency. Jack is bound to behave the way which everyone expects him to. However, Jack does not like to be always serious, to be always earnest, he wants to have some escape route from his everyday life, so he creates an alter ego for himself, a character whom he calls
“The Importance of Being Earnest (also called A Trivial Comedy for Serious People)” is a play written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1890's. Although it is comedy, it is also a social satire and it has some serious themes hidden in its lines. The themes here address Victorian social issues. In in the late 19th century, in the Victorian society, the life was not very easy. People were divided in social classes and there was a strict code of morals which people from the upper class had to keep, otherwise they were highly criticized. In this play Wilde criticizes the society in a humor way. The main protagonist of this masterpiece, young man Jack Worthing is a man from the upper class. He is decent, sensible, responsible. At least he likes to people think he is. And how does a man like Jack find some amusement, some distraction from his everyday life? Easy. He goes off and pretends to be someone else. And how does this being someone else changes his character? That is something I would like to focus on in my essay. …show more content…
He was adopted and raised by Mr. Thomas Cardew. Jack lives in Hertfordshire, in a lovely countryside where he owns a country estate. In Hertfordshire he is known by his real name and his real identity. He has numerous responsibilities here, many people who depend on him, as his servants, and mainly he is a guardian to Thomas’ granddaughter Cecily. He is respectable man, known by his reliability and decency. Jack is bound to behave the way which everyone expects him to. However, Jack does not like to be always serious, to be always earnest, he wants to have some escape route from his everyday life, so he creates an alter ego for himself, a character whom he calls