The Importance Of Being Earnest Analysis

Register to read the introduction… The idea of misunderstanding and irony is evident within the double endendre of title itself, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Wilde uses the word play of the importance to be the man ‘Ernest’ and to question what is to be ‘earnest’ in a Victorian society. It is through this that the significance of alter egos is heightened and the farcical elements of the play are revealed. Living a double life is the central metaphor in the play, epitomised in the notion of ‘Bunbury’. As defined by Algernon, ‘Bunburying’ is the practice of creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility. Both Jack and Algernon acquire alter egos in order to escape from their normal lives, and both assume the name ‘Ernest’. This works as a catalyst for misunderstanding and confusion in Earnest which enhances the comedy. For instance, when Jack returns to the countryside he announces that Ernest is ‘quite dead’; this is an example of farcical event that provides dramatic irony since Jack is unaware that Algernon is also there and pretending to be Jacks brother, ‘Ernest’. By including these various enactments of double lives and the use of irony of the name ‘Ernest’ and in fact being the opposite, Wilde may suggest at the hypocrisy of the Victorian …show more content…
Within Earnest characters of the upper class display a great deal of pride and pretence whereas the lower classes in Earnest such as Lane, Algernon’s butler, are less pretentious and more humble, but are equal in the sense that they are able to participate in witty repartee. For instance, after Algernon asks Lane as to whether he was listening to him play the piano and Lane replies with the veiled insult of ‘I didn’t think it polite to listen’. Lane’s ability to contribute in quick-witted repartee with someone of higher status than himself demonstrates that he is equal in tone but divided by class. However, after talking with Lane about marriage, Algernon states that ‘if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility’. This is an inversion of conventional thinking; Algernon assumes that the lower classes should set a moral example for the upper classes like the aristocracy. The juxtaposition between the upper and lower class is how Wilde establishes Earnest as a comedy of manners, by criticising the mannerisms of the upper class. For this reason, it is implied that Earnest is not a comedy best described as a ‘game’ played to show social reflections but a serious play that criticises the established order of Victorian