1. NAME : NIYATI VYAS
ROLL NO. : 15
COURSE : MA ENGLISH
SEM : 1
PAPER NO. : 104
PAPER NAME : LITERATURE OF THE VICTORIANS
TOPIC : “EARNESTNESS” IN IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST
BATCH : 2020-2022
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH MKBU
2. OSCAR WILDE
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30
November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright.
After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the
early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular
playwrights in London.
He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his
novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of
his criminal conviction for gross indecency for consensual
homosexual acts, imprisonment, and early death from
meningitis at age 46.
3. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a
play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's
Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain
fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations.
Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's
major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as
marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.
Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour and the culmination
of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social
messages.
Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being
Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.
The Importance of Being Earnest has been revived many times since its
premiere. It has been adapted for the cinema on three occasions.
4. “EARNESTNESS” IN THE IMPORTANCE
OF BEING EARNEST
DEFINITION OF EARNEST
Earnest means serious. In Oscar Wilde's play ''The Importance of Being Earnest,'' being
earnest is a pun, or a play on words between the adjective, ''earnest'' and the man's name,
''Ernest.'' Further, any reference to being earnest in this play is verbal irony, which is when
what is said is intentionally opposite of what is meant as this play is anything but serious.
At the beginning of the play, Jack, the protagonist, is being confronted by Algernon, the
cousin of Jack's love interest, Gwendolen. Jack has introduced himself to Gwendolen and
her family as Ernest, but Algernon has found an engraved cigarette case that refers to him
as Uncle Jack, so Jack explains,
''Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to
me in the country.''
It turns out that Jack has a ward at home in the country named Cecily. Jack wants to
appear upright and moral to Cecily, so when he leaves town and goes to the city, he
pretends his name is Ernest. He has told Cecily that he goes to the city to visit his immoral
brother, Ernest.
5. GWENDOLEN and CECILY both are in love with JACK, whom they knows as
EARNEST.
'...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
first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to
love you.'' - When GWENDOLEN says this to JACK he can’t tell her that his name
is not EARNEST.
Algernon, who is suspicious of the man who wishes to marry his cousin,
surprises Jack by showing up at his country house. When he meets Cecily,
Algernon claims that he is Jack's brother, Ernest. Although Cecily has never met
Ernest, she has admired him from afar for some time based on the stories she
heard about him from her uncle Jack.
“ You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine
to love someone whose name was Earnest….. There is something in that name that
seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose
husband is not called EARNEST.”
ALGERNON also makes plans to be christened under the EARNEST to please his
future wife.
