The document discusses marriage as portrayed in Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest". It summarizes the different views on marriage held by characters like Algernon, Lady Bracknell, and the butler Lane. While Algernon and Lane view marriage positively, Lady Bracknell believes it is an unpleasant arrangement used mostly to determine social standing and finances. The play explores marriage as both a farcical institution and a subject of philosophical debate through the characters' discussions and changing views by the story's end.

1. • NAME: MAHIDA BHUMIKA PRAKASHBHAI
ROLL NO: 5
ENROLLMENT NUMBER:3069206420200021
M.A. SEM -1
SUBJECT: PAPER 4 LITERATURE OF THE
VICTORIANS
TOPIC: MARRIAGE IN “THE IMPORTANCE OF
BEING EARNEST”

2. Oscar Wilde

3. ► Oscar Wilde 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.
► At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest
was still being performed in London, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of
Queensberry for criminal libel.

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

5. ► The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a
play by Oscar Wilde.The Importance of Being Earnest has been revived many
times since its premiere. It has been adapted for the cinema on three
occasions.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.

6. THE NATURE OF MARRIAGE IN “THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST”
► Marriage is of paramount importance in The Importance of Being Earnest,
both as a primary force motivating the plot and as a subject for philosophical
speculation and debate.
► A marriage proposal is a matter of “business” or “pleasure,” and Lady
Bracknell touches on the issue when she states, “An engagement should come
on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be.”
Even Lady Bracknell’s list of bachelors and the prepared interview to which
she subjects Jack are based on a set of assumptions about the nature and
purpose of marriage.

7. ► The play is actually an ongoing debate about the nature of marriage and
whether it is “pleasant or unpleasant.” Lane remarks casually that he
believes it to be “a very pleasant state,” before admitting that his own
marriage, now presumably ended, was the result of “a misunderstanding
between myself and a young person.” Algernon regards Lane’s views on
marriage as “somewhat lax.” His own views are relentlessly cynical until he
meets and falls in love with Cecily. Jack, by contrast, speaks in the voice of
the true romantic. He tells Algernon, however, that the truth “isn’t quite the
sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.”

8. QUOTES OF MARRIAGE IN “ THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST”
► ALGERNON. Why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants
invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information. LANE. I
attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that
in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.
ALGERNON. Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?

9. JACK. I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up
to town expressly to propose to her. ALGERNON. I
thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call
that business. JACK. How utterly unromantic you
are! ALGERNON. I really don’t see anything
romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in
love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite
proposal. Why, one may be accepted.

10. ► CHASUBLE. The precept as well as the practice of
the Primitive Church was distinctly against
matrimony. MISS PRISM [Sententiously]. That is
obviously the reason why the Primitive Church
has not lasted up to the present day. And you do
not seem to realise, dear Doctor, that by
persistently remaining single, a man converts
himself into a permanent public temptation. Men
should be more careful; this very celibacy leads
weaker vessels astray.

11. ► CHASUBLE [To Miss Prism]. Lætitia! [Embraces
her.] MISS PRISM [Enthusiastically]. Frederick!
At last! ALGERNON. Cecily![Embraces her.] At
last! JACK. Gwendolen! [Embraces her.] At last!

12. The Algernon’s Views on Marriage
► To underscore the importance of matrimony, the author introduces the
subject in the opening part of the play. It is used in a discussion between
Algernon and his servant, Lane. Once the subject is introduced, it becomes a
recurring concept in the entire play. First, the butler insinuates that married
households usually lack a sense of taste to a point where they cannot
purchase “first-rate” champagne. Then he observes that the champagne in a
bachelor establishment is of higher quality, and that is the reason why
servants tend to over drink. This makes Algernon wonder if the marriage has
become so demoralizing to a point where people lack a sense of taste.
Despite the butler’s failed marriage, he still thinks that love and marriage is a
pleasant experience that anyone should endeavor to have.

13. Lady Bracknell’s Views on Marriage
► On her part, Lady Bracknell addresses the issue of marriage by claiming, “An
engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or
unpleasant, as the case may be.” By looking at the set of questions that Lady
Bracknell subjects Jack, it is clear that she has a distorted view on love and
marriage.
By looking at the list of bachelors and the prepared script that Lady Bracknell
addresses Jack from, it is apparent that the social class on which the story is
based viewed marriage in terms of social standing, income, and character of
the participants.

14. CONCLUSION
► The concept of marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde has
brought out the nature of marriage in the morality of Victorian society. As
shown by the quotes from the text, the characters are divided into those who
believe that marriage is pleasant (that is Algernon’s view on marriage) and
those who believe that it is unpleasant (that is Lady Bracknell’s view on the
theme). Even among those who believe marriage is unpleasant, something
happens at the end that restores their faith in love and the marriage
institution as a whole.

15. REFERENCES
► https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-concept-of-marriage-in-the-importance-of-
being-earnest/ “views of the Characters” on marriage in the importance of
being earnest.
► https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/themes/ main themes of the play
“Importance of being earnest”
► https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/quotes/theme/marriage/ “ quotes
of the marriage in “ The Importance of being earnest”

16. Thank
You 😇