In Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, satire is used to emphasize the triviality and absurdity of certain conventions within Victorian society. The play’s main characters epitomize Victorian high society; thus, the criticism that arises from Wilde’s exaggeration extends further than the play itself.
Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, living a life of total bachelorhood in a fashionable part of London. He is younger than Jack, takes less responsibility, and is always frivolous and irreverent. As a symbol, he is wittiness and aestheticism personified. He — like Jack — functions as a Victorian male with a life of deception.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde that was first published in 1898. Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. See a complete list of the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest and in-depth analyses of Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Gwendolen Fairfax, and Cecily Cardew.
Algernon also maintains a confirmed bachelor’s antagonism toward marriage in general. Jack’s feelings seem sincere, until we recall he has assumed the identity of Ernest, his fictional dissolute younger brother. Jack courts Gwendolen under false pretenses, while accusing Algernon of being unromantic.
The The Importance of Being Earnest quotes below all refer to the symbol of Town and Country. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Dover Publications edition of.
It concerns the problem of recognising and defining human identity. The use of earnest and Earnest is a pun, which makes the title not only more comic, but also leads to a paradox. The farce in The Importance of Being Earnest consists in the trifle that it is important not only to be earnest by nature but to have the name Earnest too.