Oscar Wilde The importance of Being Honest - Essay Example

Ian Knight November 30, 2009 Paper 2 The last play of the great Oscar Wilde, “the importance of Being Honest”, is his most popular play. It is a trivial comedy on being dishonest for personal gains and on obstacles that it creates. This hilarious satire centers around the double lives of two fashionable young gentle men, Algernon Moncrieff and his friend John worthing or Jack ,who assume false names and try to lure their would -be brides. Though Jack is his best friend Algernon knows him only by his wrong name “Ernest”. Algernon suspects Jack of living a double life, when he finds out a cigarette case of “Ernest”, which carried an inscription from “little Cecily” to “Uncle Jack”. Algernon himself is leading a Double life. He pretends to have a non existent friend named Bunbury. He has told everyone that this friend of his is chronically invalid and is in the country side. When ever he wanted to leave London to the country side, he would tell that Bunbury was in death bed and his presence was needed there urgently. By this dishonest trick he leaves London to escape serious social responsibilities and obligations. Jack also employs the same trick to escape from the country side as well as from social responsibilities, to come to London. He has told every one that in London he has a brother named Ernest. He escapes from the country side to visit this nonexistent brother, Ernest. The Victorian society was always boosting about morality and honest values. But the gentlemen folk of the society or the higher ups in the society used cheating techniques to attain personal gains. Preached values in the society were far distanced from the practices of the gentlemen in the society, according to Oscar Wilde. Strangely, this criticism applies to modern societies too. Even in modern societies the government officials who when once appointed by their departments, escape responsibilities by adopting different fake roles. Some government officials live double lives. Recently the double lives of some politicians In United States have been exposed. For example Vito Fossella had a wife and three kids on Staten Island and another woman and child in the Washington suburb. In the Act 1, Jack unexpectedly visits Algernon and informs his intention to propose to Gwendolen, the daughter of Algernon’s aunt Lady Bracknell. But by that time Algernon has discovered the cigarette case and asks him to come clean on Jack and Cecily. At first Ernest (Jack) say he knows no Cecily. Here the play sheds light on modern governance as well, like the Government of the United States. The government is always in a position to lay down its virtues earnestly but always engage itself in denying even concrete facts. This is clear from the situation in Iraq where innocent individuals have been killed, but the government of the United States continues to deny this. When confronted aggressively Jack admits that Ernest is a fictional character invented by him and that Cecily is a ward of his on whom he has responsibility due to his adoptive father’s will. He also tells him that Cecily has developed interest in Ernest, the fictional character, so that he was thinking of “killing” him. The description of Cecily by Jack creates interest in Algernon in her, to the extent of falling in love with her. When Lady Bracknell and her daughter arrive Jack proposes to Gwendolen who surprisingly returns her affection, thinking that he is Ernest. She says that it was the name Ernest that has attracted her. She reveals that that name has “inspired absolute confidence” in her so that she is not ready to marry any one without that name. This stand of Gwendolen embarrasses Jack. Further more when interviewed by Lady Bracknell, to find out the qualification of the possible son-in law, jack had to reveal that he knew nothing about his father. He as a child was discovered by his adoptive father in a hand bag in the clock room of Victoria station. This family background discourages Lady Bracknell who straight away forbids the match between her daughter and Jack. Here again one can taste a criticism of modern governess. There are people in government, who no matter how good a deal looks like; end up squalling and opposing it. Remember how the former president of the United States George Bush rejected offers by the President of Iraq to end the war; and kept on sending more troops to Iraq. Lady Bracknell’s attitude is a critique of the Victorian concept of marriage as well. The Victorian society considered marriage as a business. Rich and well groomed men and women were preferred in the marriage market. More over, Victorian concept of marriage was drained of all romance. Wilde goes wildly critical of this unromantic concept of marriage during the Victorian era through the following dialogue between Algernon and Jack. Algernon: My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you. Jack: I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come to town expressly to propose to her Algernon: I thought you had come up for pleasure? … I call it 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. One usually is, I believe .Then the excitement is all over. The very essence o romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married I will certainly try to forget the fact. (Act 1, 30) The Act two reveals the hypocrisy of the so called “Ernest values” of the Victorian society through, Algernon and Jack. Algernon, after overhearing Jack giving his address to Gwendolen, reaches the country side to court Cecily, while Jack was still away. On the other hand Jack got convinced that he had to get rid of his fictional brother “Ernest”, because Gwendolen was in love with him. So he returns with a new lie on “Ernest” saying that his brother has died. He returns back in mourning cloths only to find Algernon trying to woo his ward Cecily, which irritates him. While Algernon proposes to Cecily, the fictional name of “Ernest” creates problem there too. Cecily tells him that she is in love with Ernest, the brother of Jack. She unconsciously echoes Gwendolen and says the name Ernest “inspires absolute confidence.” Meanwhile Gwendolen comes to the country side to pay a surprise visit to Jack. She meets Cecily about whom jack had not told her. She thinks that Cecily is the ward of Ernest worthing, but Cecily corrects her and tells her that she is the ward of Jack and that she is in love with Jack’s brother Ernest Worthing. This leads to a war of manners as Gwendolen claims that it is she who is engaged to Ernest Worthing, and not Cecily. Finally both the ladies come to know that they are cheated by those two “Victorian gentlemen.” They are shocked and get furious, which forces Jack and Algernon to think of changing their names to “Ernest”. They separately and secretly meet a pastor named Dr Chausable to get christened as Ernest. Act 111, again turns out to be a critique of Victorian hypocrisy. In the drawing room of the Manor house where Cecily and Gwendolen had retired, both these ladies confront Algernon and Jack over the fictional character of Ernest, by whom both of them got deceived.When Jack and Algernon reveal the secret of the fictional character, the women feel appeased. More over when both of them promise to get rechristened as Ernest they get pardoned too. Finally Lady Bracknell arrives. True to the Victorian concept of marriage as a lucrative business, she agrees to Algernon marrying Cecily, because Cecily has a large personal fortune. But Jack objects to it, because Lady Bracknell is still blocking his proposal to her daughter, raising the issue of mysterious parenthood. Finally through Miss Prism, the Governess of Cecily this mystery gets resolved. It was Miss Prism who left with a baby from Lady Bracknell’s house 28 years before and forgot the baby in the clock room of Victoria Station. The mother of the baby was Lady Bracknell’s sister. With the mystery resolved Lady Bracknell, agrees to the marriage of her daughter with Jack. Jack too agrees to the marriage between Cecily and Algernon. Jack in the end acknowledges that he now really understands the “the importance of being Earnest.” This play is a satire on the Victorian values, which pokes fun at that society’s vices, problems and wrong manners. Oscar wilde is often called the golden wordsmith .As Richard Allen Cave points out: “For many this is the enduring appeal of the plays, the seemingly effortless fount of wit which lead W.H. Auden to describe ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’, as “the purest example in English literature” of a “Verbal Opera” (The Importance of Being Ernest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde PP- viii) The play though a critique of the Victorian England can easily be linked with the socio –political situations of today’s United States. The two main characters of the play Algernon and Jack are living double lives. This is the same with our politicians. They put on different faces during campaigns and once they are in the government, they become totally different. They change their personalities just like the chameleon changes its color. It is clear that the United States government is not entirely earnest to their promises of betterment of the lives of the people. ============================== Sources Used: 1) Wilde Oscar , The Importance of Being Earnest ,Prestwick House Inc.(January1, 2005 ) 2) Allen Cave Richard, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays of Oscar Wilde, Penguin Classics, 2000. Read More