III. Key Facts about the Play

 

Full title: The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People  

Genre: Social comedy; comedy of manners; satire; intellectual farce 

Tone: Light, deceptively trivial

Setting (time): 1890s

Setting (place): London (Act I) and Hertfordshire, a rural county not far  from London (Acts II and III)

Protagonist: John Worthing, known as “Ernest” by his friends in town (i.e., London) and as “Jack” by his friends and relations in the country 

Major conflict: Jack faces many obstacles to his romantic union with Gwendolen. One obstacle is presented by Lady Bracknell, who objects to what she refers to as Jack’s “origins” (i.e.his inability to define his family background). Another obstacle is Gwendolen’s obsession with the name “Ernest,”since she does not know Jack’s real name.

Rising action · Algernon discovers that Jack is leading a double life and that he has a pretty young ward named Cecily, The revelation of Jack’s origins causes Lady Bracknell to forbid his union with Gwendolen. Identifying himself as “Ernest,” Algernon visits Jack’s house in the country and falls in love with Cecily.

Climax: Gwendolen and Cecily discover that both Jack and Algernon have been lying to them and that neither is really named “Ernest.”

Falling action: Miss Prism is revealed to be the governess who mistakenly abandoned Jack as a baby and Jack is discovered to be Algernon’s elder brother. 

Themes: The nature of marriage; the constraints of morality; hypocrisy vs. inventiveness; the importance of not being “earnest”

   The title implies a connection between the name and the concept, between a person named Earnest and that person being earnest.    The word "earnest" has three related meanings: to be eager or zealous; to be sincere, serious, and determined; and to be important, not trivial. 

As a satire of society     The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular. In Victorian times earnestness was considered to be the over-riding societal value. The play's very title, with its mocking paradox (serious people are so because they do not see trivial comedies), introduces the theme, it continues in the drawing room discussion, "Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them," says Algernon in Act 1. Both Gwendolen and Cecily have the ideal of marrying a man named Ernest, a popular and respected name at the time.

 

In Earnest, main characters Jack and Algernon create alter egos that offer them relief from society’s rigid expectations. From this premise, Wilde created the biting social criticism that distinguishes the play. The futility of the façade is satirized, as the objects of their affection, Gwendolen and Cecily, care little when the men’s deceit is revealed; the women instead focus on the very superficial issue of the name “Ernest,” the name both men claim is theirs. In addition, the central enforcers of the moral code—Lady Bracknell and Miss Prism—prove to be as corrupt in their own behavior as they are righteous about others’. In the end, the hollow, hypocritical society is humorously allowed to remain intact; whether this is a tragedy or not is subject to interpretation.