DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

COMEDY
OSCAR WILDE’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

By Dr. Abdelkader Ben Rhit

Exemplar passage-based question

Literary satire
When humor is mixed with social criticism the result is satire

Read the excerpt below and answer the following question:

How does Wilde makes this moment in the play so comic and so serious at the same
time?

JACK. Algy! Can't you recollect what our father's

Then the question had better be cleared up Christian name was?
at once. Aunt Augusta, a moment. At the ALGERNON.
time when Miss Prism left me in the hand- My dear boy, we were never even on
bag, had I been christened already? speaking terms. He died before I was a
LADY BRACKNELL. year old.
Every luxury that money could buy, JACK.
including christening, had been lavished His name would appear in the Army Lists
on you by your fond and doting parents. of the period, I suppose, Aunt Augusta?
JACK. LADY BRACKNELL.
Then I was christened! That is settled. The General was essentially a man of
Now, what name was I given? Let me peace, except in his domestic life. But I
know the worst. have no doubt his name would appear in
LADY BRACKNELL. any military directory.
Being the eldest son you were naturally JACK.
christened after your father. The Army Lists of the last forty years are
JACK. here. These delightful records should
[Irritably.] Yes, but what was my father's have been my constant study. [Rushes to
Christian name? bookcase and tears the books out.] M.
LADY BRACKNELL. Generals... Mallam, Maxbohm, Magley,
[Meditatively.] I cannot at the present what ghastly names they have - Markby,
moment recall what the General's Migsby, Mobbs, Moncrieff! Lieutenant
Christian name was. But I have no doubt 1840, Captain, Lieutenant-Colonel,
he had one. He was eccentric, I admit. Colonel, General 1869, Christian names,
But only in later years. And that was the Ernest John. [Puts book very quietly
result of the Indian climate, and marriage, down and speaks quite calmly.] I always
and indigestion, and other things of that told you, Gwendolen, my name was
kind. Ernest, didn't I? Well, it is Ernest after all.
JACK. I mean it naturally is Ernest.%

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LADY BRACKNELL. CHASUBLE.
Yes, I remember now that the General was [To MISS PRISM.] Laetitia! [Embraces
called Ernest, I knew I had some particular her]
reason for disliking the name. MISS PRISM.
GWENDOLEN. [Enthusiastically.] Frederick! At last!
Ernest! My own Ernest! I felt from the ALGERNON.
first that you could have no other name! Cecily! [Embraces her.] At last!
JACK. JACK.
Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man Gwendolen! [Embraces her.] At last!
to find out suddenly that all his life he has
been speaking nothing but the truth. Can LADY BRACKNELL.
you forgive me? My nephew, you seem to be displaying
GWENDOLEN. signs of triviality.
I can. For I feel that you are sure to JACK.
change. On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I've now
JACK. realised for the first time in my life the
My own one! vital Importance of Being Earnest.
[TABLEAU]

ANALYSIS:

Wilde’s fast-paced denouement contains serious social comment beneath its comic façade.
Jack has eagerly been introducing everyone to his newly discovered bother (“Algy”), though
the final unanswered question of Jack’s real name remains.

Previously a “gorgon”, who bowed with “icy coldness” and flashed a “practised smile”,
within seconds of Jack discovering his relation to Lady Bracknell he begins to call her "Aunt
Augusta". Wilde is ironically using familiar terms to ridicule the upper-class' infatuation
with a surname. Their seamless conquering of such an insuperable barrier debunks their
fixation with family ties, poking fun at the mercurial nature of the elite. It takes a name
(and the lottery of birth), not the choices of character, to enable Jack’s complete upper-
class acceptance.

With everyone filled with excitement (Jack, in particular, acts "irritably" like a child) Lady
Bracknell is, in contrast, "meditative". It is as if she has reached her own personal
nirvana/pleasure and is in total peace. While this contrast is comedic visually, the audience
soon realises LadyBracknell's tranquillity is both short and long term: she is basking in the
glory of power she holds during the denouement, whilst simultaneously looking towards
the furthering of the Bracknell family name. Her country jaunt has produced two
rather unexpected, but financially advantageous, marriages.

In discussing the causes of Jack’s father’s “eccentricities”, Lady Bracknell puts

"marriage" alongside the "Indian climate" and "indigestion", both unpleasant things,
extending Wilde’s negative presentation of marriage. The alliteration of "Indian" and
"indigestion" makes "marriage" even more out of place in this sentence.

Marriages, funerals, and now christenings, are presented as marketable commodities in

the play. Jack’s christening (christening is a baptism ceremony in the Christian religion in

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which a baby is given a Christian name) is referred to as a “luxury” bought and “lavished”
upon him. Wilde’s critique of the church’s role in Victorian society (increasingly under
pressure following Darwin’s 1859 “Origin of Species” and the ensuing Crisis of Faith)
continues as Dr Chasuble goes against his vow of chastity. Humour may come as the stiff,
proper characters Prism and Chasuble finally “embrace” each other “enthusiastically”;
however, Wilde is also liberating them. The benefits of his comic ending are enjoyed by all,
including the representatives of religion and learning – the traditional guardians of
earnestness.

Both Jack’s lies (he is called Ernest; he has a brother) have come true. Miss Prism’s
repeated moral lesson of “as a man sows, so shall he reap” is nowhere to be seen. Jack
offers the typically witty Wildean phrase that “it is a terrible thing for a man to find out
suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth”. Characters are
rewarded for their lies, and even encouraged to continue them, as Gwendolen’s reaction
to this inverted apology reveals: “I feel that you are sure to change.” Yet Wilde’s world
without consequences is an unattainable Utopia. Just weeks after “Earnest’s” February 14 th
1895 premiere, the dream began to dwindle, with Queensberry’s accusation triggering
Wilde’s arrest, trial and eventual ruin.

The inspiration for Lady Bracknell was Queensbury, and her final reaction is ambiguous, and
open to the interpretation of the actress playing her (or actor, a common casting choice given
her absurd characteristics). One could feel sympathy for her, as the final tableau sees three
couples happily embrace whilst she is left alone. On the other hand, she may well be
basking in the glory of her marriage-making “business”.

The final line implicates the important need for an alter ego (Ernest), rather than honest
seriousness (being earnest), in order to live, or even survive, prescriptive Victorian
society. Jack may be Ernest, but he is not earnest. Wilde offers an interesting
capitalisation: neither Ernest or earnest, instead a hybrid “Earnest”. This linguistic play is
available to readers only, and the audience must decide for themselves which one Wilde
means.

The end product of all this fooling is the serious revelation that society is – Wilde seems to
suggest – a tissue of lies, and could not function without them. Lady Bracknell’s accusation
of Jack’s “triviality” is a fair one: the denouement is deeply comic, but damningly serious.
This is, after all, a “trivial comedy for serious people”.

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