Beatrice And Juliet And The Importance Of Being Ernest

Weddings are on of the happiest days of a couple’s life. It is a moment for them to spend with friends and family and celebrate the love that they have for one another as well as the union of the two families. Unfortunately the journey to finding the perfect partner is not always easy. For some, such as Juliet and Paris, Hero and Claudio, Jack and Gwendolen, and Jane Bennett and Mr. Bingley the perfect partner is chosen by parents or for wealth and honor. Often, the characters in each work are conscious of the fact that the next step for them to take in their lives is to marry. However, for some, such as Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice and Benedick, Algernon and Cecily, and Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, they must decide when and if they are prepared

However, once Jack meets up with Gwendolyn it is clear that he is in love and he proposes to her almost immediately in Algernon’s house. Algy, however is not not in the same boat. He has no interest in being married and often pokes fun at Jack for having the desire to marry his cousin Gwendolyn. Because Algy has learned of Jack’s real life in the country, and not the fake one that he lives in the city under the pseudonym Earnest, he decides to venture to Jack’s country home and pretend to be his brother Earnest and learn more about his supposed friend Earnest. Upon his arrival Algy meets Cecily, Jacks ward. Almost immediately he falls in love with the young girl and proposes. Although it may seem as though Algy is merely trying to annoy Jack and get back at him for lying to him about his name and full identity, when Cecily tells Algy she has been engaged to him for months and had broken it off Algy questions “why on earth … [she broke] it off? …. [He] had done nothing at all. … [And was] very much hurt indeed to hear [she] broke it off” (2.1407-1409). Despite only having known her for a few days, Algy has fallen head over heels for the girl and has completely changed his mind about marriage. He no longer pokes fun at his old friend Jack, but rather acts as he did with Gwendolyn. Despite having no interest in checking the

These couple pairs juxtapose one another when deciding on when to take the leap and get married. There is one set of characters who do as expected and marry the person that their parents approve of and do not worry about whether or not they are in love. They blindly decide that they want to be able to check the married box when filling out paperwork rather than spending time getting to know a person and then mutually deciding that marriage is the next step. The other couple takes a different approach to marriage. Initially, they normally do not have an interest in marriage and could care less about who their parents expect them to marry and who they are being pushed into forming a relationship with. However, once they meet the right person their relationship is a huge whirlwind and they end up falling in love, changing their opinion on marriage and get married. They tend to take a more modern approach to checking the married box on paperwork and have to get married on their own terms rather than the terms of others that are forced upon the first type of