The Importance Of Being Ernest Character Analysis

The author Oscar Wilde wrote the satire comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, to provoke laughter and entertain the audience by using gender and role reversal. Hemade fun of the expectations that society puts on males and females. He mocks romance and marriage, giving a sense that he doesn 't think of either very highly.The main characters Algernon Moncieff, Gwendolen Fairfax, John Worthing and Cecily Cardew seem to fall in and out of love so fast, it 's hard to tell where their love is at all. Wilde paints a perfect portrait of the characters he is criticizing.The Importance of Being Earnestderives its comedic pleasurefrom mixing togethercontradictory yet likable characterswith a surprising twist at the endleaving the reader happily entertained.Algernon

Algernon shows his "Importance" by saying of his manservant "Really, if the lower orders don 't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?". (14) He also paints a picture of what he thinks of romance and marriage by quotes such as "Girls never marry the men they flirt with." (16),but then contradicts his own statement by stating "The amount of women who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandelous."Jack is seemingly respectablehowever he leads a double life which is found out by Algernon in the first scene. "Well my name is Ernest and town and Jack in the country..." (17). He longs to marry Gwendolen and will do anything to make that happen, even getting Christened with a different name.When he is questioned about his lies he says to Algernon "My dear fellow, the truth isn 't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl."(29). This statement shows Jack trying to excuse his untruthfulness. He finds that he needs to cover his lies better when he learns that Gwendolen loves him for his false name Ernest. "But you don 't really mean to say that you couldn 't love me if my name wasn 't Ernest?"(23).He finds that she thinks the name Jack "does not thrill" (24). Wilde shows the ridiculousness of loving someone merely for their name.The two girls Gwendolen and Cecily meet later in the play as the boys lies start to unravel. The pettiness that they show as they become fast friends and enemies and friends again points out how Wilde uses shallow friendships to paint a picture of the women. For Gwendolen appearance is very important, she is confident and at home in the big city. She provides Wilde an opportunity to discuss marriage and the absurdities of life."Men often propose for practice, I know my brother Gerald does." (24). Wilde shows how lightly Gwendolen takes the idea of