importance of being Earnest

Thinking Activity

"Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde

     

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations.

Q-1,Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

What is the meaning of the title The Importance of Being Earnest?

The meaning of the title The Importance of Being Earnest is that there is something valuable in being earnest, or honest. This title is ironic, however, because the characters in the play are actually not honest. In the end, Jack remarks, "now I know the vital importance of being earnest," but in reality, he has lied, and his lies simply happened to turn out to be true statements.The full title of the play is The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Wilde told Robert Ross that its theme was the idea:

That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere...

A serious Comedy for Trivial people:

Wilde seems to have been toying with audiences by giving the play a title with more than one meaning. The play’s title can be deceptive. Rather than a form of the name Ernest, the title implies earnestness as a quality one should seek to acquire, as in being honest, sincere, sober, and serious. Throughout the play, Ernest is a name that encompasses qualities of the ideal man: deeply trustworthy, truly loving, honorable and passionate, and absolutely sincere. Gwendolyn says, “We live in an age of ideals . . . and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. . . . The only really safe name is Ernest.” That both Gwendolyn and Cecily dream of marrying a man named Ernest seems more than a coincidence. Cecily admits, “It had always been a girlish dream of mine to love some one whose name was Ernest. There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence.”Indeed, there is almost a worship of the name more than what it represents. “It is a divine name. It has a music of its own,” explains Gwendolyn. “It produces vibrations.” And Cecily describes the man she thinks to be named Ernest as “the very soul of truth and honour. Disloyalty would be as impossible to him as deception.” So, what’s in a name? Would a rose by any other name, as Shakespeare asserts, smell as sweet? Ab solutely not, unless that name were Ernest, according to Oscar Wilde’s portrayal of shallow, yet charming, Victorian women.

Within the context of the play, add confidence, safety, and gravity to the ideal man named Ernest. But audiences are left to wonder if Wilde meant to use “Earnest” and “Ernest” interchangeably. After all, one is a description and the other is a man’s name. No, Wilde reminds viewers that to be earnest is more important that to be named Ernest. The social deceptions of Victorian England were rampant, and Wilde simply wished to call things as he saw them. One way he did this was through double entendre; however, his use of aphorisms went further in exposing the widespread use of deception among the gentry.

Wilde peppered the play with aphorisms, those pithy witticisms that purportedly derive from exalted thought. Indeed, the playwright spoke in aphorisms on his deathbed when he stated through fevers, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” The following quotes from The Importance of Being Earnest exemplify Wilde’s adept use of aphorisms:

“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever” (Act 1).

“No married man is ever attractive except to his wife” (Act 2).

“Divorces are made in Heaven” (Act 2)

Wilde mingled truth and humor using tongue-in-cheek and witty repartee, both of which fit beautifully into farce. And his adept use of truth in jest makes The Importance of Being Earnest a perennial favorite of Western theatre audiences and literary critics. The following quotes by characters in The Importance of Being Earnest reveal Oscar Wilde’s clever wit in holding the mirror up to reveal truth and human nature:

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!” (Algernon).

“In matters of grave importance style, not sincerity is the vital thing” (Gwendolyn).

“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only those who can’t get into it do that” (Jack).

The Importance of Being Earnest Trivial Comedy for Serious People:

The play The Importance of Being Earnest has been called by its author “a trivial comedy of serious people”. This is, of course a witty and paradoxical description of the play. Serious people cannot be interested in a comedy. Serious people would be interested in serious matters and not in things which appeal to the comic sense. Again a comedy which derives its whole value form the originality and the brilliance of its wit cannot be called trivial. The word trivial has been used either form a feeling of modesty on the author’s part or in an ironical sense. 

When the play is meant for serious people, perhaps the author expected that even serious people will laugh because of its wit. Perhaps the author is inspiring the serious people to witness the play on the stage so that they may derive from it some food for serious thought. Wilde poses here as a trifle who is capable of thinking and there is often a wonderful suggestiveness in his lightest banter and wildest paradox. For examples, the excessive consumption of wine by servants at parities at Algernon’s voices a well established face that, strictly speaking, romance ends when a proposal of marriage has been accepted, and accepted readily, Besides, the portrayal of Lady Bracknell is an indirect attack on social snobbery and class consciousness. 

The subtitle to The Importance of Being Earnest is ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’. This is an appropriate subtitle as the play deals with a great deal of triviality and nonsense throughout the play. Wilde seeks to mock many aspects of Victorian society in this play. He is parodying the normal views of people in the Victorian era, as they focus more on very minor and unimportant things, highlighting their superficiality. Wilde wanted to make people more aware of the more important things in life, which he does by parodying the Victorian society’s views and ideals such as things like religion and marriage. Religion and marriage are usually two things that are held in very high regards by others, but by mocking them, Wilde is making people aware of how nonsensical they are acting and how stupid they look at times. This is done by the clever usage of epigrams, paradoxes, irony and sarcasm.

The Importance of Being Earnest-" A trivial comedy for serious people" What aspects of late Victorian Society does Oscar Wilde seek to mock and trivialise? Oscar Wilde accepts Victorian values however he seeks to mock and trivialise the late Victorian society in his play- The Importance of Being Earnest. He described the play as exquisitely trivial, and therefore gave it the subtitle- "A trivial comedy for serious people". His intentions were to make people think more deeply and make them more aware of the serious things in life, which should be treated with sincerity, and the trivial things with seriousness.Thus the play is constructal on the strength of pun and the plot towns on a misconception over the name ‘Ernest’. The theme is an attack on earnestness, that is, the Victorian priggishness, hypocrisy and false sense of class-consciousness.

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