Examples Of Conflict In The Importance Of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s play entitled “The Importance of Being Earnest” illustrates the concept of dual personality, fantasy, love, and lies. Jack, Algernon, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all live in lies. They are manipulated by their fantasies and desire for perfect relationship and love. Jack, the protagonist in the play, is the root of lies because of his imaginary brother named Earnest. Algernon uses the name to win Cecily, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are both fascinated by this name because it expresses strength and perfection of manhood. Due to their search and desire to have Earnest, the male and female characters escape from the reality. Therefore, Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest portrays a gender doubled

Jack illustrates the purpose of deception by using Earnest to escape his role of warden to Cecily. When Algernon finds Jack’s cigarette case, he is shocked to find the name Jack graven inside. Jack attempts to explain by saying, “[M]y name is Ernest

The play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde is set in England during the late 19th century during the rule of Queen Victoria and features two bachelors, Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing, and their struggle to impress the women they want to marry while remaining their true selves. Wilde presents the theme of superficiality through the approach to names in the play and the importance of appearances. (or looks? Gwen and Cecily fight plus dandy).

Jack is overjoyed to find out that Gwendolyn returns his feelings. However, she is taken with the name Ernest and would not consider marrying a man by any other name, especially Jack. Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to determine if he qualifies as a possible future husband for her daughter. When she discovers that Jack doesn’t know who his parents are because he was found in a handbag she is outraged; she forbids a union between the two, declaring it scandalous. In the next scene Algernon shows up in Jacks country estate pretending to be Ernest and falls in love with Cecily.

The Importance of Being Earnest is one of Oscar Wilde’s crowning masterpieces. The acclaimed comedic play tells the tale of Jack Worthing and the mischief he causes when he and his best friend, Algernon Moncrieff, assume double identities. When analyzing the play from various critical perspectives, the reader can divulge into the various historical roots and gender roles that the author uses to promote his message and criticize the Victorian upper class.

In The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, the playwright uses irony and stage direction to explore the idea that an individual may try to navigate societal conventions by either employing an altered facade of their self, or by simply not participating in societal obligations all together. In The Importance of Being Earnest, the main character, Jack Worthing, uses a false identity to accomplish goals that would not be achievable if he did not have that false facade. He reveals to Algernon that he is “Ernest in town and Jack in the country.” This shows the two personas he lives with in his life.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde can be termed as a complete satirical work because of the path it chooses on harshly, but at the same time humorously criticizing and ridiculing social issues, such as marriage, wealth and death. The author approaches these issues with absurd mockery evidently with the intention of tickling his audience while driving his point home. Regarded as one of the most humorous and witty plays of all time, Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest has also been criticized for lacking meaning and being too farce. The author, however, does not seem perturbed or concerned with the criticisms hurled his way, but his is the agenda of correcting the social flaws noticed in his characters, such as the concern for trivial things as names over bigger and more important issues as serious relationships and true love, the love of money over morality and the carelessness of lying in order to “avoid unwelcome social obligation” (16).

Every line, every character, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is set on supporting Oscar Wilde’s want for social change. The Importance of Being Earnest was written during the late period of the Victorian era. During this period social classification was taken very seriously. It could affect working and living conditions, education, religion, and marriage. Wilde explores the issues of social class and turns it into a comedic play. He humorously criticizes Victorian manners and attacking the society of the luxurious life. The audience becomes self-aware as the characters reflect on themselves. Plays such as this become successful because of the backgrounds the writers come from and the experiences they have had.

The internal conflicts prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet are the reason why the play is viewed as a classic. Conflicts are imperative in tragic plays as conflicts are the stimulus for catastrophe in the end. The characters in Hamlet face inward conflicts that are equally important as their outward conflicts. Three characters who especially exhibit this are Hamlet, Claudius, and Ophelia. The conflicts that these characters face play a major role in their downfalls and, ultimately, their deaths. Through Claudius’ struggle to conceal the murder of King Hamlet, Ophelia’s guilt for Hamlet’s madness, and Hamlet’s inaction due to fear, Shakespeare conveys that each character faces a dilemma, in which there are no simple solutions.

One thing that Jack and Algernon have in common is that they both have these false faces. Algernon’s alter ego Bunbury is a version of himself used in the country but he uses Ernest to marry Cecily. The story deals with Ernest, this immorally imaginary man that both Cecily and Gwendolyn become engaged to, it exemplifies the irony within the name. Most of the irony comes from this character. One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Gwendolyn said “No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces

The relationship between Jack and Gwendolen undergoes a parody. Gwendolen laughs when Jack asks how she might feel if his name is not Earnest. "Ah, that is clearly a metaphysical speculation", she says, "and like all metaphysical speculation, has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them."(18) This remark of Gwendolen exactly fits the general theme of the play, but in fact the joke is directed to her. Yet at the end of the play, Gwendolen's conviction that she will marry an Earnest and her faith in the name are justified- we understand that Jack's true name is Earnest. The effect

Jack and Algernon start their friendship with deception and lies. In the beginning of the play, they are alone in the morning-room and the lies, between the two friends, is are brought to the table. They have both been great friends for some time now. Jack visits with Algernon in the city where he goes by the name “Ernest”. He feels that going by a different name will let him live and experience a different lifestyle. When visiting with Algernon, Jack has become very interested in Gwendolen. Jack is expressing his love for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen, and tells how he wishes to marry her. Before Algernon gives his consent, he wants to know who Cecily is. Cecily is the name engraved on the cigarette

In some ways, Algernon, not Jack, is the play’s real hero. Not only is Algernon like Wilde in his dandified, exquisite wit, tastes, and priorities, but he also resembles Wilde to the extent that his fictions and inventions resemble those of an artist.

It is very humorous when one watches a play or movie or reads a book and knows more about what is happening than the characters do. This is no different in the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. There are many instances when the audience has more information that the characters do, and this is partly what drives the plot of this book. When the reader or viewer is given more information than the characters are it changes the dynamics of a book or play. Dramatic irony creates interest in this play through adding humor, suspension, and insights.

Arguably, The Importance of Being Earnest revolves around intricate character development that addresses the issue of double identities and false facades in Victorian England. Residing in Hertfordshire, Jack Worthing constitutes the play’s principal protagonist and is acknowledged for his respectable conduct and righteous ethics. Through acquisition of extensive estates and admission as a Justice of the peace, Jack establishes an honorable reputation for himself. However, because of the limitations imposed upon Jack due to his perceived dignified persona, he occasionally escapes to London where he fulfills and capitulates to unscrupulous indulgences. Moreover, it is revealed that Jack leads a dubious double life posing as his unrestrained and amoral “useful younger brother of the name Ernest” as an excuse to visit “as often as [Jack ] likes” (Wilde, 88). A figment of his imagination, “Ernest” comes to symbolize Jack’s need to evade the irrational constraints of Victorian society while maintaining an aura of respectability.