The Importance Of Being Ernest Research Paper

The Importance of Being Ernest is Oscar Wilde’s last and most well-known play. Since it was first performed on 14 February 1895 in London, the play had been a huge success in Wilde’s career and it remains in the audience’s view. Wilde uses an easy and frivolous way to reflect the realities of the Victorian society through the play. This is why he calls the play A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. One of the main themes of The Importance of Being Ernest is marriage. As the play was written in Victorian Periods, it is mainly about the argue on the nature of marriage and the characters’ views and attitudes towards marriage. By studying the characters, readers may have a rough picture of the idea of marriage during the nineteenth century. Marriage …show more content…
However, during the nineteenth century, marriage was considered as a duty, or a deal made for money and power. The women in the Victorian Era was defined as weak and their best achievement was having babies. It would be even better if the husband was rich. Therefore, a woman’s ultimate goal was to marry a wealthy man. Marriage at that time was not about love, but a result of family honor and money.
As the characters have different social backgrounds, they hold different views and attitudes towards marriage through the play. The question about the nature of marriage first appears in the opening scene of the play, when Algernon has a conversation with his servant Lane discussing whether marriage is demoralizing inadvertently. Lane expresses his view by saying “I believe it is a very pleasant state” (1.31) Lane’s points of view towards marriage may represent the thoughts of the lower class, which with pleasure and simple. However, Algernon sees …show more content…
For Gwendolen, she is pleased to know that Jack is an orphan, and Cecily adores Algernon’s wicked and bad behavior. “… my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest.” (1.437-438) From this line, we can see that Gwendolen would love the man who is called Ernest and she does not care about his personalities. Conditionally, Cecily has the same desire of wanting a man in Ernest’s name. “You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest.” (2.1427-1429) Both Cecily and Gwendolen look forward to be married, and they know exactly what qualifications should their future husbands have. Ironically, the thing that they care the most is fake. Readers may consider this kind of conditional love is quite silly. On the other hand, Lady Bracknell’s view is totally different from the younger generation. First of all, Lady Bracknell think that children’s marriage should be arranged by the parents. “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself.” (1.514-517) She is a practical person and she cares everything about the suitor except his name. She asks Jack about his fortune, address, parents, politics and also his life experience. As these matters related to her daughter's marriage, she