The Importance Of Being Earnest Timed-Write

By: Abby Juarez

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a comedic play where all of the characters act on deception to satirize the Victorian era. Most of the characters who were in the higher class were made to deceptionalize their motives as societal pressures make them be idolized by the rest of the classes. Victorian Era upper class were taught to marry for riches and status, judge others for their names and have to pretend to be etiquette when they have no sense of who they are. Specifically the protagonist Jack deceives others in intent to marry Gwendolen but ends up harming his own reputation and love throughout the novel. 

When Jack is introduced in act 1 of the play, it is addressed by Algernon that Jack is in love with Gwendolen. When Lady Bracknell questions Jack whose name is Ernest at the time, she asks him random questions about things that are not important and dismisses him as soon as she finds out he has no family relations. In the Victorian Era, marriage was purposefully for bragging rights and to appear superior than the rest. They did not get married for love, which should be the only reason people marry each other. The Victorian Era had been taught that once you get married, the love you share between your partner is gone. It turns to pure social standards, competition; and if you aren’t seen as useful to boost up the social status of the individual you choose to marry, you’re no longer useful. 

The revelation of Jack’s deceiving life in both the city and the country can be seen as a genuine example of superficiality in the Victorian era. Jack lives in the country with his ward, Cecily and since the country is seen as lacking taste and boredom, he decides to change his name to Ernest Worthington when he is in the city to impress the higher class. As he is beginning to propose to Gwendolen, he finds out that she only likes him for his name. Ernest, meaning seriousness and truthful, can be translated to someone who will be serious in life and honest about who he is. The Victorian era has an influence of superficiality and how they focus on the things you can’t control such as your name or your social status rather than who you are as an individual. If Lady Bracknell would have found out that his real name is Jack, she would have never let him marry Gwendolen in the first place. However, as soon as he announced that he had no family relations, she was disinterested in him. 

As we get more in depth in Jack’s character we learn that even in his home life, he lies about who he is by creating a mischievous brother named Ernest who lived in the city. He uses this tactic to help him escape his country life and go to the city. The Victorian Era high class civilians were hypocritical towards the way they projected themselves. As Jack kills off his brother Ernest, Ms. Prism and Dr. Chasuble gives their condolences; and although the audience knows Ernest is not real, the two have no idea they are being manipulated by Jack who appears to be forgiving and generous. Most of the characters in the play are hypocritical because society, who has added an insane amount of pressure to them as people of a higher class, does not allow them to be themselves - but have been taught that they have to believe a certain way without actually believing it sometimes. 

The Importance of Being Earnest is to be honest and truthful of who you really are. None of the characters resonate with the name Ernest and their constant pressure from Victorian Society doesn’t allow them to. The higher class of the Victorian Era are taught to marry for status not love, judge a person on their name or social background and create hypocritical alter egos because they are looked upon by the middle and lower class people. Through Jack’s actions due to the Society he lived in, there was an insane amount of peer pressure and caused him to make deceiving actions because he wanted to marry Gwendolen. However, towards the end, he is revealed that his name is Ernest which not only attracts Gwendolen to him, he learns that to be Ernest is to be yourself regardless of how Society is going to react.