"passion piece" on The Importance of Being Earnest

The play “The Importance of Being Earnest” was written by Oscar Wilde and first premiered in London in 1895 at the St. James’s Theatre. It was the last play that Oscar Wilde ever wrote and perhaps his most famous one. The play is written as a dry, intellectual comedy revolving around characters who make up alter identities in order to escape certain social obligations. The play is set in England during the late Victorian Era and is filled with witty dialogue and uses late Victorian society as an ironic basis for the impolite and unorthodox actions of the characters.

The two main characters in the play are Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Jack Worthing lives a double life as Jack in the country, and Earnest when he visits London. Jack claims to everyone at his place in the country that Earnest is his brother who lives a very scandalous lifestyle, and his excuse for leaving all the time is to get his brother Earnest out of trouble. In reality he is sneaking away to live the scandalous carefree life of his fictional brother in order to escape his responsibilities and obligations in his real life. Algernon, who is Earnest best friend in the city, tends to live somewhat of a double life also. Algernon calls people that live double lives “bunburyist” due to his made up friend Bunbury. Algernon uses his fictitious friend in much the same way Jack uses his fictitious brother. He is constantly claiming that he must visit him on his deathbed in order to get out of social obligations.

Act I is set in London in with Earnest and Algernon talking and Earnest proposing his love to Gwendolin, who is Algernon’s cousin. The scene goes on with Algernon confronting Earnest about his suspicious of his double life due to a cigarette box with the words “Uncle Jack” on it, meanwhile admitting his own double life. Gwendolin arrives and Earnest proposes and she seems to share his affection and goes on to say that she is obsessed with the name Earnest because she says it “inspires absolute confidence”.

The play takes a few twists. The first one being in act II when Algernon shows up at Jack’s place in the country because he suspects Jack of living a double life. When he gets there he poses as Jack’s younger brother Earnest, which is a problem for Jack because Jack returns to the country claiming that his brother Earnest has passed away. Not wanting to be caught in his own lie he must go along with Algernon’s charade. Algy proposes his love for Jack’s ward Cecily. Cecily already has a crush on him because of the way Jack talked about his younger brother and she too has a fascination with the name Earnest. The irony is the fact that both women love Jack and Algy partially because they think their names are Earnest when really they are both living the same lie. Gwendolin and Cecily eventually find out about the lie. The next big twist comes in act III when Miss Prism who is Cecily’s governess, after being confronted by Lady Bracknell, Gwendolin’s mother, admits to losing Lady Bracknell’s sisters baby 28 years before in a train station. The child ends up being Jack Worthing who was originally christened Earnest John, which makes him the legitimate older brother of Algernon. The whole time he thought he was lying about having a younger brother, and his name being Earnest, he was unintentionally telling the truth.

I feel that I can relate this show to my everyday life in the aspect of living double lives. I think that everyone, whether they realize it or not live some sort of alternative lifestyles. Maybe it isn’t deliberately to avoid obligations but many people act differently according to where they are, what they are doing, or whom they are with. I somewhat live a double life even if it’s not to the extreme that Jack and Algernon do. I have one life back home, and one life here at school. I have two completely different groups of friends who are nothing like each other and very rarely do my two lives meet. I enjoy both lives equally but I often use one to escape the other, much like the characters in the play. If I get sick of something here in Indiana, or even just out of boredom, I can go home for a weekend and live a different lifestyle all together. It is strange how completely different my two lives have become and I find it comforting knowing that I have a choice in which one to live. This doesn’t mean I am two completely different people, it is just that two separate environments have created separate roles to play, and opportunities to explore.