comment on the theme of love and marriage in importance of being earnest

There are three pairs of lover in the paly importance of being earnest .They all are searching for love and perfect relationship destination .Thought they all reached to there way of marriage but they had to faces some obstacles .Those obstacles are not major but it makes the source of  laughter and humor to the audience.

Marriage and its nature are a central theme in “The Importance of Being Earnest” . At the beginning of the play, everyone but Jack seems to treat marriage more like a business proposition.

Algernon at the beginning of the play even states that he sees engagement as very unromantic. He speaks of marriage as an end to the all the excitement love creates, leaving both the husband and wife bored and generally miserable. Later in the same act, Algernon and Aunt Augusta discuss a Lady Harbury who has become more beautiful and vibrant following the death of her husband. Already, the audience is given an idea of how many of the characters view marriage as a generally unpleasant fact of life rather than union between two people who are in love.


In the game of love that Wilde plays throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack and Algernon, who strive for love, are pitted against the fickleness of the women they desire. Even though Wilde assigns stereotypical gender roles to each sex—Jack and Algernon are suave dandies, while Cecily and Gwendolen are vapid beauties—when it comes to marriage and love, he places women in a position of power because they are able to actively choose their mates and influence their partners’ behaviors. In the Victorian world women were rarely afforded this influence, as their male elders—fathers, brothers, uncles, etc.—had tight control over the men with whom they interacted, even dated. Yet Gwendolen and Cecily wield a great deal of power over their suitors. For instance, Jack and Algernon strive to christen themselves “Ernest” precisely because Gwendolen and Cecily threaten to withhold their affections from any man who does not hold this name. In doing so, they effectively compel Jack and Algernon to change their names.

Even though Gwendolen and Cecily’s engagements are restricted by a patriarchal system of cash, class, and character, it is important to note that Lady Bracknell, not Lord Bracknell, is the one who becomes master of matrimony, dictating who may marry whom. The general absence of male patriarchs points to the diminished presence of men in Wilde’s dramatic world, thereby highlighting women, like Gwendolen, Cecily, and Lady Bracknell in positions of power and prominence.