Importance of Being Earnest as a social satire.

A satire is a literary form that blends ironic humor and with with criticism for the purpose of ridiculing follies,vices,foibles,stupidity ,abuses ,shaming individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.

Oscar Wilde`s play, ``The Importance of Being Earnest`` mocks protocols, principles, marriage and the search for love in Victorian times. It also makes fun of social expectations and the inversion of these expectations.   The main characters of the play are Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrief.  Jack adopts an alter ego when going into town to avoid keeping up with the serious and morally upright behavior that is expected of him as guardian to his eighteen-year-old ward, Cecily. Algernon makes up an invalid friend Bunbury whose grave health conditions provide him with the excuse to escape to the country as and when he pleases.

Earnest is also a satire because it makes fun of its characters – most of whom are members of the aristocratic class. Think about how proud Lady Bracknell is, and how fond she is of scandal. When she arrives late at Algernon’s place, she explains that she was visiting Lady Harbury, who “looks quite twenty years younger” since “her poor husband’s death” (I.111). Wilde constantly exaggerates the upper class’s shallowness and frivolity to show the corrupt morals they provide as examples. When Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack, we learn that all she cares about is his money, his trendiness, and his family name.



The upper middle class haughty and arrogance nature is critiqued by Wilde. Lady Bracknell arrogantly dismisses Jack's proposal to Gwendolen. Her haughty manner makes an appearance when she interrogates Jack whether he is really qualified to be her son in law or not. To the utter shame of the readers, she had kept all the bio-data and testimonials of those who dared to propose to Gwendolen, but proved unqualified suitors for her daughter. It is really unbecoming of lady Bracknell to take such a complete control over her daughter's right to choose a suitable life friend. This haughty trend available in the upper middle class people is critically exposed by Wilde in this play.

In the play two characters are shown putting the virtue of earnestness on the pedestal. Jack Worthing and Algernon are those characters who are obsessed with the name earnestness. Jack lives in a country house. He knows it clearly that modern Victorian lady in urban society falls quickly in love with a man named Earnest. But he had a country name Jack. So to arrest the love of an urban lady Jack took another fictitious name Earnest and went to London. This kind of hypocritical life of Jack is an example of double life. Why Jack took the name Earnest? The answer is an urban lady loves only those whose names are Earnest. Because Victorian society permitted youths to lead a double life, Jack chose that name. The faddish cult of living an earnest life was on the rise in the Victorian society. Therefore Jack engaged in the cult of Bunburying. With the name Earnest Jack went to town to meet his friend, Algernon. He met Gwendolen. Gwendolen knew his name was Earnest. She fell in love with him on the spot. From Gwendole’s behavior, readers come to know how ridiculous the Victorian society had become. What can be more ludicrous than the statement of Gwendolen, who says, “I love you because your name is Ernest?” What kind of love, it is whose foundation is not devotion on the part of lower but a mere verbal charm of name? What does the society get from those people who fall in love out of the magical, charm of name only? Jack, and Gwendolen alone are not accountable for the shallowness and artificiality that degrades the society. It is the then Victorian society which made room for youths to run after a depthless and essence-less life. Her mad thirst for love based on the charming name earnest made Gwendolen's love substance-less. Jack's hypocritical style of living in town by the fictitious name earnest made him a double dealer. Jack became liar in the process of living an earnest life. He told his ward, Cecily that his brother named Earnest lives in town, he falls sick, so he has to visit him in town.

In the same and a similar way, Algernon took a false name earnest, and went to the village to earn the love of Cecily. Algernon had known that Cecily loves Jack’s fictitious brother named Earnest. So Algernon went to meet her under the impression that he is Jack's brother.

Both man and woman became the victims of hypocrisy, and the vice of double dealing. These evils persisted in Victorian society. Particularly, the upper middle classes were encumbered by the folly of rushing for the hollow ideals of earnestness. Both Jack and Algernon represent the upper middle class. Their lives were full of vices and follies.

Oscar Wilde has attacked the Victorian age for its attachment to loveless life. The love defined by the Victorian society was devoid of love. In the play Wilde shows Jack and Algernon are being in loveless love with Gwendolen and Cecily respectively. Even Gwendolen and Cecily love their respective lovers for their noble names Ernest only and not for them. We are ashamed to hear such a declaration of love. Love for the name of beloved and not for him/her become the driving principle of youth. This love devoid of emotional depth is satirized by Wilde in the play.

In the play we find Gwendolen following the dictates of the fashions. In this direction of obeying the sovereign tyranny of the fashion she lost even a remnant of courage to assert her will. This ludicrous plight of Gwendolen can be seen in her submissive reactions to every word of her mother.

The Victorian morality is slightly hinted at by Wilde in a satirical manner. Dr. Chasuble's relaxed concentration on Sermon reveals his loose preoccupation with moral consciousness. The moral consciousness of the Victorian people can be known a bit from the religious commitment of Dr. Chasuble. Chasuble is the sort of priest who gives sermons repeatedly with a view to satisfy the moods of the attendants. Instable moral consciousness of Dr. Chasuble reflects from his surrender to the affections of Mrs. Prism. From Chasuble's moral predicament readers come across the satirical standpoint of the dramatist regarding the wavering moral faith in the Victorian society. Life in Victorian society was full of hustle and bustle. People were anxious.

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Then there is Jack. He too is a representative of the upper class. But he is a much better specimen because there is much in him that we approve. He is a responsible-minded guardian, and he is a serious type of young man in whose talk, according to Miss Prism, “there is no room for triviality and idle merriment”. But he goes to the other extreme. While Algernon is too light-hearted, Jack is too serious-minded. His very solemnity is made to look ridiculous. Cecily says that her Uncle Jack sometimes looks so serious as to give the impression that he is unwell. Algernon says that lack is “the most earnest-looking man” he has ever known. Jack’s over-seriousness has sharply been contrasted with Algernon’s gaiety. Jack’s over-seriousness is also to be found in his refusal to go either to the theatre, or to the club, or to the Empire. When asked by Algernon what they should do, Jack’s reply is : “Nothing”. Nor is his over-seriousness the only ridiculous aspect of his character. He thinks Gwendolen to be a very intellectual kind of girl, while we know her to be absolutely shallow. He admires Cecily not only because she has an excellent appetite and takes long walks but also because she pays no attention at all to her studies. He does not believe in telling the truth to a nice, sweet, refined girt. He does not know whether a severe chill is hereditary or not. Thus the portrayal of Jack too is satirical in intention and in effect.

The Satirical Portrayal of Gwendolen

There are three women representatives of the upper class, and each has been portrayed in a satirical manner. There is Gwendolen whose superficiality and ignorance are extremely amusing. For instance, she cannot understand how anybody of any importance can exist in the countryside. Nor did she have any idea that there were flowers growing in the countryside. Though fond of living in the town, she hates crowds. She is proud of the fact that she has never seen a spade. When she makes a railway journey, she likes to carry her diary with her because she wants to read something sensational. But her most amusing absurdity is her enthusiastic reaction to the name of Ernest. She thinks Ernest to be a divine name which has a music of its own and which produces vibrations. It was always her cherished ideal to love someone of the name of Ernest, she says. In order to marry the man with whom she has fallen in love, chiefly on the basis of his name, she runs away from home thus showing no regard at all for the decencies of family life. It is clear, then, that the author is laughing at this aristocratic young girl and, of course, he makes us laugh at her too. In her case too it could be said that her talent for witty conversation is her only redeeming quality.

The Satirical Elements in the Portrayal of Cecily

Cecily is another representative of the upper class and though a better specimen than Gwendolen, she amuses us by her failings and absurdities. She is not at all interested in German grammar, political economy, or geography, all of which she regards as “horrid” She keeps a diary in which she .records every minor detail of her life, calling its contents “the wonderful secrets of life”. Though she does have charm, and a good deal of it, she yet shows a ridiculous side to her personality. Like Gwendolen, she too goes into raptures over the name Ernest. It had always been a girlish dream of hers to love someone of the name of Ernest, she says. Her account of how she had fallen in love with Ernest is even more absurd than her enthusiastic reaction to the name. She fell in love with him without even having seen or met him ; she got engaged to him in her imagination ; she even bought herself an engagement ring on his behalf ; and once she broke off the engagement. Her absurdity appears further in her wanting to put down in her diary every word that her lover has to say in praise of her.

The Satirical Portrayal of Lady Bracknell

The portrayal of Lady Bracknell is perhaps the most satirical of all. In this case the author simply gloats over his task of exposing the foibles and absurdities of the upper-class ladies of his time. Nor is there any doubt about the enormous success that the author has made of his job. Lady Bracknell claims to have a taste for music, but she would like her nephew to make the selection of the numbers to be played at her party. In other words, her taste in music is simply a pretence. But this is only a minor, foible in her. Her principal absurdities are her snobbery, her class-consciousness, her mercenary outlook on life, her suspicious nature, and her domineering temperament. The manner in which she cross-examines Jack to determine his suitability as her son-in-law shows both her suspicious nature and her domineering temperament. Both these traits appear again in the questions which she subsequently asks in order to determine suitability of Cecily as a wife for Algernon. This second cross-examination shows also the importance of money