The importance of being earnest

Themes to discuss with the students

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

THEMES
Lies and DeceitLies and Deceit
MarriageMarriage
Respect and ReputationRespect and Reputation
Society and ClassSociety and Class
GenderGender
Versions of Reality: RomanceVersions of Reality: Romance
LoveLove
Foolishness and FollyFoolishness and Folly

2. LIES AND DECEIT
The most prevalent reason characters in The
Importance of Being Earnestlie is to get out of social or
familial duties and do something more enjoyable.
Not surprisingly, few characters hold honesty in high
regard. However, we see how hard it is for them to set
things straight once they’ve lied about them. As the
situation gets increasingly complicated, characters must
weave more complex lies to get out of the tangles of their
previous lies. Eventually they reach the point where lies will
no longer work and the truth is revealed. Perhaps the most
striking thing is that none of the characters ever shows true
remorse or guilt about lying.

3. MARRIAGE
The big question The Importance of Being Earnest raises is
whether marriage is pleasurable... or a restrictive social duty.
In general, the older generation thinks of marriage as a means to
an end, a way of maintaining or bettering your social position. If
you want to get married, you submit to an interrogation: "State
your name, rank, and serial number." The number that matters in
this case, however, is your income; you'd better have bank.
You also need to have an acceptable title, along with the
parents to prove it. The hot-blooded youngsters think they are
interested in love. One of the huge ironies in the play—and what
makes it a satire of Victorian society—is that, in the end, nobody
really breaks the rules. They color within the lines, and marry
exactly the type of person their society expects them to.

4. RESPECT AND REPUTATION
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the upper classes 
care about being respectable—so much so that they do a lot 
of lying about it.
In general, Victorian upper-class society holds slightly 
different expectations of men and women. Men need to be 
upstanding, rich, and from a good family. Women need to be 
upstanding,  rich,  from  a  good  family,  and  chaste.  Any 
deviation from the rules (being born poor, or being found in 
a handbag, in Jack's case) may prevent a young person from 
making a good match, and continuing his noble line.

5. SOCIETY AND CLASS
The Importance of Being Earnest reveals the differences 
between the behavior of the upper class and that of the lower 
class. Members of the upper class display a great deal of pride 
and pretense, feeling that they are inherently entitled to their 
wealth and higher social position. They are so preoccupied with 
maintaining the status quo that they quickly squash any signs of 
rebellion.
In this play, Wilde satirizes the arrogance and hypocrisy 
of  the  aristocracy.  The  lower  classes  in Earnest are  less 
pretentious and more humble... but equally good at making 
jokes.

6. GENDER
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the question of 
each gender’s role in society often centers on power. In the 
Victorian world of this play, men have greater influence than 
women. Men make the political decisions for their families, 
while women work around the house, quietly taking care of 
the children.
Men are valued for their intellect and judgment, while 
women are attractive to men for their beauty and chastity. 
However,  Wilde  raises  interesting  questions  about  gender 
roles in The Importance of Being Earnest by putting women 
(like Lady Bracknell) in positions of power and by showing that 
men (i.e., Jack and Algernon) can be irresponsible and bad at 
decision-making.

7. VESIONS OF REALITY:
ROMANCE
In The Importance of Being Earnest, pampered young 
women have a skewed sense of reality, inspired by romantic 
novels. When real life gets too boring, these women decide to 
take matters into their own hands by recording their fantasies in 
diaries.
Potential  lovers  enter  the  picture  and  provide  an 
opportunity  to  act  out  the  fantasies,  but  the  women’s 
expectations  of  courtship  often  prove  too  whimsical  and 
idealistic  for  reality.  There’s  no  tragic  disillusionment  here, 
though. Just marriages, and lots of them. Earnest is a comedy, 
after all.

8. LOVE
In The Importance of Being Earnest, it is often hard to 
distinguish Wilde’s notion of romance from that of real love. 
Readers must settle for a decidedly un-modern definition of 
love.  For  example,  in Earnest physical  beauty—both  female 
and male—can initiate and sustain a love affair.
Forgiveness  is  an  ingredient  of  love  as  well.  Both 
women forgive the men for their earlier deceptions when they 
discover the good intentions behind their crimes. It seems that 
the  definition  of  love  in  this  play  is  not  so  much  an 
unconditional and self-sacrificing love, but a general attitude of 
good intentions, admiration, and honest affection.

9. FOOLISHNESS AND FOLLY
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the characters’ 
foolishness is the core of the comedy. Often, we don’t know 
whether  a  character  says  something  contradictory  or 
random in a serious way, or if the character is just joking. 
This  ambiguity  in  tone  makes  readers  both  slightly 
uncomfortable and prone to laughter.
Wilde shows his characters’ folly in a number of 
ways: spinning something that is out of human control as if it 
were  a  simple  matter  of  mundane  choice,  inverting 
aphorisms so that they mean the opposite of what common 
sense dictates, and simply juxtaposing random things so that 
they create an absurd situation.

10. FOOLISHNESS AND FOLLY
In The Importance of Being Earnest, the characters’ 
foolishness is the core of the comedy. Often, we don’t know 
whether  a  character  says  something  contradictory  or 
random in a serious way, or if the character is just joking. 
This  ambiguity  in  tone  makes  readers  both  slightly 
uncomfortable and prone to laughter.
Wilde shows his characters’ folly in a number of 
ways: spinning something that is out of human control as if it 
were  a  simple  matter  of  mundane  choice,  inverting 
aphorisms so that they mean the opposite of what common 
sense dictates, and simply juxtaposing random things so that 
they create an absurd situation.