Earnest

After reading and watching The Importance of Being Earnest, I am fascinated by the fact that the same humor 1895 can be applied to our society over 100 years later. Oscar Wilde uses numerous puns throughout the play to mock society. An example of one of Wilde’s puns when Jack says, “It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression.” (18). False impressions represent both the social impression that are made and the dental impressions that dentists use to create false teeth.
I enjoyed how Wilde used many characters to show how society views marriage more about a social act than about love and passion. Cecily and Gwendolen both want to marry a man named Ernest and do not wish to marry Algernon and Jack unless their names are Ernest. When Cecily and Gwendolen find out that neither is named Ernest, they are more upset that their names are not Ernest than the fact that both men have been leading double lives. They both forgive then men when Jack and Algernon say they are changing their Christian names to Ernest.
Lady Bracknell makes marriage to be about social status and not love, and this is presented by how she thinks she will be the one who decides who Gwendolen will marry. I loved the scene where Lady Bracknell questions Jack to see if he is worthy enough to marry Gwendolen. I thought it was hilarious when she said it was “carelessness” for Jack to lose both of his parents, and that he most produce at least one parent before he can marry Gwendolen.
My favorite quote in the play is when Algernon says, “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” (29). I like how he alludes to how men would be better if they adapted some of their mother’s characteristics, but women are flawed because they adapt them all. I also find it funny because as I get older, I notice that I do more and more things like my mom.