importance of being Earnest

* importance of being Earnest: 

Q:-1 Can you find any autobiographical element in this play if Yes thean illustrate ?

Comic Elements in the Play

         Oscar Wilde’s most successful play, The Importance of Being Earnest became an instant hit when it opened in London, England, in February, 1895, running for eighty-six performances. 

                  The play has remained popular with audiences ever since, vying with Wilde’s 1890 novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray as his most recognized work. The play proves vexing to critics, though, for it resists categorization, seeming to some merely a flimsy plot which serves as an excuse for Wilde’s witty epigrams (terse, often paradoxical, sayings or catch-phrases). To others it is a penetratingly humorous and insightful social comedy. 

        Oscar Wilde  was the Victorian novelist, who creates episodes in which his characters  live secret life or create false impression to express who they really are.

       Wilde kept his homosexuality a secret. He married and had two sons. But in 1891, wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior. Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queens berry, was outraged by the relationship and sought to expose Wilde.

       So, we can find that these autobiographical element is thoroughly connected with the play 'importance of being earnest.' This play written in Victoria Era, and it is connected with the rules of that Era.The characters of this play, Jack and Algernon change their identity. wilde present here his own marriage life with the rules of  Victoria age.and it is connected with the characters of this story.

2) Did Lady Bracknell representation of Victorian society ?  

  *  Lady Bracknell : 

   

Lady Augusta Bracknell, fictional character, the mother of Gwendolen Fairfax in Oscar Wilde ’s The Impotance of being Earnest (1895).

             She is very imperious. She has a strong presence and strong opinions about almost every- thing. She is the epitome of the domineering mother-in-law and the priggish society maven.

           Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victoria earnestness and the unhappiness.Oscar Wilde put the lady Bracknell's character in this story to represent the Victorian society and that rules.She is powerful, arrogant, and conservative woman. She represents Wilde's opinion of Victoria upper- class negativity,. Conservative and repressive values and power. Lady Bracknell represents authority and power are extended over every character in the play. Her decision about the suitability of both marriage provides the conflict of the story and she believes in richness.

 

        So that above the information the character of lady Bracknell who represents the Victorian society.

3)According to your reading what are the leading different find in this to Victoria work Importance of being earnest and Jude the Obscure ?

  

* Different between this two work : 

   The importance of being earnest" is written by Oscar Wilde and" Jude the obscure" is written by Thomas Hardy. These works were written in Victorian age.   

                   Main concept of both the work is the same and that is the theme of marriage and other are class conflict and social criticism.

          Marriage obviously plays a central role in the both plays; importance of being earnest and Jude the obscure. But their characters have difference idea about marriage. 

                Even, Wilde explores the idea of marriage in three broad ways: how it relates to love, how it is viewed among the upper class, and how people choose their mates. 

       

          The play importance of being earnest focuses on two man, Algernon and Jack, who ate both leading double lives.Algernon and Jack both the members of England's upper class and therefore under social pressure to behave themselves in public.

                 In order to escape this pressure from time to time, each has created another identity in another community. Things becomes complicated when ,Jack and Algernon falls in love; Jack with Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen;. Algernon with Jack's ward , Cecily. Gwendolen believes Jack is named Earnest , and Cecily believes Algernon is named Earnest.

          While, Thomas Hardy' s work Jude the obscure consist of critique of institutions of marriage, which Hardy saw as flawed and unjust. The Nobel's plot is designed to wring all the possible tragedy out of an unhappy marriage,as Jude is first guilted into marrying,Arabella , by her feigned pregnancy, and Sue marries Phillotson mostly to make Jude jealous. Both protagonist immediately regret their decision, and realised how a single impulsive decision can affect their entire lives.

          So the marriage  is the main theme of these two works.

4) This play talk about class or marriage or dual identity according to your reading , Can you identify the main themes of play discriminate with some sapportive argument.

* Marriage:

       The Importance of Being Earnest is a comic play by Oscar Wilde that engages themes such as marriage, class, social expectations, and the lifestyles of the English upper class. The play focuses on two men, Algernon and Jack, who are both leading double lives. Algernon and Jack are both members of England's upper class and are therefore under social pressure to behave themselves in public. In order to escape this pressure from time to time, each has created another identity in another community. Things become complicated when both Jack and Algernon fall in love; Jack with Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen; and Algernon with Jack's ward, Cecily. Gwendolen believes Jack is named Ernest, and Cecily believes Algernon is named Ernest. Predictably, hilarity ensues.

Marriage obviously plays a central role in The Importance of Being Earnest, since both Jack and Algernon are trying to marry their respective love interests. 

            Over the course of the three acts, Wilde explores the idea of marriage in three broad ways: how it relates to love, how it is viewed among the upper classes, and how people choose their mates. This lesson will take a look at these three themes. 

    * Upper class :

                          Since most of the major characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are of the upper class, and certainly the two couples are aristocratic, much of the commentary on marriage concerns the elite. 

                We get the idea marriage considerations among this group of people are focused on issues such as family background, wealth, and social standing rather than issues like romantic love.

For example, when Jack is asking Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell, for Gwendolen's hand in marriage, she asks him a series of questions about his background to determine his suitability for marriage. When Lady Bracknell learns that he does not know the identity of his parents, she is horrified and suggests to him: 

        Marriage ,love and class are the main theme of this play.

5) Can you make compare and contrast between two characters Jack and Dr.Jekyll ( Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)

  * Dr . Jekyll : 

            In, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the story, he is a good friend of main protagonist Gabriel John Utterson. Jekyll is a kind and respected English doctor who has repressed evil urges inside of him. In an attempt to hide this, he develops a type of serum that he believes will effectively mask his dark side.

                  Instead, Jekyll transforms into Edward Hyde, the physical and mental manifestation of his evil personality. This process happens more regularly until Jekyll becomes unable to control when the transformations occur.

                 He is well respected and intelligent scientist. He is a wealthy man. He believes that man has two identify "good " and " evil". Dr. Jekyll is a physician who, feels that he is battling between the good and evil within himself, thus leading to struggle with his alter ego, Hyde. Jekyll has a friendly personality, but as Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. So, Dr. Jekyll's second identity as Mr. Hyde made him evil person in the society.

* Jack Worthing: 

                        Character jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist, was discovered as an infant by the late Mr. Thomas Cardew in a handbag in the cloakroom of a railway station in London. Jack has grown up to be a seemingly responsible and respectable young man, a major landowner and Justice of the Peace in Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate. In Hertfordshire, where he is known by what he imagines to be his real name, Jack, he is a pillar of the community. He is guardian to Mr. Cardew’s granddaughter, Cecily, and has other duties and people who depend on him, including servants, tenants, farmers, and the local clergyman. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible younger brother named Ernest, whom he is always having to bail out of some mischief. In fact, he himself is the reprobate brother Ernest.

                 Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, where he really goes on these occasions. The fictional brother is Jack’s alibi, his excuse for disappearing from Hertfordshire and going off to London to escape his responsibilities and indulge in exactly the sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his brother. 

                In Hertfordshire, Jack is known as Jack and in London, he is known as Earnest. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon's cousin Gwendolen. but her aunt lady Bracknell want to know about family of Earnest. When she found that Earnest is orphan man.

                        She doesn't like this marriage. But Gwendolen like the name"Earnest".so,we can see the double identity of Jack in this story. 

                   The double identity is the similar theme between Jack and Dr. Jekyll but Jack's second identity as Earnest made him good man to marriage. And Jekyll's second identity as Hyde made him evil person because as Hyde he was murdered. 

    Dr Jekyll and  Jack both have a friendly personality.

6].See this 3 video and after that give your point of view and your thoughts.  

               By this videos, we can say that it is about the homosexuality,and which is not crime. The judgement section 377 wad given by a five judges bench comprising the then chief justic of India, Dipak Mishra, R.F. Nariman,D.Y. chandrachud, A.M. khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra. 

                 section 377 of the Indian penal code is introduced in1861 during the British rule of India. The section 377 tells that homosexual relationship is the criminal act. 

                          As same as the "importance of being earnest" present the idea of homosexualality. The writer of the story Oscar Wilde kept his homosexuality a secret . 

         He married and had two sons. But in 1891, Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior. Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queens berry, was outraged by relationship and sought to expose Wilde.

            So, this play closely connected with this  three videos. Because three videos give us the information about homosexuality which is not the crime.

Thank you .