The Importance of Being Earnest
The two main male characters,
Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, constrained by the rigid conventions of
the Victorian upper class, have been leading double lives. Algy's alter ego is
"Bunbury," while Jack has invented a fictitious brother named Ernest, whose
loose behavior he claims to control but which he actually emulates. Jack falls
in love with Gwendolyn Fairfax, Algy's cousin, and Algy falls in love with
Cecily Cardew, Jack's ward.
Each of these ladies, moreover, is attracted
to her respective beau on the assumption that his name is Ernest. Gwendolyn's
mother, Lady Bracknell, is dissatisfied with Jack's account of his origins--he
was an orphan--and thus forbids the relationship. Meanwhile, in order to marry
Cecily, Algy makes arrangements to be rechristened Ernest.
The
interaction of these four characters produces many delicious complications
turning on the question of who is truly Ernest. Reversing her previous position
when she learns the size of Cecily's fortune, Lady Bracknell consents to Algy's
match. Jack, however, withholds his agreement considering Lady Bracknell's
opposition to his match with Gwendolyn. The impediment to this alliance finally
dissolves when it emerges that Jack is actually Algy's older brother and,
moreover, named Ernest. This multiple coincidence resolves the differences
between all parties.
This delightful comedy uses the devices of farce and
cheerfully empty repartee to satirize the emotional shallowness of the English
ruling class in the late nineteenth century. The elevation of style over
substance, of words over reality, of earnestness over honesty of feeling,
exposes the tendency toward triviality and pomposity in high society
everywhere.
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Source: Magill Book Reviews.