Title of the play 'Importance of being Earnest'

     Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as an assignment given by the Department of English, MKBU. Here, I'm trying to justify the title of the play 'Importance of being Earnest'

About Author - Oscar Wilde:

     Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, born on October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland and died on November 30, 1900, Paris, France. He was Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment (1895–97).

Analysis the Title 'Importance of being Earnest':

     The title 'Importance of being Earnest' depends on a pun between the adjective "earnest" meaning honest or sincere, and the name "Ernest". 

     Earnest and Ernest are pronounced in the same way and are spelled similarly, but signify two different things. 

   Earnest means serious  minded, sincere, or something that needs urgent attention. Earnest also means a token given as a guarantee of something more to come. For example, earnest money is given as a guarantee that one will honor a contract. The word earnest is derived from the Old English word eornost which means serious intent. Earnest may be used as an adjective or noun, related words are earnestness and earnestly.

     Ernest is a masculine name. The name Ernest is derived from the German names Ernst and Ernust. The name Ernest is considered old-fashioned. While Ernest was the twentieth most popular name in England in the last five hundred years, this past year the name Ernest was one of the least popular names in England. Note that Ernest is capitalised, as it is a proper noun.

     This play is about people who learn what it means to be earnest, and it is also about a young man named Ernest. Wilde originally gave the play the subtitle "A Serious Comedy for Trivial People" but changed it to "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." He explained, "We should treat all trivial things very seriously." 

     First, the title's significance lies in the denotation of the word "earnest." Defined as a quality of being sincere, the word is an important thematic idea in the play as a whole, since several characters use secrecy and deception in order to pursue their own interests. The tangle of lies causes several conflicts among the characters, chiefly relating to their romantic pursuit of one another. The title of the play is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lack of honesty within the characters in the text. 

     The second way the title is significant relates to the homophonic male name Ernest. Both Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff use the nickname Ernest to win the ladies in whom they are romantically interested, Gwendolen and Cecily, respectively. For both of these women, the name Ernest is what makes the man in her life especially attractive, as she insists that she is destined to marry a man bearing the moniker.  

     At the very beginning of the play, we learn that Jack has created a convenient younger brother named Ernest. We don't know why he came up with that particular name, but we’re guessing Jack had a laugh or two over it. Jack, a.k.a. Ernest, fools his lady friends, all of whom have an obsession with the name "Ernest." Both Gwendolen and Cecily are in love with that name, based on an assumption that boys named Ernest will be as honest as the name suggests.

     Ironically, there is no character initially named "Ernest," but everything depends on pretending to be Earnest. Trouble ensues when Algernon, who has his own version of Ernest (a friend named Bunbury), catches on to the scheme and shows up at Jack’s country manor impersonating Ernest, just as Jack decides to kill off his pesky younger brother.

     We now have two different girls in love with Ernest, and Earnest doesn’t exist, but is being impersonated by two different guys. At one point he’s supposed to be dead in Paris but is instead dining, alive and well, with Cecily. He’s engaged to Gwendolen, but wait; he’s engaged to Cecily, too!

     Finally, things start to unravel and the truth is revealed. We’d like to say that Jack and Algernon are finally being earnest, but they can’t really take credit for the events that occur. When Jack’s identity is revealed, he still doesn't know what his real name actually is. But then he finds out that it is Ernest. So he really has been "earnest" the entire time.

     The ending, where Jack cheekily tells Lady Bracknell, 

     "I’ve realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest" 

     is unclear. Is Jack saying that he’s learned the importance of being honest, or the importance of being named Ernest?

     It's just as important to be named Ernest in the end as it was in the beginning, since Gwendolen still insists on loving a man named Ernest. Either Jack really does learn the value of honesty at the end, or he simply clings tighter to the importance of being named Ernest.

     Thus, Jack, the hero realizes the importance of being ‘Earnest’. The title of the play which is full of pun and the hint of mock seriousness suggests that the play is a spirited and witty comedy in which the characters all speak with the verve and point of a highly polished and elegant idiom. The title also suggests the farcical nature of the plot. 

     Wilde has constructed his plot out of improbable action, add and bizarre coincidence, and incredible characters, The entice play deals with petty things such as cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and teacakes, about a couple of gentlemen and ladies who are frivolous to the very core with the gentlemen showing double identity each and with the ladies insisting on marrying only Ernests, about Jack gaining an identity and a name. It is full of trivial episodes, such as the cigarette-case episode and the handbag episode.

     Thus the play is constructal on the strength of pun and the plot towns on a misconception over the name ‘Ernest’. The theme is an attack on earnestness, that is, the Victorian priggishness, hypocrisy and false sense of class-consciousness. The title “The Importance of Being Earnest” and the subtitle “A trivial comedy for serious people” contain irony. They ridicule the conservative and puritan Victorian Society, for Wilde the epitome of exaggerated seriousness. Wilde tries to trivialize all this seriousness, and is almost making fun of it in some sentences. For him, there is no importance in this Victorian earnestness. He tries to express this in the double meaning of Earnest. On the one hand it is Ernest the name of a man and on the other hand it is earnest in the sense of “to be earnest”. Like this he expresses that he actually abhors this earnest way of living.

Word count: 1178