Analysis of Act 1 Scene 1 of the Importance of Being Earnset

Reading Act 1 Scene 1 of The Importance of Earnest I can tell that Algernon has a higher relative status than Jack/John Worthing. Algernon is in control of the conversation forcing Jack to reveal his other identity as  'Ernest' his younger brother who lives in town. However as soon as Lady Bracknell enters the scene his is relative status is lower. The topic shifts when Lady Bracknell enters from Jacks's two identities to casual hello's. This is adjacency pairs. Lady Bracknell starts the converstation she often asks questions relating to money. This suggests that she care about wealth and her status in the community.

Algernon calls Jack a 'Bunburyist' which is coinage, Algernon and thus Oscar Wilde made it up. Bunburyist is someone who has a secret alias in order to escape however this is polycemic because this could also mean having to your sexuality which in a way refers to Oscar wildw who had to hide his sexuality from his wife and kids .

Transcript

Algernon- Lane fetch me somemore champagne, two more bottles should do

Lane- Yes Sir

[Lane Enters hands the wine over to Algernon and Exits]

Algernon- Ah yes. Now, where was I, Jack how are things in the town

Jack- They are very good I visited Lord Shoreman and we dined

Lord Shoreman- Yes what an eventful day that was

Algernon- Where exactly was my invtitation to this oh so lovely get together

Jack- It was a spur of the moment type of thing

Algernon - Well I suppose that's alright then

Lord Shoreman-What time is it Lane?

[Lane Enters]

Lane: Sir it is quarter past seven

Jack: Oh goodness is the time well I shall be on my way. Thank you for having me. The sandwichs were

scrumptious  

The Importance of Being Earnest Analysis

 The Beginning of the Act One, The Title and the Character list

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is polysemic. The word earnest means sincere and honesty however the title could be referring to the name Ernest. In the play John Worthing leads a double life where in the country his is known Jack and in the city he goes by the name of Ernest. Oscar Wilde use of the word Earnest in two ways could also represent John’s double life. There is a sub-title ‘A trivial comedy for serious people’ which suggests that this play is for everyone including serious people however if you do not find the play funny it suggests that you are trivial.

Status is very important in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the beginning of the play there is a character list, which we can then determine what status each character is before reading the whole play. The first character on the list is John Worthing J.P because the he has a first and last name we can tell he has a high status. The initials J.P stand for Justice of Peace, which also shows that he is a higher status than most. Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D has no first name but because of all his titles you can tell he is a high status character. The characters that have a low status have only one name, which is their surname, Merriman (The Butler) and Lane (The Man Servant). Algernon Moncrieff has an unusual name, which could suggest that he has a high status as well as having a full name. Miss Prism is the only middle class character on the list, her work title is Governess, which shows that while she is put above Merriman and Lane she is still a lower status than John Worthing. Miss prism is also the only character that we can tell her marital status. She is unmarried which means she is a spinster. Lady Bracknell, Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew all have a high status. Lady Bracknell seems to have the highest status out of all the characters because her title is Lady.

In Act 1 Scene 1 you are first introduced to Algernon and Lane. Immediately you can see that Lane is of a lower status to Algernon you can tell this because whilst Algernon has a lot of speech, Lane repeats Yes Sir.  When Lane does talk about his marriage Algernon is quick to say that is not interested in marriage or any of Lane’s personal life.  

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