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.
www generally good notes based on what we did in class. You have attempted to encapsulate most of the tenure of your discourse.
ReplyDeleteebi just be a little wary of being too definitive when making an argument - meanings derived from analyising a text are not always clear and are really just interpretations backed up by evidence. SO, use language to persuade or argue not declare. Also try and look at the reasons for the choices made - why is status important, what might be Wilde's agenda, how does the playing with status create comedy, what are the potential political ramifications of the play?
A good start!