The importance of being earnest

Theimportance of being
earnest
By zhangjing
1143013004
A thesis presented to the class of the foreign
drama
The importance of being earnest Abstract:The Importance of Being Earnest is a farcical comedy as Oscar Wilde said. It describes Victoria period’s marriage thorough two gentlemen who both used pseudonym “Ernest” and the love story caused by the name “Ernest”. And the charac ter I would like to talk about is Gwendolen’s mom Lady Bracknell who is a n Arrogance and hypocrisy woman in the best of England society. She is an outspoken woman. Almost every time hurt exports. husband, girlfriend, junior, Army, maids, love novels, French culture, even the innocent stranger, all suffer. According to the lady Bracknell wecansee the discuss of nature of marriage.And the true love and marriage in the play.
Key words: marriage 、hypocrisy、love 、money、house、life.
Lady Bracknell think about marriage to the point, at the first act when she talk about her friend Lady Harbury “I had not been there since her poor husband’s death . I never saw a woman so altered, she looks like quiet twenty years younger”. We may be confused about that ,a woman’s husband is dead ,why she can think her being younger? Think over it we may know the loss of her husband’s relief. In the Victoria period’s marriage is a burden, the ir wife will get freedom and health after their husband dead,Women by men for social status and economic sources, and women may also a thing that men want to have. They get marriage may not need the true love. All that makes up Lady Bracknell. And comes to the most funny act that she questioned Jack.
As we see,LadyBracknell is a strong and hypocrisy woman ,in the act one ,when she see Gwendolen talking with jack she ask her to wait in the carriage in a tone of command .then comes to the act that she questioned jack with a toughest tone.just like today’s mother choosing son-in-law for their daughter.
As she said “ I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has, we work together ,I am quite ready to enter your name”. we can see she is a hypocrisy woman ,but in another word ,we can see her making herself standing in good
position .then she asked a lots of aspects ,of course is the important parts as she think, including Age, income. House property, and political stance. Everything seems satisfactory ,but when it comes to jack’s birth .when she knows that jack was found by the late Mr Thomas Credew, her words become causticity, “I would s trongly advise you ,MrWorthing , to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex,before the reason is quite over”. andshe reject him at once . “ you can hardly imagine th at I and lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter ---a girl brought up with the utmost care ---to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?” we may be surprised of her attitude becomes rude and mean, but if you think about it , you will find that although her methods are defective ,but every questions she ask is the guarantee of the marriage , she want to know jack’s income ,his house and even his political stance ,all that are because she want to find a good husband who are matched for marriage to her daughter andmake her daughter have her marriage happiness. we have no right to regard herthoughts wrong ,because even today when the love comes more freedom, the left male and the left female become more and more, and many people choose “Xiangqing” to get marri ed ,they may ask the other half’s income and house property,when it comes to be matched for marriage , they will get into the next step to find out if they can love each others. the love is also important. so marriage is not only a contract between male and female with The same family background, but also a guarantee makes their life happiness .
At the last act ,Lady Bracknell also played as a tart and hypocrisy woman, she appear in jac k’s home to take Gwendolen home ,when she find Algernon want to married Cecil ,object to it first ,but when she know her family solicitors are MessrsMarkby.“Markby? A firm of the very highestposition in their profession.” And she is told by Jack that Cecil has a hundred and thirty thousand pounds in the Funds. “ A moment , MrWorthing .A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady!” she change her mind and agree that at once, what a hypocrisy woman ,what a tart woman. We can not say she is wrong ,she is only fellow the society in that period. andat last we really see that
all couple comes to the happy ends. Also the will be happy after married.
Conclusion:
Oscar wild have no interest to write about the society problem, and he of course do not want to be a realism writer ,but in the 19th he use his wonderful writing make us know the true meaning of marriage and love ."precisely because it is consistently trivial that it is not ugly." wrote byArthur Ransome who described The Importance of being earnest as the most trivial of Wilde's society plays, and the only one that produces "that peculiar exhilaration of the spirit by which we recognize the beautiful”.According to the tart and hypocrisy woman Lady Bracknell we can see the true love and marriage in the play.
Word cited
Bowman，Henry A．Choosing a Marriage Paflner．Marriage for ModernsM．New York：McGraw-Hill Book Company，lnc1954．
周洁，关于王尔德悖论，以《认真重要性为例》
周小仪唯关主义与消费文化:王尔德的矛盾性及其会意义。