"Earnest" commentary

Ian Decker
Ms. Johnson
Per. 5/ 10 IB
5/21/09

Lines used: (Found on Pg. 135)

Lady Bracknell: I would strongly advise you, Mr.

Worthing, 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 season is quite

over.

Jack: Well, I don't see how I could possibly manage

to do that. I can produce the hand-bag at any moment.

It is in my dressing-room at home. I really think that

should satisfy you, Lady Bracknell.

Lady Bracknell: Me, sir! what has it got to do with

me? You can hardly imagine that 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? Good morning,

Mr. Worthington!

The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde serves two purposes, to entertain and to comment on how people lived in the Victorian Age. Wilde uses an abundance of absurd humor in order to entertain his audience. He also uses a small portion of this absurdity to help him comment on the Victorian society. Both of these elements are included in the lines above, which are found on page 135 of an anthology of his plays from Signet Classics.

In his play, Wilde uses absurd humor in order to entertain his audience. This humor is especially apparent in Mr. Worthing's conversation with Lady Bracknell. In this conversation, Jack is trying to convince Lady Bracknell that he is a suitable suitor for her daughter, Gwendolen, but things are not going quite as planned for Jack, "marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?" (Wilde, Pg. 135). Here, Lady Bracknell is saying that she does not approve of his lineage, which is untraceable due to the fact that he was found in a hand-bag as an infant. The common reference before and in the passage to Jack's being unable to produce a parent is to be considered absurd humor partially because it is implausible and unexpected that a young infant would be found in a hand-bag in a train station. It is also absurd because Lady Bracknell accepts the fact without question, adding to the overall effect.

The reason why Lady Bracknell is even questioning Jack is one of the ways that Wilde comments on the mannerisms of his time; she wants to make sure that her daughter is married off to someone well off and can help her gain more social standing. In the above passage, this is revealed when she demands to know one parent of Jack in order to make sure that Gwendolen would be married into a high-ranking family, "make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex" (Wilde, Pg. 135). Here, she is demanding for Jack to find one of his parents in order for Lady Bracknell to check on their social status. This comments, in a satirical way, on the people of the Victorian Age's apparent need to grab for power and social status, and unfortunately, this habit has still not entirely left by today's society.

In Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, he uses a large amount of absurd humor. He does this in order to achieve the play's two goals; to entertain and to comment (often satirically) about the way of life of many in the Victorian Age. Examples of each of these goals can be found on page 135 of a book containing his play. Through the use of this kind of humor, Wilde is able to effectively complete his two goals with laughs to spare.