A Character Analysis of Earnest Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the author Oscar Wilde uses a significant pun in the word “earest”. Separate from being the title of the play, there is a character whom goes by the name of Earnest Worthing in the city, but goes by the Jack Worthing in the country. The word earnest is said to mean truthfulness and honesty in the general terms, but as could be noticed throughout the play that Earnest is just a method, used to escape from the responsibilities of life. This shows how utterly untruthful Jack is throughout the play. Reading further into the play it is realized that Jack’s name is actually not Jack as he was lead to believe. His real name is actually Jack. It was said in the first paragraph by Gwendolen that these names are very similar, even identical in the manner of which they are realized socially in act one “there is very little music in the name Jack … I have known several Jacks, and the all without exception, were more than usually plain… Jack is a notorious domesticity of John”[Osc15). Enforcing the statement made above pertaining to the comparison of the names Jack and John. The point can be made that any of these two names would be much more suited for the actions of earnest throughout the play.

The title can be considered a pun due to the fact that it not only represents the name of a character in the play, but it shows in the final stages of the play. It becomes clear of the real reason for the need to actually be earnest as both Algernon and Jack decided to pretend to be the character ernest to win over the hearts of women centered around they believe that they are basically destined to marry a person with the name ernest. It is not until near the end of the play when Jack truly decides to be earnest in terms of behavior, he realizes that he is actually truly named earnest, satisfying the desire of his love Gwendolen for this name.

Ernest’s persona is contradictory with his name as while in town going by this title he spends his money on fashion and having a good time. He shows these traits in the play while visiting his friend Algy, when he asks why ernest is in town he replies with “Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?”[Osc15]. This shows that pleasure is the main goal of his life as he says why else would he go anywhere. In total contradiction to the life of jack, he compares the town of earnest and the country life of Jack. “When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the county one amuses other people. It is excessively boring”[Osc15]. Basically while in town he may amuse himself in many way, but while at country the only amusement he gains is from amusing others. Jack justifies his reason for pretending to be someone he is not having to do with him protecting his image for the sake of his ward, saying his health and happiness is at risk due to the seriousness of the task. This allows his to go about his anonymous activates with another name while upholding his guardian image and responsibilities up to standard in the plays. The pun used by Wilde is the fact that the name earnest goes for the seriousness and responsible manner in which matters are taken care of and the contradiction of both personas.

In concluding, the goal was to argue the contradiction the names Jack and Ernest as to see which name would be better suited to the actions of each individual character while in their different roles as the personas of both names if switch would be a perfect match. It was the doing of Wilde as he took advantage of his ability to link the whole play to the word earnest so much that he even made the title of the play into a pun when compared to the actions of characters through the story.

Cite this page