character differences : Cecily ,algernon

Oscar Wilde's  adaption of the  humorous importance of being earnest revolves highly around the lives of all characters in  secrecy ,love affairs and long lost relatives elongating throughout the play .What is most contrasted is the differences and similarities between  Cecily and algernon  .One of whom seems more similar then the other ,in this essay i am going to explore the way the writer presents this in very particular form to make the play be viewed as humorous and intriguing .

Algernon , plays second hero in the play ,he is viewed as the a charming bachelor who is a selfish witty and immoral man  . Like jack ,algernon has created a fictional character in his life whom he pretends to be .it seems to me that he has an imagination ,enough to have thought up a plan to be someone else when he wanted .this is very similar to Cecily ,although she is more calm and often described as sweet ,simple and innoicent throughout the play ,however she develops a passionate love for a man whom she has never even seen ,earnest .When Cecily is talking to her governess Mrs prism she comes across 'not interested in worldly things like learning German and history ,as creatively expected ,she goes off to write in her diary .In this aspect ,algernon has more of cold look on things ,like for instance when jack brought up the subject of marriage , Algernon view was that 'divorces are made in heaven'.

algernon delights in his own cleverness and ingenuity and has little contempt for people ,for instance when he had conversed with jack over dinner he played out  no contempt when he said 'but i thought you said ...miss cardew was a little too much interested in your poor brother Ernest ?wont she feel this lose a great deal ? .From that quote we see that Cecily and algernon bare much more differences then they seem .Cecily is more of modest person with her words ,unlike algernon and i believe that this is has profound differ in the two persona's as algernon likes to bask in his wit , Cecily is quite alright with her quiet knowing sensibility . The way in which she is sometimes viewed as this character makes it implausible for the audience because her dream like love struck state is amusing because her 'earnest ' doesnt actually exist  and also the amusement of algernon is that he repeatedly says to jack and many other characters in the play the marriage is quiet obviously not for him,when we in fact find out the pun intended joke that he is actually engaged .




In conclusion ,Oscar Wilde in this play had created these characters knowing that each everyone of them would have this witty and humorousness problematic backgrounds and hidden intentions  .By this ,it has made characters like Cecily and algernon more similar and different in many many ways .This is brought alight within the language and tone used by each character .

home study :act 2 analysis

In this play ,oscar Wilde intelligently plays out the lives of characters in there different statuses ,weather it being a teacher a butler or a wealthy man with a hidden identity .along the play we continuously see the hypocrisy and false beliefs of  the characters in the Victorian  era ,mainly,in act 2 we take a look at the conversations between cecily and Mrs prism .This scene is set in the manor garden ,jacks house and Mrs prism is sitting at the table with books trying to teach cecily German .she refuses to learn and says that 'it isn't at all a becoming language' ,this informs us that she feels that being educated ,especially in a language isnt very important to her .we also have insights on this because at first she waters the plants rather then sitting and learning with her governess.

Along the further lines in conversation ,Dr chasuble walks in and Mrs prism stands up and blushes ,this also shows us that there is some attraction between the two them .Cecily then mentions that mrs prism has a 'headache',she says this because she can see by mrs prisms change in tone ,that she ovibiously feels something for dr chasuble .from act 2 ,we learn the traits of both there personality,the fact cecily doesn't see her German classes important and Mrs prism , obviously displaying that she feels a certain way when dr chasuble walks in .


further more ,from what i viewed of the second act , Mrs prism seemed more or less deeply interested in cecily doing well in her education and concentrating ,while cecily goes on to talk about how 'unfortunate' it is for jack ,whom is too serious .she states that his brother would have greater influence on him ,what was very peculiar of this quote was that earnest is already seen as the troublesome brother ,from cecily's interest in that sort of persona and not a sensible man we have an insight on the fact that she likes a bit of excitement and mystery , .

home study :how did Oscar Wilde explore hypocrisy

the importance of being earnest is a very trivial play ,it is farcical comedy protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social  .Oscar Wilde does this but creating various characters of different purposes ,like Algernon having a second secrete identity (bunbury) and John being (earnest) .this is very eccentric from what is usually presented of  a Victorian man ,in that sort of society and time, secrete identities weren't that easy to maintain or to even have ,so the play writer uses this  to show us how that could be used to criticize what society at that time were meant to be .


Oscar played with the idea of what was normal and acceptable in society by creating these characters living in the Victorian society and having those same attitudes and values we see how the upper class and middle class view societies norms .One of the closely related subjects in the play was marriage and how each of characters saw it e.g in act 1 scene one gwendolen says 'the old fashion respect for the young is fast dying out .what ever influence I ever had over mamma ,i lost at the age of three ' .By this we see how Oscar Wilde twists what society thinks ,like in that era it was known for the child to have lost respect for the old and not the other way round .it is a formation of value , respect,and the play writer turns it round to make us look at the play as yet again trivial  (not fitting in to the known beliefs and expectations of Victorian society .


Further more , Wilde explores in depth what it means to have dual identity in Victorian society ,although algernon may have negative beliefs on a that very dual identity ,he ends up having one himself .The hypocrisy from this is  highlighted  numerous times  when conversations of marriage do come up for e.g if it wasn't for bunburys extrodinary bad health ,for instance ,i wouldnt be able to dine with you at Willis to night ,for i have really been engaged to aunt Augusta '.We view there being hypocrisy in the strong points of marriage the audience thought algernon had.


His also an insight because it lets us know that some of the characters of the play claim to have stable beliefs of what is known as (a high position in society) .A good example of this is when lady Bracknell had the conversation with John about gwendolen ,the topic of parents was aparently irrelevant to her .however when John stated he didn't quite know whom his biological parents it was a sudden shock for lady Bracknell ,how could this be if it were irrelevant ? throughout this scene we here lady Bracknell's outtake on Victorian society and respectability  ,but the characters seem to be quite deceiving in there choices of values in that current era ;Oscar Wilde explores this by showing us how the characters may have opposing views to certain occupation  in morality ,and how in the end ,their views turn out to be loosely based on there situation e.g algernon and his engagement to aunt Augusta .