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 .