lady Bracknell speech to Gwendolyn

I am slightly concerned about my daughters rather interesting taste in men .Upon meeting with jack the other evening,i must say that the fact that he was  born in a cloak room startled me ,and to add on to the horror ...he has no relations .You would think if he had the audacity to ask for my daughters hand in marriage that he would have at least some higher guardian to speak of.I must confess ,that i have quiet a high expectation with men ,especially men whom want to marry my dearest daughter,and i am having some trouble telling whether jack would fit into my self proclaimed list of eligible men .


One of the things i have noticed very recently is the close relationship bonding with Cecily and my Gwendolyn ,never have i thought the two would be such great friends,and all too fast!with jack as her guardian it is quite strange, wouldn't you agree, Gwendolyn has expressed to me some worries about this, Cecily being very attractive and so,my dear daughter is quiet afraid that jack will be whisked away from her.not a chance in the world, Gwendolyn,as i am myself,is perfectly capable of keeping someone on a tight leash,even if ...i where to allow her to marry this man that's is .


I mean,you'd have to be practically very eligible ,to be asking for her hand in marriage ,in this society we live in today,mothers and daughters are only to walk in each others steps .As successful as i was at marriage ,i would only want the very same for my Gwendolyn . And i know that i could possible do something for her poor friend Cecily ,i'm sure her and algernon will be a perfect match ,and perfect distraction from Gwendolyn's worries ,i'm very sure .

Gwendolyn extract

Dear diary 


Well,i guess i was  expecting quiet a situation here ,i am terribly afraid that mother will not accustom to my soon to be husband ,i have not a clue if there conversation was the awful cause of this .Jack is the one i decide to spend the rest of my life with.I know i'd rather love someone more if the person be named earnest,jack isn't...and i'm quiet o.k .I feel it is my ultimate destiny to meet and marry someone of the name earnest,strong honest and willing ,yes...that would be exactly him .Although the other day jacks proposal was such a pleasant surprise ,even though i would have liked him to be more romantic and sincere about it, it was really all i'd expect from such a man;my man .


He is the very aspect of what i am all about,kind caring and affectionate ...isn't that what girl could do for in our age and time ,men cant honestly be asked to give more then that ,right?
and why on earth would jack ask me why i could possibly like the name earnest,as if he could see through my very mind ,yes.I do like the name ,very much ...is that what you'd prefer to hear,jack? that i imagine you to be someone you quiet frankly aren't.Along with this ,i find it very strange that the notifications and connection of jack and and earnest have being appearing up in conversation a lot ,maybe its my over analytic mind but that evening he asked me about the name ,earnest ...i then heard it from Cecily ;not to mention the brother jack kept in the dark .


i believe there are many explanations for jacks interesting secrecy ,it is really and utturly fascinating being with him,and going on with many lists of things i would find of him,will really do me no good .It makes me more anxious of him. I cant say much of what i would want and what i would terribly like ,but i do know that i can at least talk to my mother ,about jack because this marriage is going through and what i might say or do for it to happen ,will just about be erratic .

gwendolyn and cecily

The importance of being earnest is a play of triviality; it repeatedly mocks Victorian morals and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular. In the extract that i am currently going to explore we also see those very aspect of Oscars inversions & humour when Gwendolyn and Cecily are having a conversation.

In this element Gwendolyn says ‘outside the family circle, papa is quite unknown i think that is how it should be ‘.the writer creates an inverted characteristic of her father, normally it was good in Victorian society for women not to be too ‘well known’ however in this section of the play the language tells us that Oscar Wilde wants to create humour in the fact that normal thoughts on women and men are reversed to make us think in a different way.

in addition i view this to be unusually sarcastic because women in the Victorian era never use to think of men in that sort of way .In the sentence of the first quote the last word of ‘that’s how it should be’ tells us that Gwendolyn is very opinionated, it notifies us that she may be a feminist at heart and might not have the same moralistic view on  men and women as others in Victorian society usually did .this translates to us that there is also an inversion crafted through this gender switch.

The apostrophe used when Gwendolyn said ‘outside the family circle,’ is used to give a effect of a pause in emotion it showed us that she was directly addressing her ‘papa’ and that what she said is something she was probably meaning to say to her own father .I fell that it gives her a higher status to herself,personally when she says that ,she seems as though she is saying it directly to her own papa ,but she isn’t .Gwendolyn goes on to say ‘I think that it is quiet as it should be .And certainly once a man should neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate ‘.We view Oscar Wildes persona entering into this as it is viewed that he probably neglected his domestic duties as a family man ,this writer has explored characters through his personal experiences and knowledge many times however in this extract he enters upon his sexuality also when Gwendolyn articulates  ‘and certainly once a man should neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate ‘ on this part of the conversation the style in which she said ‘painfully effeminate it tells us that she feels strongly about what is said and has obviously thought about this previous.

Furthermore i  view there being some literal language present, this is due to the fact that Gwendolyn extends her meaning of what she finds effeminate ,she believes that domestic duties make men more manly than womanly ,in retrospect the sentences and manner that her attraction to this sort of type of ‘men’ is placed ,tells us that she is very biased on what she finds desirable .the sentences are always lined with an apostrophe ,to me it seems that she pause after every statements to express her scrutiny or collect them into a final view of men in society.

Gwendolyn seems to be confronting her personal views on her parents ,through the first part of her conversation she uses her father to explain what she doesn’t like of  men and their affirmative roles and duties and now ,on the second part of the conversation she goes on to describe what she doesn’t like of her own mother .’short sightedness ‘ is the word she describes her upbringing of her mother ,In the Victorian era mothers were very important and mostly weren’t criticised however Gwendolyn states that her mother’s upbringing was to blame of her opinions and views on society  .when Gwendolyn says ‘mama, whose views on education is remarkably strict has brought me up to be extremely short sighted ‘.the two words ‘mama and extremely ‘ are emphasised to give the  sense of Gwendolyn channelling frustration  in them .It is an inversion that makes the character seem resentful of her mother in many ways .throughout the whole conversation Cecily isn’t saying much ,and that to me gives remembrance of the roles the ‘listener and the confessor ‘ .Gwendolyn declares what she feels are socially normal for her and Cecily listens ,this shows that they are both close enough to be having this conversation in the first place .more over i have viewed that when Gwendolyn says ‘it is part of her system ‘ the short sentence seemed as though it was a fact of truth ,that her mother is simply the way she is ,and that Gwendolyn ,although expressing some dislike due to the tone of her words ,has learnt to except it .however in the last quote ,’so do you mind me looking at you through my glasses ‘.This phrase  is metaphoric ,because Gwendolyn expresses that she wants to shatter her mother’s influences and wants to be acquainted with only her personal viewing .

given this fact, it shows a lot about what this character feels ,in contrast to Cecily ,these two characters are very similar for the reason that they both have authorities in their life they do not agree with, meaning they have their own sight set for them and they want explore it .like Cecily being a romantic and having enough of an imagination to love someone she doesn’t know well, or Gwendolyn wanting to break out of her mother’s influences ,and wanting to view people from her perspective .

in the first act of importance of being earnest algernon is sitting down and having an interrogating conversation in which jack is the centre.He probes jack to tell about his cigarette case.On one particular quote ,algernon conforms the identity earnest and compares it with his own. 'you have  invented a very useful younger brother called earnest ,in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like .i have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury ,in order that i may be able to go down into the country whenever i choose .Bunbury ,in order that i may be able to go down into the country whenever i choose .Bunbury to go down into the country whenever i choose .


This tells us that algernon is attempting to make a comparison between the two of them to make it sound more expectable to have two identities . also there was another quote about educated people and non educated ,when jack said 'i am sick to death of cleverness .everybody is clever nowadays .I wish to goodness we had a few fools left '.This shows us that Oscar Wilde uses the language to be viewed as very 'harshly honest' ,when really jack is clever himself ,and so it also connects to the fact that he is fed up of the  typical sensibility of Victorian society and how educated people have become a 'public nonsense .oscar develops this to say that 'fools' are more interesting ,maybe due to the fact that they don't aren't really educated and don't
 talk about the bore of materialistic items .The repetition of the word clever insights us how he feels about  intelligent people . Humor is created by the reversed way in which jack feels clever people aren't of his liking ,this makes the audience because the language in that quotation was serious but had some humor in it .




This ideology links to the memorable quote in the novel  were lady brackenell had her conversation with Gwendolyn and said that 'education produces no effect whatsoever '.I feel that notion of the novel is that educated people aren't really liked .The irony of this is that if oscar Wilde suggest that Mrs prism isn't very important either however she is .This connects with the other quote because its shows us although they are living in the Victorian era , Oscar wilde shows the opposite from what the audience might think 'education' may be viewed by people .


Tthroughout act 2 scene 1 You seem to be displaying signs of triviality. 'on the contrary ,aunt Augusta. I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of being Ernest .in this quote the form of lexis is very serious but pun intended ,because jack exposes himself in way only he could see . Oscar made jack perceptive in the in which he finds a great deal of his secret identity  .

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 .