(A Trivial Comedy for Serious People).
Oscar Wilde said "We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality." This essay investigates how far "The Importance of Being Earnest" reflects this view on life. Oscar Wilde subtitled his play "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People". The play is a comedy of manners satirising the attitudes and behaviour of the upper classes. The humour in the play makes social status, marriage and money as a measure of personal worth look spurious and nonsensical. The implication is that things such as social status, marriage and money have no real worth and should therefore be mocked. Throughout the play Wilde uses witty dialogue to satirise the hypocrisy of society. The plot is based around the desires of two young upper class men to marry two young upper class ladies, who in turn desire only to marry men named Ernest.
The play is one of dual meanings throughout. Earnest of the title is an adjective describing seriousness. Jack and Algernon are characters who lie in order to be Ernest, but in doing so they are not being earnest. Jack and Algernon have a dual identity. Jack pretends to be Ernest in the city and Algernon goes "Bunburying" in the country. To escape their responsibilities and fulfil their own needs Jack and Algernon have to lie and deceive. The suggestion here is that Jack and Algernon find the society they live in restrictive. Jack sums it up from his point of view.
"When one is in the town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring."(Act 1 page 7).
Algernon and Jack take the business of having a dual identity very seriously, as it is their escape from the reality of the society in which they live. Wilde himself was forced to lead a double life because of his homosexuality. Cecily sums up the main theme in the play when she says to Algernon: .