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Social Criticism in


"3 The same attitude can be found in Gwendolen as well as in Cecily, who both have set their minds on marrying someone with the name "Ernest". Gwendolen announces that her "ideal has always been to love some one of the name Ernest (because) there is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence."3a Of course it is absurd to lead from ones name to ones character. It is questionable what Gwendolyn would have done if Jack/Earnest had been a mean and unlikable person. Would she still have held up her ideal and gotten involved with him? The same question comes up when thinking about Cecily, who in her fantasy has created a relationship with the unknown figure "Ernest" whom she only knew from Jack's depictions of his younger brother. She is so fixed on that image she has created that she even writes fictional letters in Ernest's name to herself - and even presents them to Algernon/Ernest as if they were really written by him.3b Wilde displays here the ridicule of both women's conviction in the superiority of the name "Ernest" by letting Cecily express her ideals with the same words as Gwendolen. She explains her "girlish dream [.] to love some one whose name was Ernest" with the fact "that there is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence."4 She claims as well to "pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest."5 because they would according to Gwendolyn "never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude."6 Interesting are the reasons both women give for not being able to love their suitors under their real names. The name Jack has not only "very little music in it", but Jack's are usually plain. Wilde lets Cecily express what he thinks is wrong with the attitude on love: even though she would be able "to respect" or "admire (Algernon's) character" under his real name, she "should not be able to give (him) my undivided attention.


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