The Importance of Being Earnest
Along the book Wilde demonstrates
Foolishnes and Folly in the way their
characters act.
I included below the definition of both words in order to contribute with the best example and explanation.
Foolishness: Lack of intelligence, understanding or careful thought:stupidity, ignorance,incomprehension, vacancy, the absurd, indiscretion, myopia, short-termism, precipitation, vacuity
Folly: a way of thinking or behaving that is stupid and careless, and likely to have bad results
Folly: a way of thinking or behaving that is stupid and careless, and likely to have bad results
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
ReplyDeleteFOOLISHNESS AND FOLLY
Note: Cited page numbers correspond with the edition by "Black Cat" publishing house.
Oscar Wilde had a lot of wit since he was a boy. In London, his brilliant conversation and other factors made him a well-known figure. In his masterpiece" The Importance of Being Earnest" he showed both of them: wit and brilliant conversation. As we can read in the introduction (on page 5): "He skilfully combined high comedy with farce and created the perfect example of the comedy of manners. He ridiculed the Puritan ideas of earnestness and sincerity. He laughed at the manners, morals and social hypocrisy of the Victorian Age". He used foolishness and folly a lot in order to achieve this.
I can quote some samples of this:
- Page 36: Algernon said: "She will place me next to Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent". Here we can appreciate very the opinion about marriage, specially when we read on the next page (page 37) the Algernon sentence: "You don't seem to realise, that in married life three is company, and two is none", a brilliant way of twisting the true saying for communicate the idea he wanted.
- Page 70: Algernon told Cecily: "my little cousin", and Cecily answered: "You are under some strange mistake. I am not little. In fact, I believe I am more than usually tall for my age". In my opinion this is one of the most foolishness sentences in the book. We could read it the same on page 34 when Algernon asked Jack why his cigarette case had written the inscription "from little Cecily", and Jack wanted Algernon to think she was his aunt, not his little cousin, so he answered: "Some aunts are tall, some aunts are not tall".
- Page 106: Algernon was admitting that his lie about the imaginary Mr. Bunbury had been discovered and he said: "Bunbury? Oh, he was quite exploded". And then Lady Bracknell answered: "Exploded! Was he the victim of a revolutionary outrage?
In my opinion foolishness and folly are the salt and pepper of this play.
Marcial Bernabeu - 4A
It was a well-known that society of the Victorian Age was bitterly and specially earnest and hypocritical. However, the author writes this play to ridicule and reflect the ambiguity in the most ironic way possible. It seems to me a brilliant form to grab attention.
ReplyDeleteIn the first place, what I consider being the greatest folly is the fact of wanting change their name to be accepted socially, and obviously both have to lie. In addition, the same name is chosen by them. It can be seen when Jack dared to say that if Gwendolen accepts Ernest, he is going to kill his brother Jack.
On the other hand was the imaginary Algernon's friend, whose name is Bunbury and who is used as an excuse for everything, until the lie is dicovered and suddenly he decides to kill him too.
In conclusion and being honest, I have to say that this play makes me feel amazed with the behavior of almost all roles. Finally, without any doubt and taking everything into consideration, those little things makes his masterpiece.
Cristina Alvarez, 4°A
Page 71:
ReplyDeleteALGERNON: “Thank you. Might I have a buttonhole first? I never have any appetite unless I have a buttonhole first”.
From my point of view, this comment is foolish, because the buttonhole doesn´t make a person has appetite. Nowadays, if a man told me something similar to this, I would think that this man is ridiculous. But I don´t know if in those days this was the way to win women over and he could be considered a romantic man.
Raquel Aguilera, 4ºC
In relation to foolishness and folly, I can point out the following:
ReplyDeleteJack: “I’m not a Bunburyist at all. If Gwendolen accepts me, I am going to kill my brother; indeed I think I’ll kill him in any case. Cecily is a little too much interested in him. It is a rather a bore. So I am going to get rid of Ernest. And I strongly advise you to do the same with Mr.…with your invalid friend who has the absurd name.”(Act I, page 37)
Algernon: “Well, I don’t like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don’t you go up and change? It is perfectly childish to be in deep mourning for a man who is actually staying for a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque.” (Act II, page 79).
Wilde uses in this play morals and hypocrisy of the Victorian Age and he joins comedy and farce.
LOLA SÁNCHEZ 4ºA
FOOLISHNESS AND FOLLY
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, there are many foolishness in this book. However, in my opinion, one of the greatest is that Cecily imagined that she was engaged to be married to Algernon before meeting him. That is a ridiculous situation, as you can not fall in love with anyone without meeting him.
On the other hand, on page 81 Cecily told Algernon how she knew that Jack had a younger brother: ' Well, ever since dear Uncle Jack first confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and bad, you of course have formed the chief topic of conversation between myself and Miss Prism. And or course a man who is much talked about is always very attractive. One feels there must be something in him, after all. I daresay it was foolish of me, but I fell in love with you, Ernest.'
Moreover, this is a confused situation, as Cecily thought that Algernon was Jack's brother, Ernest.
In addition, on page 82 Cecily said how followed her imaginary story ( the ring he gave her, the letters and so on ).
Finally, we can see that this is an example of the world of hypocrisy that there was in Victorian society.
MARIBEL BANDERAS 4º A
The author pick on the Victorian mores using irony and exaggeration. Oscar Wilde described an society obsessed with the marriage and the appearance. Men are focus on their appearance, they invent relatives or situation for getting away sometimes. Women are obsessed with the marriage. They must find a good and honest man, with solvency. They shouldn't worry about important things, only do trivial activities.
ReplyDeleteThen, the author show how women fall in love without meet the suitor, or men have double life, and this is ironic and crazy, without logical sense.
The author pick on the Victorian mores using irony and exaggeration. Oscar Wilde described an society obsessed with the marriage and the appearance. Men are focus on their appearance, they invent relatives or situation for getting away sometimes. Women are obsessed with the marriage. They must find a good and honest man, with solvency. They shouldn't worry about important things, only do trivial activities.
ReplyDeleteThen, the author show how women fall in love without meet the suitor, or men have double life, and this is ironic and crazy, without logical sense.
I think throughout the book there are many foolishness and folly.
ReplyDeleteBeginning with the lies of Jack and Algernon, each one says having a brother in London or an ill friend to get out of where they live with that excuse.
Secondly, it seems folly that Gwendolen and Cecily want to marry only because they called Ernest.
Lastly, everyone gathers at the home of Jack because Algernon goes looking for Cecily posing as Ernest and Gwendolen goes to see Jack who also stood as Ernest.This particular scene was foolishness.
I think throughout the book there are many foolishness and folly.
DeleteBeginning with the lies of Jack and Algernon, each one says having a brother in London or an ill friend to get out of where they live with that excuse.
Secondly, it seems folly that Gwendolen and Cecily want to marry only because they called Ernest.
Lastly, everyone gathers at the home of Jack because Algernon goes looking for Cecily posing as Ernest and Gwendolen goes to see Jack who also stood as Ernest.This particular scene was foolishness.
IRENE GARCÍA 4ºA
In my opinion, there are several foolishness scenes in the play , one of them is in which the two women give only importance to their future husbands that they called Earnest , it didn´t matter if they were good or bad people, but if they called argeddon or jack didn’t want to marry them. Therefore they must lie and invent a false brother or friend, they should kill when it suits them. Another folly scene is when Earnest shows Miss Prism the suitcase where she was carrying a child who she had lost ,she only gave importance to she had been waiting to see the suitcase had been lost 28 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe hypocrisy and superficiality are common to that era and nowadays too , feigning to have money but this is no true . In the first scene, Lane said that he was married once but Algernon said that he was no interested in the family lifes’ Lane.
JUANA GONZALEZ PEINADO 4º A
It is said that this play was written to ridicule the puritan ideals of eartnestness and to show the manners, morals and socials hypocrisy of the Victorian age. So the differents tools that the author uses to this aim are the foolish and folly.
ReplyDeleteTo start with, along the book the foolishest role is played by Algernon. For example, at the moment that their bunbury´s life is discovered, he stars to eating muffins so calm that jack doesn´t understand this situation.
On the other hand, Jack plays like a Victorian person, how ever, he is more honest and he want to change his hyprocrasy life. He is affected when Gwendolen discovers his lie.
In conclusion, Ibelieve that these two words are the essence of the book.
(ACT II pag. 93)
JACK: How can you sit there, calmy eatig muffins when we are this horrible trouble, I can´t make out. You seem to be perfectly heartless.
ALGERNON: Well, I can´t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.
Page 41, line 17:
ReplyDeleteGwendoline: “I am told; and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest….”
Page 83, line 6:
Cecily: “You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest….”
I think that the most foolishness in this book is related with its name “The importance of being Earnest” and the name of men, Ernest, because the two young girls Gwendoline and Cecily said that they always had dreamed to love someone with the name of Ernest.
It seems to me, and probably also the author, that the less important thing when you fall in love is the name of the other person. And, it is more, related with the meaning of Earnest is actually crazy to think that somebody could be earnest because he is called Ernest.
The complete book is plain of foolishness and the first that we can find is in the title of the book, which is a preparation for the rest of it.
Encarnación Cerezo 4º C
The book is full of Foolishness and folly things. The titlle is a pun with the words Ernest (proper name) and Earnest (adjective), Victorian period is called "an age of Earnestness".
ReplyDeleteWilde throught the book makes an ironic criticism os upper-middle class in Victorian society. Although the upper-middle class was educated and they had a lot of money, their intelligence reached not be so high.
ACT III, PAGE 110:
"Lady Bracknell: Untruhful! My nephew Algernon? Impossible! He is an Oxonian."
"Jack: I fear there can be no possible doubt about the matter. This afternoon during my temporary abscense in London on an important question of romance, he obtained admission to my house by means of the false pretence of being my brother. Under an assumed name he drank, I've just been informed by my Butler, an entire pint bottle of my Perrier-Jouet, Brut, '89; wine I was specialy reserving for myself. Continuing his disgraceful deception, he succeeded in the course of the afternoon in alineating the affections of my only ward. He subsequently stayed to tea, and devoured every single muffin. And what makes his conduct all the more hearthless is, that he was perfectly well aware from the first that I have no brother, that I never had a brother, and that I don't intend to have a brother, not even of any kind. I distinctly told him so myself yesterday afternoon."
In this quote, Jack exposes some folly reasons to justify Algernor is untruthful and Jack does not approve at all of his moral character, therefore he does not approve the marriage betweeen Algenon and Cecily.
I think that Wilde represents in the book foolishness and folly that they are presents in daily life of the upper-middle class in Victorian society.
TOÑI MORGADO RODRIGUEZ 4ºC
“Jack: I have returned sooner than I expected. …. My brother…. Dead!.... Quite Dead… Poor Earnest! He had many faults, but it is a sad, sad blow. … He died abroad… A severe chill, tis seems.”
ReplyDeleteAct. II page 73
This passage reveals that the invention of having a brother has to end up. After Lady Bracknell refused him and denied her consent to be married to Miss Fairfax, he announced the death of someone who he had created. An imaginary person with the propouse of pretending to be someone that fits in a society that he disliked intensely and detested. He was opposed to the Victorian morality that reigned in those days. At the time that Jack comes out with the news , a false Ernest was in the same house. I found this situation full of foolishness and absurdity.
M. Mar España González 4º C
Foolishness is a feature which is present along The Importance of Bein Earnest. There are many ridiculous situations in the three acts but I believe third act is the most foolish and crazy of all.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning is absolutely brilliant, the way Gwendoleen and Cecily try to catch the attention of Algernon and Jack and how all of them change their opinions and thoughts almost instantly is fantastic.
The dynamic dialogues are full of stupid and nonsense expressions which captures the attention of the readers.
ACT III, p. 103. This quote is surprisingly fun to me
"Gwendolen. The fact that they did not follow us at once into the hous, as any one else would have done, seems to me to show that they have some sense of same left.
Cecily. They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance.
Gwendolen. They don't seem to notice us at all. Couldn't you cough?
Cecily. But I haven't got a cough..."
ELISA GÓMEZ FERNÁNDEZ, 4ºC
Undoubtedly, the most foolish situation is that until the end, the main plot of the book is kept, "The Importance of Being Earnest". Finally everybody get their purposes and dreams….Their own Ernest
ReplyDeleteACT III, PAGE 306 (Oxford University Press):
“LADY BRACKNELL: Yes I remember now that the General was called Ernest. I knew I had some particular reason for disliking the name.
GWENDOLEN: Ernest¡ My own Ernest¡. I feld from the first that you could have no other name¡”
The last sentence of the play reflects the essence of comedy mentioning the title of the work
ACT III, PAGE 307 (Oxford University Press):
“LADY BRACKNELL: My nephew, you seem to be displaying sings of triviality.
JACK: On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I ´ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being Earnest”
ALFREDO CANALES LOPEZ
GWENDOLEN: “…… and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you…..”
ReplyDelete”……And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest…..”
There are a lot of foolishness in this book; from my point of view the most important and even more, in which the book is based, it is to choose a husband only for their name. For Gwendolen is not important to be in love or not ……or what qualities should have her future husband…..only she thinks about their name: Ernest…..Even she feel sorry for the wives who have a husband with a different name of Ernest.
ALEJANDRA BARREDO 4º C
FOOLISHNESS
ReplyDeletePage 81.
Algernon. Oh, I don’t care about Jack. I don’t care for anybody in the whole world but you. I love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you?
Cecily. You silly boy! Of course. Why, we have been engaged for the last three months.
It’s difficult to choose one phrase or dialog to represent all the foolishness that The importance of being Earnest has. Wilde filled the play with a lot of brilliant and foolish situations and dialogs.
But, if I have to choose one, from my point of view, one of the best it is the marriage proposal from Algernon to Cecily. I love the way that Algernon discover his own secret engagement with Cecily, how she tells him their romantic history and the things she do to supply Algernon. At last, the bad boy who didn’t believe in love and marriage is reformed by a clever and sweet angel.
Montse Fité_4C
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ReplyDelete