Indledning
“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play written by Oscar Wilde in 1894, which is during the Victorian age. This essay deals with the excerpt: “The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I, Part two”.
The genre of the play can be characterised as a social comedy, a comedy of manners and a satire, or an intellectual farce.
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Uddrag
A humoristic feature in “The Importance of Being Earnest” is puns. The title of the play can be characterised as a pun, since the word “Earnest” can be understood in two different ways.
Firstly, earnest can be understood as the word “earnest” in the sense of serious or honest. However, Ernest is also the name of Jack’s alter ego.
He uses this alter ego to escape social and moral obligations and it allows him to appear more moral and responsible than he actually is. In this sense, Jack is the absolute opposite of earnest!
Algernon has also invented a friend, Bunbury, who according to Algernon is very ill. Therefore, he often has to visit him and this is used as an alibi for the same purpose as Jack.
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