The Importance of Being Ernest short summary & analysis

The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Ernest Analysis

The Importance of Being Ernest is one of the works of the Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde, in which he demonstrated his skill in playwriting. In this work, Queen Victoria's oppressive attitude, which has been called the Victorian Age in UK history and lasted eighty years, is ironically criticized. In the Victorian era, especially anything reminiscent of sexuality was forbidden because of his strict morality. So much so that the elements of sexuality were extracted from thousands of works, especially the classic works called chicken breast and chicken neck and were re-released. Therefore, a sociological concept called Victorian Ethics has been derived. According to this morality, women are creatures who are free from passion and doomed to suffering; men, on the other hand, were seen as beings who should respect this and help women by controlling their own passions. After briefly stating the general profile of the period, we can summarize the book The Importance of Being Ernest as follows.


Oscar Wilde's theater play The Importance of Being Earnest, in which the effect of the Victorian Age on human relations is blended with comedy elements, is a work to be read with pleasure.

The Importance of Being Ernest Short Summary

Jack came to London from a town close to London, next to his friend Algernon. Algernon comes from a noble family, does nothing, has made eating a business, is extremely cynical about life and sees sarcasm as an extremely serious business. Jack, on the other hand, is officially named John Worthing, but uses the name Jack in the town and Ernest as a noble name in the city. This situation is affecting Algernon.

As the couple sits in the living room, Jack tells him that he likes Algernon's aunt's daughter, Gwendolen. Algernon says very recklessly that he does not look favorably upon this relationship. After a while, the maid informs Algernon that her aunt Lady Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen have arrived. The two come in and after chatting for a while, Algernon takes his aunt to the other room for music, and Jack and Gwendolen are left alone. Jack quickly gets to work and reveals his feelings. Thereupon, Gwendolen hugs him and tells him that he loves him just because his name is Ernest, and they get engaged right there. Meanwhile, Lady Bracknell comes in and asks what happened. When the two say they are engaged, they immediately react as "no way." She states that young girls do not have a say in their own lives. Then he starts questioning Jack and tells him that just because I question you doesn't mean you can marry my daughter. He can only enter the list of men she can marry from the last place. As she learns positive things about Jack's financial situation, she also begins to soften. Then she leaves Algernon's house with her daughter. The girl finds the opportunity to come back and asks Jack for the address of her house in town and finds out Jack's address. Meanwhile, Algernon listens to the two, turned back in the living room. Just as Jack introduces himself as Ernest and creates a different effect on people, Algernon makes up a cover for everything he does with the phrase Bunbury. Actually Bunbury is a pointless thing.

In the second scene of the play, Algernon goes to Jack's house in town saying that he is going to do Bunbury and introduces himself as Ernest, Jack's brother, whom the house has never seen. Cecily, who is Jack's guardian, at first treats him coldly, but then a quick love affair begins between them. Cecily tells him that she dreams of falling in love with someone named Ernest. Jack returns home and tells her that her housekeeper and nun are dead. However, Cecily comes from inside and tells him that his brother came home. When Jack sees Algernon in front of him, he is both surprised and angry, but he cannot find anything to do so that the lie is not exposed. Meanwhile, he agrees with the priest and tells him to baptize him with the name Ernest at half past five. Because Cecily said that he was in love with him just because of the name Ernest, Algernon also made an appointment with the priest to be baptized under the name Ernest at five forty-five past. Meanwhile, Gwendolen came to Jack's house. Cecily greeted him as Jack and Algernon argued inside. Although both of the girls have a warm relationship at first, when they both tell that they are in love with someone named Ernest, a relentless struggle begins between them. Meanwhile, when Jack and Algernon arrive, the truth is revealed, and the girls turn away from them and form an alliance.

In the third scene, Lady Bracknell arrives and is surprised to see her daughter and niece Algernon at Jack's house. Here Jack tells what happened to him as a baby. Lady Bracknell becomes suspicious and searches for the house maid. When Jack's maid arrives, the Lady knows him and says to him that you kidnapped a child from our house. Although he denied it at first, it turns out that the person he kidnapped is Jack. Jack curiously asks who his father was and whether he was baptized as a baby. Because if he was not baptized, he would be baptized to marry Gwendolen and change his name to Ernest. The lady says he was baptized, and his baptized name was Ernest. At the same time, it turns out that Jack and Algernon are brothers. Everyone happily hugs and events snap like pieces of a puzzle. Thus, the importance of being earnest in a job, even if it is wrong, becomes evident once again.

Comments