Satire Concept in The Importance of Being Earnest

What is Satire?
1. A criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor, or a critique of what the author sees as dangerous religious, political, moral, or social standards.
1st Satire: The name of "Ernest"
1. Got 2 meanings: Name; honesty and integrity.
2. Jack Worthing and Algernon change their names into "Ernest" to confess to the women they love just because their lovers prefer to be married with a man called "Ernest".
3. Ernest=Earnest (to be intellectual, to have deep thoughts, and to question things such as life.)
4. When Jack attempts to tell Gwendolen that his name is really "Jack" and not "Ernest", she replies saying:"......No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. The only real safe name is Ernest."
5. Although Gwendolen loves Jack, but she places greater importance on his name than himself.
6. Similarly, Cecily also dreams of loving someone called "Ernest". When Algernon confess his love to her, she replies saying: " There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called "Ernest"."
2nd Satire: The creation of imagery person to run away from hardships.
1. Jack Worthing create a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a "scape goat" to leave his prim, proper, and respectful country life.
2. Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt, Lady Bracknell's high class society parties.
  1. Algernon states to Jack, "She will place me next to Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner table. That is not very pleasant. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public."
3rd Satire: Marriage is not based on love, but on more vain superficial criteria.
1. Gwendolen and Cecily may have refused to marry the "men of their dreams" if their names weren't "Ernest".
2. Women have more passion in marriage compared to the men.
  1. In Act Three of the play: When Cecily asks Algernon if he would wait until she was 35 years old to be married. Even though Algernon said yes, but Cecily bluntly tells him she cannot.
    1. Cecily: "......I couldn't wait all the time. I hate waiting even 5 minutes for anybody. It makes me rather cross."
3. "Divorce are made in heaven."
  1. It is ridiculous. The word "divorce" should be replaced with the word "Marriage" because the marriage should be happy as in heaven instead of divorce.
4th Satire: The upper class people's attitudes on money or business.
1. When Algernon explains to Cecily why he has to leave before Jack returns, he says he has a business appointment he is anxious to miss. Cecily asks him why he can't miss it there-why he has to go back to London. Algernon says because the appointment is in London.
  1. It is nonsense and unbelievable. It satires the scornful attitude of the upper class people towards money and business.
5th Satire: The physical appearance of upper class people
1. Satire is occurred when Lady Bracknell's interrogation of Jack: She asks him if he smokes when Jack asks her permission to marry Gwendolen as his wife. Jack says he does.
  1. 2 things are satirised: the idleness of the upper classes-so that even smoking could be seen as an improvement; the silliness of their ideas about what constitutes a suitable husband.

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Satire Concept in The Importance of Being Earnest

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