Stereotypes In The Importance Of Being Ernest
The Importance of Being Earnest: Prompt 3
Society tends to have expectations and stereotypes that are actually a corruption of reality. Many people draw assumptions based on the set values of a culture or society. Those that stray or are isolated from those cultural values because of on the gender, race, class, or creed actually reveal these stereotypes and conventional ideas. Throughout the play The Importance of Being Earnest there were a few characters that deviations showed the assumptions of society.
In the play Jack who is also known as Earnest in the city is assumed to be an honest fellow because of the creed or belief that his name meant he was a noble and man of God. The people of this time believed that names had a meaning. Your
name told who you were. Algernon also used the name Earnest at a point and time. Both men knew that the women they were after fell in love with them only because they thought they had the noble name of Earnest. In the text Gwendolen states, “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 Earnest, I knew I was destined to love you.” Gwendolen expresses to Jack, well Earnest, the importance and value of his name. She loves him only because of what she thinks the name represents. Jack and Algernon brought out the fact that names had such importance with the tie in of a person’s character and righteous beliefs. The women both Gwendolen and Cecily thought they had good, upright, and honest men because they had the name Earnest. This came full circle and we find out that indeed both men were not at all honest, they were living lies to get what they wanted. Later we see how the women still are in love with these men because in actuality while they thought it was the name they fell in love with it was really the person. The men’s ability to still get the women in spite of their names shines light on the stereotype, proves it is a corruption, and not always true.
Jack also sought after the approval of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen’s father. The text states, “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter – a girl brought up with the utmost care – to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?” Lady Bracknell uses this analogy to show that Earnest came from an unusual situation, unlike the people in her royal culture. Jack was found in a handbag at a railway station and adopted by a man named Mr. Thomas Cardew. Lady Bracknell insisted that her daughter marry someone from a good family. She didn’t consider Jack’s family “good” enough because he was adopted and did not really know where he came from. That in itself brought attention to a stereotype about how adopted households aren’t happy or successful homes. It was an assumption that because he came from an unknown linage of people, he was indeed of a lower class, nothing her daughter was a costume to. Because of this she felt jack was not suitable to marry her daughter. This was a stereotype that was again proven wrong because we find out at the end of the story that Jack is really Earnest and he came from the same linage as Gwendolen’s family. They are related. In many ways throughout the play we see how character’s alienation and deviation from the norm uncovers the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values. Many of these assumptions were proven wrong.
Word count:634
Society tends to have expectations and stereotypes that are actually a corruption of reality. Many people draw assumptions based on the set values of a culture or society. Those that stray or are isolated from those cultural values because of on the gender, race, class, or creed actually reveal these stereotypes and conventional ideas. Throughout the play The Importance of Being Earnest there were a few characters that deviations showed the assumptions of society.
In the play Jack who is also known as Earnest in the city is assumed to be an honest fellow because of the creed or belief that his name meant he was a noble and man of God. The people of this time believed that names had a meaning. Your
name told who you were. Algernon also used the name Earnest at a point and time. Both men knew that the women they were after fell in love with them only because they thought they had the noble name of Earnest. In the text Gwendolen states, “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 Earnest, I knew I was destined to love you.” Gwendolen expresses to Jack, well Earnest, the importance and value of his name. She loves him only because of what she thinks the name represents. Jack and Algernon brought out the fact that names had such importance with the tie in of a person’s character and righteous beliefs. The women both Gwendolen and Cecily thought they had good, upright, and honest men because they had the name Earnest. This came full circle and we find out that indeed both men were not at all honest, they were living lies to get what they wanted. Later we see how the women still are in love with these men because in actuality while they thought it was the name they fell in love with it was really the person. The men’s ability to still get the women in spite of their names shines light on the stereotype, proves it is a corruption, and not always true.
Jack also sought after the approval of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen’s father. The text states, “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter – a girl brought up with the utmost care – to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?” Lady Bracknell uses this analogy to show that Earnest came from an unusual situation, unlike the people in her royal culture. Jack was found in a handbag at a railway station and adopted by a man named Mr. Thomas Cardew. Lady Bracknell insisted that her daughter marry someone from a good family. She didn’t consider Jack’s family “good” enough because he was adopted and did not really know where he came from. That in itself brought attention to a stereotype about how adopted households aren’t happy or successful homes. It was an assumption that because he came from an unknown linage of people, he was indeed of a lower class, nothing her daughter was a costume to. Because of this she felt jack was not suitable to marry her daughter. This was a stereotype that was again proven wrong because we find out at the end of the story that Jack is really Earnest and he came from the same linage as Gwendolen’s family. They are related. In many ways throughout the play we see how character’s alienation and deviation from the norm uncovers the surrounding society’s assumptions or moral values. Many of these assumptions were proven wrong.
Word count:634