The Importance of Being Earnest is an acclaimed novel written by Oscar Wilde, which made him a highly successful writer. The play is based on the hypocrisies of the society that Wilde lived in during the Victorian Era and how these hypocrisies play with the ideas of fantasy and reality. In this play, the readers can tell what Wilde’s views were on writing and writers in general; he believed that writing is a way to play with fantasies; instead, of facing the gritty reality the world has provided.
Miss Prism’s three-volume novel was written to show what would happen if people try to impose an idealized world into reality. When she was younger, Miss Prism became obsessed with the potential success her novel would bring her; however, she lived in a fantasy world. Her head was in the clouds, causing her to lose her sense of reality as well as the baby that she was taking care of. Miss Prism also hoped to become a sensational romance novelist: which was put on hold since she had to make a living, as she was soon becoming Cecily’s guardian of her virtue and education. Miss Prism described fictional romance as "the good ended happily, and the bad unhappily." (II.I.54), both Gwendolyn and Cecily believed in the fairy tale happily-ever-after endings. Miss Prism, however, tried to use the experiences she had as a once idealistic girl, to bring the girls down to reality by focusing on their priorities such as education and being up to society's standards.
Cecily Cardew was known as an unspoiled and an ingenuous young girl; however, her morality had vanished once her deep desires of falling in love and marrying a man named Earnest started to surface. She eventually fell in love with “Uncle Jack’s brother,” Earnest, due to his negative reputation around the household. Cecily was a fantasist, who formulated an imaginary romance with Earnest. Her imaginary courtship with Earnest, who was eventually known as Algernon, was tremendously well planned that she believed they were already engaged. Her fiance did not even know that they were engaged for three long months, “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 of course, a man who is much talked/ about is always very attractive.” (III. I.461-465), Cecily’s fantasies of finding a husband named Earnest was so overpowering that she diligently documented the desires and even wrote imaginary love letters to herself from her lover, Earnest, while documenting these items into her diary: eventually getting a reality check after finding out her fiance’s true identity. When Cecily would write about her fictional engagement to “Earnest” in her diary, it showed how it was a conflation of fantasy and fiction, rather than a record of fact.
Gwendolen Fairfax was the cousin of Algernon as well as Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Miss Fairfax was also in love with a man named Jack, who she thought was named Earnest. Unlike Cecily Cardew, Gwendolen Fairfax was a model that had a connection with the higher end of society. She, unlike Miss Cardew, was sophisticated and pretentious; however, both women were similar in the fact that they were infatuated with the name Earnest and would not consider marrying anyone else. She kept a diary with her at all times, which talked about her desires of marrying Earnest; in which she believed that anything she wrote down in her diary was reliable facts, and not her fantasies of the “perfect” man she would marry. Miss Fairfax exhibited her need for a man named Earnest when Jack suggested to her the idea of being named Jack when she dismissed the preposterous idea, stating that, “There is very little music in the/ name Jack… I have known several Jacks, and they all/ without exception were more than usually plain.” (I.I.420, 422-423), Miss Fairfax believed that the name Earnest held an edge of confidence and sophistication: she also mentioned how the name Jack is a “notorious domesticity” for the name John and that she pities any woman married to a John due to the lack of solitude they would have (I.I.424-426). Gwendolen believed that the name Jack and John were simple and plain names, it had no elegance or grace that she was accustomed to. She knew that the name Earnest, had such confidence and sophistication that it would be up to par with the high-class society she lived in. Gwendolen and Cecily’s diaries were parallel with one another in that they use their journals to write down their desires which they claimed were facts and nothing more. Both women were so determined to marry a man named Earnest that they got sidetracked from their education and living up to society’s expectations. In the end, Gwendolen’s fantasies turned into reality when Jack discovered his birth name was, in fact, Earnest.
The fact that Chasuble, the clergyman, had written nothing throughout the whole play showed how Wilde felt that the church and religion were foolish things that people got too wrapped up in. Although he was the clergyman of the church, his sermons went through one ear and out the other because he repeated the sermon on a daily basis. Chasuble had even recognized how often he repeated his sermons and how futile they were, proclaiming that, “I have preached it at harvest celebrations, christenings, confirmations, on days of humiliation and festal days…” (II. I.245-247), although he appeared to be an intelligent man with his Victorian appearance; however, he was anything but an intellectual. Unlike the rest of the characters in the play, Chasuble had written absolutely nothing, not even a book, during the duration of the play. Cecily had noted that, although he was an intelligent man, he had never written a single book, making him useless in society (II. I.536-538), although Dr. Chasuble appeared to be a wise man, it was a fantasy act for him. In reality, Chasuble was nothing, an underdog in the society he lived in, his dreams of being a highly admired clergyman could not be obtained due to his lack of social competence. Dr. Chasuble would do anything to get an ounce of recognition as a legitimate clergyman, desperate to live his fantasy that he would christen Algernon and Jack without question. The dreams of being a renowned member of the church were crushed: he turned into the joke of the church and a fool in society.
Oscar Wilde was a brilliant author that was ahead of his time. He knew how foolish the people were during the Victorian Era when it came to things they obsessed over, such as religion and sticking to the status quo. Wilde was an author who wanted to poke fun at these silly notions that were worshiped throughout his time: he believed that writers and writing was a way to make fun of such ideas, as well as to warn the world what would happen if they got too carried away with their fantasies. The Importance of Being Earnest was a way to forewarn the readers of the dangers they would face if they strayed too far from reality, by using characters such as Cecily, Gwendolen, Chasuble, and Miss Prism, Wilde was able to portray each character’s outcomes when they were too focused on their hopes and dreams, reality slapped them across the face and they ended up not achieving what they wanted all along.