The Importance of Being Earnest: Symbolism

The Importance of Being Earnest: Symbolism

Food as Symbolism

  • Cucumber sandwiches: Represents the triviality and excess of the upper-class lifestyle, with their consumption suggesting waste and obliviousness to societal issues.
  • Muffins: The act of ‘Bunburying’, or deception, is underscored with Algernon’s excessive eating of muffins in Act 2. It’s also a symbol of idleness and gluttony.

The Importance of Names

  • Ernest: The pun of the name ‘Ernest’, implying honesty and sincerity, is antithetical to the dishonest behaviour of both Jack and Algernon. Acting as a pseudonym, it symbolises the deception and duplicitous lives led by the characters.
  • Bunbury: Algernon’s imaginary invalid friend, Bunbury, allows him to escape from societal conventions, symbolising the hypocritical nature of the upper class.

Objects as Symbols

  • The Handbag: The handbag in which Jack was found as a baby symbolises his ambiguous identity and uncertain social status – factors which make him ‘unfit’ to marry Gwendolen in Lady Bracknell’s eyes.

Geographical Locations

  • Town and Country: The dichotomy between the city and country forms a key element of the play. The city, represented by Jack’s fictitious brother Ernest’s decadent lifestyle, is linked to deceit and sordidness. Meanwhile, the country, where Jack lives his respectable life, is presented as a place of moral virtue.

Use of Language

  • Wilde often uses language as a symbol throughout the play. His wit, irony, and clever use of epigrams often underscore the hypocrisy and absurdity of Victorian society.

Gender and Social Status

  • The role of women and the importance of social status are highlighted through characters like Lady Bracknell. These elements operate as symbols of the restrictive and shallow nature of Victorian societal norms.

The symbols in “The Importance of Being Earnest” offer a critique of Victorian values, highlighting superficiality, hypocrisy and the arbitrariness of social status. They often function to expose the absurdity and farcical nature of societal conventions and expectations.