Oscar Wilde’s renown play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a satirical interpretation of Victorian civilization. The protagonist, known as Jack Worthing, is an example of a character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. The character of Gwendolyn is one that conforms without interrogating, while Algernon and Cecily question without hesitation and with minimal conformity. The purpose of this questioning whilst conforming is to underline the personal effects of a society based on strict moral standards. Wilde uses this work to make it clear that the people following such a society are setting themselves up for failure. The deception employed by the characters, coupled with the fact that their dishonesty is ultimately accepted (even admired) serves to emphasize the hypocrisy of the Victorian era. Wilde cleverly uses characterization to draw a portrait of the irony of his age.

Jack Worthing is an orphan who spends his time in the country taking care of Cecily, his young ward. To Cecily, he appears honorable and responsible, as a Victorian gentleman was supposed to be. Yet he fabricated a sleazy, amoral brother named Ernest who lives in London in order to be able to escape the country. In London, Jack exposes his true nature when he takes on the persona of Ernest. Jack felt the need to invent a second personality because in society it was frowned upon to act as “Ernest” did. Though Jack used Ernest to escape his life, in the end he ironically finds himself having to embrace Ernest in order to reach the life he wants. Hence, Jack created his persona in order to outwardly conform (or at least fool others into thinking he conformed) to society’s standards of how one should act. At the same time, the fact that he created Ernest and still followed his nature suggests inward questioning of his society’s strict code of conduct. Thus, Jack Worthing is characterized to represent the typical Victorian male, forced to rely on lies to maintain his reputation in a society built on the repression of human nature.

If Jack represents the typical Victorian male, his “love,” Gwendolyn, represents Victorian womanhood. Though she is intelligent, her preoccupation with name and appearance absolutely blurs her judgment. She is so fixated on the name Ernest, which she believes inspires honesty and reliability, that she fails to recognize Jack’s true nature and remains blind to the fact that he had been deceiving her all along. This is Wilde’s example of a character who conforms outwardly without questioning inwardly. Artificial and pretentious, Gwendolyn is the representation of Victorian women who were too focused on conformity to ever truly question, even when slapped in the face with the obvious reality.

While Gwendolyn is the epitome of Victorian superficiality, Cecily is her antithesis. A dreamer driven by nature, she thrives on inward questioning and rejects the Victorian ideal of an honorable gentleman. It is her fascination with wickedness which drives her to become infatuated with Algernon when he visits under the disguise of Ernest. Algernon is another character who freely questions inwardly, utilizing witty paradoxes which either make no sense or touch upon something profound. Though Algernon also has an alter ego, he is very different from Jack because while Jack denied being a liar to the end, Algernon seemed to revel in his own clever amorality.

The fact that both men are ultimately accepted because of, rather than in spite of, their deception cements Wilde’s criticism of seeming earnest having more value than actually being earnest. Oscar Wilde uses characterization to represent conforming outwardly and questioning inwardly. The author used the tension between these two aspects to create the unforgettably clever satire that is The Importance of Being Earnest.