short analysis on "the importance of being Earnest" - status exploration.

The title of the play "The importance of being Earnest" is polysemic and makes the reader wonder whether Earnest is a character in the play or whether the author is talking about being solemn. Oscar Wilde plays a pun on the words because in the title he refers to the character John who is leading a double life where he is also known as Earnest however John is far from being sincere and solemn.

Oscar Wilde uses different names to clearly differiate the social statuses between the characters within the cast list. At the top of the list we have John Worthing JP which is a abbreviation of justice and peace, this suggests an important place within society. Then secondly we have Algernon Moncrieff whose name sounds very foreign and important. However on the other hand we have Lane the manservant. He is not of an important background and we also come to see that in the first act where he responds to Algernon as "yes sir". This suggests that he is not on the same level as Algernon and therefore has to address him formally.

At the beginning of the dialogue and throughtout the play Oscar Wilde uses language to portray the different social statuses between the characters. From very early on in the play we can see how there is limited conversation between two characters of completely different backgrounds.Oscar wilde shows us their differnent statuses by the duration of how long they both talk for. Algernon seemed to be asking all the questions whereas Lane only spoke  when he was spoken to and even then he gave short answers. However there doesnt appear to be any tension between the boss and his servant, there was a relaxed atmosphere that seems to appear that they do get on despite their background differences. But when Lane starts talking about his marriage Algernon makes it perfectly clear that he is not interested in his personal life. He seems to hold up a barrier between them both, this could suggest that because Lane is of a low class, Algernon doesnt want to seem like he cares about trivial things like his servant's personal matters. By just reading the first few pages we can clearly see the social statuses of the characters and how they differ.