The Pursuit of Marriage Theme Analysis

The pursuit of marriage is a driving force behind much of the play’s action. Similar to many Victorian novels of the period, the play reads as a marriage plot, documenting the errors in social etiquette and romantic upheavals that come about as Jack and Algernon stumble towards the altar. Jack pursues Gwendolen’s hand, while Algernon pursues Cecily. Because Jack and Algernon are willing to go to such outlandish lengths to appease Gwendolen and Cecily’s fickle desires, engagement—which will ultimately lead to marriage—becomes the primary goal of the main players.

Each couples’ engagement is fraught with roadblocks, albeit trivial ones. Gwendolen shows hesitance at marrying a man not named “Ernest.” Cecily shows that same hesitation when Algernon suggests that his name may not actually be “Ernest.” Lady Bracknell objects to Gwendolen and Jack’s engagement on the basis of Jack’s lack of legitimate relations. Meanwhile Jack objects to Cecily and Algernon’s engagement to spite Algernon for “Bunburying” and Lady Bracknell for disapproving of his marriage to Gwendolen. The elderly Dr. Chausible puts off marriage, citing the “Primitive Church’s” emphasis on celibacy, while Miss Prism embraces her spinsterhood as a governess. Despite these trivial obstacles, all couples are finally engaged—Jack to Gwendolen, Cecily to Algernon, Miss Prism to Dr. Chausible.

While engagement appears to be the endgame of The Importance of Being Earnest, it is actually the fodder uses to entertain the audience. While each couple exhales “at last” with relief once they are engaged, Wilde uses the delays and stumbles to the altar to entertain his audience. Gwendolen’s melodramatic quote, “This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last,” speaks to this idea. While the characters are relieved to be engaged “at last,” like Gwendolen, we in the audience hope that the suspense “will last” so that we can continue to indulge in the characters’ foibles and follies. Unlike the Victorians he depicts, Wilde is preoccupied with the amusements that arise on the road to marriage, rather than marriage as an end in of itself.