Themes

Manners and Sincerity
The major target of Wilde's scathing social criticism is the hypocrisy
that society creates. Frequently in Victorian society, its participants
comported themselves in overly sincere, polite ways while they harbored
conversely manipulative, cruel attitudes. Wilde exposes this divide in
scenes such as when Gwendolen and Cecily behave themselves in front of
the servants or when Lady Bracknell warms to Cecily upon discovering she
is rich. However, the play truly pivots around the word "earnest."
Both women want to marry someone named "Ernest," as the name inspires
"absolute confidence"; in other words, the name implies that its bearer
truly is earnest, honest, and responsible. However, Jack and Algernon
have lied about their names, so they are not really "earnest." But it
also turns out that (at least in Jack's case) he was inadvertently
telling the truth. The rapid flip-flopping of truths and lies, of
earnestness and duplicity, shows how truly muddled the Victorian values
of honesty and responsibility were.



Critique of Marriage as a Social Tool
Wilde's most concrete critique in the play is of the manipulative
desires revolving around marriage. Gwendolen and Cecily are interested
in their mates, it appears, only because they have disreputable
backgrounds (Gwendolen is pleased to learn that Jack was an orphan;
Cecily is excited by Algernon's "wicked" reputation). Their shared
desire to marry someone named Ernest demonstrates that their romantic
dreams hinge upon titles, not character. The men are not much less
shallow-Algernon proposes to the young, pretty Cecily within minutes of
meeting her. Only Jack seems to have earnest romantic desires, though
why he would love the self-absorbed Gwendolen is questionable. However,
the sordidness of the lovers' ulterior motives is dwarfed by the
priorities of Lady Bracknell, who epitomizes the Victorian tendency to
view marriage as a financial arrangement. She does not consent to
Gwendolen's marriage to Jack on the basis of his being an orphan, and
she snubs Cecily until she discovers she has a large personal fortune.

Dual Identities
As a subset of the sincerity theme (see above), Wilde explores in depth
what it means to have a dual identity in Victorian society. This duality
is most apparent in Algernon and Jack's "Bunburying" (their creation of
an alter ego to allow them to evade responsibility). Wilde hints that
Bunburying may cover for homosexual liaisons, or at the very least serve
as an escape from oppressive marriages. Other characters also create
alternate identities. For example, Cecily writes correspondence between
herself and Ernest before she has ever met him. Unlike real men, who
are free to come and go as they please, she is able to control this
version of Ernest. Finally, the fact that Jack has been unwittingly
leading a life of dual identities shows that our alter egos are not as
far from our "real" identities as we would think.

Idleness of the Leisure Class and the Aesthete
Wilde good-naturedly exposes the empty, trivial lives of the
aristocracy-good-naturedly, for Wilde also indulged in this type of
lifestyle. Algernon is a hedonist who likes nothing better than to eat,
gamble, and gossip without consequence. Wilde has described the play as
about characters who trivialize serious matters and solemnize trivial
matters; Algernon seems more worried by the absence of cucumber
sandwiches (which he ate) than by the serious class conflicts that he
quickly smoothes over with wit. But Wilde has a more serious intent: he
subscribes to the late-19th-century philosophy of aestheticism, espoused
by Walter Pater, which argues for the necessity of art's primary
relationship with beauty, not with reality. Art should not mirror
reality; rather, Wilde has said, it should be "useless" (in the sense of
not serving a social purpose; it is useful for our appreciation of
beauty). Therefore, Algernon's idleness is not merely laziness, but the
product of someone who has cultivated an esteemed sense of aesthetic
uselessness.

Farce
The most famous aspect of Oscar Wilde's literature is his epigrams:
compact, witty maxims that often expose the absurdities of society using
paradox. Frequently, he takes an established cliché and alters it to
make its illogic somehow more logical ("in married life three is company
and two is none"). While these zingers serve as sophisticated critiques
of society, Wilde also employs several comic tools of "low" comedy,
specifically those of farce. He echoes dialogue and actions, uses comic
reversals, and explodes a fast-paced, absurd ending whose implausibility
we overlook because it is so ridiculous. This tone of wit and farce is
distinctively Wildean; only someone so skilled in both genres could
combine them so successfully.