Oscar Wilde’s the Importance of Escape Essay

Oscar Wilde’s play entitled â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† illustrates the concept of dual personality, fantasy, love, and lies. Jack, Algernon, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all live in lies. They are manipulated by their fantasies and desire for perfect relationship and love. Jack, the protagonist in the play, is the root of lies because of his imaginary brother named Earnest. Algernon uses the name to win Cecily, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are both fascinated by this name because it expresses strength and perfection of manhood. Due to their search and desire to have Earnest, the male and female characters escape from the reality. Therefore, Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest portrays a gender doubled theme of escape as the male characters escape through alter-egos and female characters privately through their imaginations. Jack escapes from reality using his alter-ego to become free from his responsibilities and obligations. In the first part of the play, readers learn that Jack is placed in a complex situation: â€Å"When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects†¦ a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes† (Act I). Jack escapes from his country and changes his identity to Earnest to perform the things that he wants to experience. For Jack, being a guardian and a landowner is a great obligation for his ward and people. Through his alter-ego, Jack obtains freedom because he becomes the opposite of his real self—the liberated and careless individual that he could not demonstrate in reality. Aside from Jack, Gwendolyn also escapes from her real world, through her imagination, to find her true love. When she learns that Jack’s name is Earnest, she immediately confessed to him: â€Å"For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you. We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. And my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you† (Act I). Gwendolyn escapes from the reality to find her match. Searching for his Earnest gives her the opportunity to exit from reality and explore the world of fantasy. She believes that marrying a man with the name of Earnest can give her all her physical, emotional, and economic desires. As she walks into her fantasies, she tends to escape from the reality—from the fact that there is no perfect man. Similarly, Cecily uses her diary to escape from the reality and dreams for her Earnest. When she talks to Algernon, whom she knows as Earnest Worthing, Cecily excitedly revealed: â€Å"You see, it [her diary] is simply a very young girl’s record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form I hope you will order a copy. But pray, Ernest, don’t stop. I delight in taking down from dictation. I have reached ‘absolute perfection’. You can go on. I am quite ready for more† (Act I). If Gwendolyn uses her imaginations, Cecily is using her diary as her gateway to fantasy. She illustrates her engagement with Earnest in her diary. It means that beyond the boundaries of reality and existence, Cecily found her Earnest, which she claims in her diary. Therefore, Cecily escape from reality and obtainment of her fantasy is part of her comfort zone. It makes her happy, complete, and loved. In conclusion, Jack, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all escape from reality because they want to be free and be loved. Jack uses his alter-ego to detach his self from his moral obligations and obtain liberty without limitations and fears. Meanwhile, Cecily and Gwendolyn escape from reality because they want to experience love. They try to find their own Earnest that will complete their being—and through their fantasies, they are able to explore the idyllic and fearless relationship with the man that they desire.