Earnest Act III

The conclusion of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde was not one that surprised me. It was quite obvious how Gwendolen and Jack would stay together and how Algernon and Cecily would get together too. It was however a little bit of a surprise that Miss Prism worked for Lady Bracknell and that Lady Bracknell ended up being related to Jack. I also did not think that Algernon and Jack would end up brothers I did however know that Jack would become Earnest when he discovered his actual name and origin. The third Act overall was a huge change up from the rest of the book mainly due to a change in character relationships. The third chapter begins with the girls away from the guys after they have just ended things with them because their names were not Earnest. It seemed from the first two acts that these two girls were very confident and had everything in their own control; however, in the third chapter we see how they become very self-conscious. This is seen when Gwendolen says “They don’t seem to notice us at all”. This shows a shift in the women’s power because the men were about to change their name for the ladies, but are now doing whatever they can to make taking them back seem acceptable. They justify the massive lies that Jack and Algernon have been telling because they claim that it was in the name of love even though both of them started lying before they met Gwendolen and Cecily. Even Miss Bracknell lost all of her power over Jack when she is discussing the marriage of Jack and Cecily. She voluntarily gives her leverage over Jack and Gwendolen’s marriage so that Jack will let Algernon marry Cecily. This reveals that all the major women in the play lose all of their power in less than an hour. This shows how little power Wilde thinks that women have. We also see a shift in what Oscar Wilde is making fun of in the play. In the first two acts Wilde was making fun of society but in the third act he even makes fun of those who complain about society, like himself. An example of this shift is when Miss Bracknell says “Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that”. This quote shows how Wilde does not think people who question society are any better, he simply makes fun of everyone in society. In the third chapter Oscar starts to show Jack understand the importance of important things when Jack says “this is a matter of no small importance to me”, when talking about discovering his who his parents are. This brief understanding of what is actually important is destroyed by his curiosity to discover his name instead of ask about his true parents. He then also places an importance on things you would not expect such as lying. He finally discovers the “importance of being earnest” which has no importance at all but is also the most important discovery of his life.