What's In A Name?

Wow, The Importance of Being Earnest certainly proved to be a “Wilde” ride. It prompts one to consider, “What’s in a name?”. I think Shakespeare had a point when he wrote "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet". I found it fascinating that both Gwendolen and Cecily, although quite different in personalities, both were enamored with the name “Ernest”. I suppose this could be Wilde’s way of expressing how important honesty is in a relationship, specifically to females. I mean I guess it is easy to see why a girl would be attracted to a man whose name conjured up other words like: sincere, heartfelt, and deep. You also have to think of the word earnest’s other connotation meaning “intensely serious”. Perhaps the two young ladies in the play believe someone possessing the name of Earnest will have no issues when it comes to fully committing to them.
The play humorously and honestly shows the competitive side of human nature. At their first encounter Gwendolen and Cecily seem to enjoy each others company. When the two are led to believe that they are in love with the same man, all the sweet chat goes right out the window. It is like one of those cheesy MTV dating shows where two girlies have to win over a dude. If those two hypothetical girls met in a bar they probably would be doing Jell-O shots and gossiping about Lindsey Lohan’s stint in rehab. Throw a guy into the mix and the claws will come out.
I felt that throughout the play there was an anti-marriage creeping overhead. Perhaps this is Wilde’s way of expressing the idea that the added stress that being in a legal union brings is just too much to handle. We see the idea that single life is superior to married life when Lane states that married households don’t carry first-rate champagne. Algernon then goes so far as to question, “Is marriage so demoralizing as that?”. This could also be the playwright’s attempt to show the screwed up priorities of the upper-crust. But, the marriage-bashing doesn’t just end there. Lady Bracknell tells of her friend Lady Harbury who has lost her husband, yet appears to look twenty years younger! This positive alteration in Harbury’s physical appearance implies that a great burden has been lifted from her shoulders, does it not?
The notion that marriages are not passion filled mergers comes through as well. Algernon says girls never marry the men they flirt with and he seems to be repulsed when he sees married couples exchanging suggestive glances. Could all this negative talk about marriage being rather boring and lacking “sparks” be Algernon’s fear of committing whole-heartedly to just one lady? Many men today share in Algernon’s idea that the “M” word takes something away from a romantic relationship. Does he have a point? When we attach a label and set of rules to a romantic endeavor does it taint and pollute it in some way?
Maybe Wilde wants for his readers to see that “Honesty is the Best Policy”. The ironic revelation at the end is funny. However, it also makes you ponder, is there some bit of truth within our lies? And if you embrace a fib long enough will it somehow become a part of you? How powerful are we when it comes to actually convincing ourselves of untruths? Are we really the person who we desire to be deep down? What is Reality…Do we create our own? I guess Algernon put it best when he said, “The Truth is rarely pure and never simple”.