How is Cecily characterized in The Importance of Being Earnest?
How is Cecily characterized in The Importance of Being Earnest?
Cecily is described as “a sweet, simple, innocent girl.” Gwendolen is depicted as “a brilliant, clever, thoroughly experienced lady.” (These claims come from Jack and Algernon respectively). Despite these supposed contrasts, it seems that the women in Oscar Wilde’s play possess more similarities than differences.
What are three adjectives that would be used to describe Cecily?
Some adjectives that describe her would be simple, defensive, and rebellious. Why do these adjectives describe Cecily? She is simple because she does not dress in expensive dresses and wears her hair in fancy hairstyles.
Does Cecily like Algernon?
Cecily continues to confide her romantic dreams to Algernon, revealing that she, like Gwendolen, feels attracted to the name Ernest. Her speech makes the audience wonder if Cecily and Gwendolen have been reading the same sentimental novel.
Is Cecily a more realistic character than Gwendolen?
Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness.
What do Cecily and Gwendolen compare?
Both women are smart, persistent and in pursuit of goals in which they take the initiative. Gwendolen follows Jack to the country — an atmosphere rather alien to her experiences, and Cecily pursues Algernon from the moment she lays eyes on him. Both women are perfectly capable of outwitting their jailers.
Where does Cecily live in The Importance of Being Earnest?
Cecily Cardew Jack Worthing’s ward, daughter of his adopted father, Sir Thomas Cardew. She is of debutante age, 18, but she is being tutored at Jack’s secluded country estate by Miss Prism, her governess.
What kind of person is Cecily?
Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play, and she is the only character who does not speak in epigrams. Her charm lies in her idiosyncratic cast of mind and her imaginative capacity, qualities that derive from Wilde’s notion of life as a work of art.
Who is Cecily in love with?
Algernon
Cecily Cardew: Jack’s niece and ward, Cecily Cardew falls in love with Algernon when he visits her under the assumed name of Ernest, and she tells him that she could never love a man named anything but Ernest.
What type of character is Cecily?
She is a very romantic, imaginative, kind, sensitive girl who feels the repression of Prism’s rules. Cecily is a little bit silly and naïve girl, and we understand it after she declares that she wants to meet a “wicked man.” Also, she is described as less sophisticated than Gwendolen.
Who does Cecily think she is in a relationship with?
When Cecily lays out the facts of her relationship with Ernest for the man she thinks is Ernest himself, she closely resembles Gwendolen. She makes a grand Gwendolen-like pronouncement or two and demonstrates a Gwendolen-like self-consciousness with regard to her diary.
What is the central theme in The Importance of Being Earnest?
The Importance of Being Earnest: Theme Analysis. This is the central theme of the play. Wilde lampoons the Victorian convention of preserving the appearance of respectability to hide cruel, manipulative, avaricious attitudes and unrespectable behavior.
Can You summarize The Importance of Being Earnest?
The Importance of Being Earnest Summary. The play opens as Algernon Moncrief plays the piano in his fashionable London flat, while his butler Lane prepares a tea service for Algernon’s Aunt Augusta, ( Lady Bracknell ), and her daughter, Gwendolen Fairfax, whom Algernon expects to arrive shortly. Surprisingly, Lane announces the arrival of Algernon’s friend Mr. Ernest Worthing (Jack).
What is the importance of earnest about?
The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners set in Victorian England. Algernon lives in London and says he has a sick friend in the country. He uses visits to his imaginary friend to get out of things. His best friend, Ernest, is also Jack and is doing the exact same thing.
