The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

This play, for one so famous is remarkably thin on plot.  It relies exclusively on the wit of its word-play to get by (a wit that is even noticeable in the very title of the play).  It relies on contradiction, comedies of manners, and of course, puns.  The title itself is a paradox.  Serious people only become serious by avoiding trivial things, such as this comedy, for example.  Wilde knew this, and believed that it would be successful on its wit alone (it was).  The play as a whole mocks serious manners and is, as a whole, a satire about Victorian society, a play reminiscent of the Roman comedies of manners (see Horace's Satires).

The Importance of Being Earnest's biggest theme is one of triviality.  It is profoundly silly.  The lies of the two protagonists are not harmful to anyone, in fact, they really have no negative aims, they exist simply to avoid unwelcome or unpleasant social engagements, interestingly with the exact same goal, but with different methods (Jack leaves the country to go to town as Earnest, while Algernon seeks to escape the city by "Bunburying," both seek to escape social obligations by doing so).  In doing so, they each fall in love with a woman who loves their assumed name, but not themselves, with Cecily and Gwendolen.  It is playing on the words Earnest/Ernest as well as with the silliness of the women's views on names.  In fact, when the two protagonists are both revealed as frauds, simply on account of their names, both women break off their engagements.  The Importance of Being Earnest is simply about nothing at all; it has no grandiose ideas to impart morals into society, if anything, it is making fun of how serious society is.  In this way, Wilde is going against his contemporaries, who believed their work should have a greater meaning.  He refused to play the game.

It does, of course perform well as satire towards Victorian society, especially as it relates to marriage, and the lead up to marriage.  Cecily and Gwendolen both aspire to marry a man named Ernest, they both have this concept and pity any woman married to a man whose name is not Ernest.  The name makes the man, they seem to say (they would not agree that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, unless it's name was Ernest, then it would smell even sweeter).  Lady Bracknell places much of her faith into Jack's assumed name, stating that Ernest is the only truly "safe" name for a man.  This is dashed when Lady Bracknell discovers that Jack was found in Victoria Station (I found it particularly humorous when Jack defends himself by saying that he was found on the Brighton Line, the upscale train to Worthing, in contrast to the poorer Victoria Station, of which there were two).

But beyond any themes, the play truly only shines when its language is taken into account.  Often, the language fails to contribute to the plot in any meaningful way, but instead serves solely to provide humor and amusement to the viewers.  Wilde was a master of witticism, and The Importance of Being Earnest is the greatest example that he produced.