Jack Worthing character sketch

-


Source: Google Images









Jack Worthing leads a double life. He pretends to have an irresponsible brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life and is always getting into trouble which gives Jack an excuse to go after him to help him. The fictional brother Ernest is actually an escape route for Jack to slip away from the countryside whenever he feels like enjoying the pleasures of the town.


When Jack reveals to Algernon, his friend about the fictional Ernest, Algernon calls him a “Bunburyist”, to his definition is a man who leads a double life. But Jack denies this accusation. This character of Jack denying leading a double life marks his character as indeed dishonest. While Algernon admits that he is a Bunburyist, who leads a double life with a fictional brother named Ernest.


Coming to the later part of the play we find that Jack is a man who is double dishonest. When the rest of the party finds out that Jack was actually conning a fake persona he is forced to disclose his secret. He admits that he does not really have a wicked brother but he does not disclose the actual truth. The reason he gives is that he had invented a fake brother as an excuse so that he can come and see Gwendolen in the town/city. In fact, Jack’s desire to get away from Hertfordshire has been motivated by a desire to do things with “a very high moral tone”. Even though Jack admits to being dishonest and fraudulent, he hides back the actual truth. While Algernon admits his faults openly


Jack initially refuses to allow Algernon to marry Gwendolen because of Algernon’s poor moral character - for pretending to be Ernest, Jack’s wicked brother - despite Jack himself being a dishonest man. Jack, when compared to Algernon, turns out to be indeed wicked like his fake brother. Jack badly wants to uphold his position in society. He is ecstatic when he learns that he is not an orphan and that his father was a great man with the name of Ernest. When this truth is revealed, he is happy that his actual name is Ernest, and not concerned about his parents. The behaviour shown by Jack makes him indeed a man of bad character.


Jack in the play represents Victorian values. He wants others to think that he adheres to such notions as duty, honour, and respectability at the same time to deviate from such standards to enjoy the pleasures of life. The aristocratic Victorians valued duty and responsibility. The desire to do the correct thing was at the top of the moral code. Society was only concerned with outward appearance and did not pay heed to check if it was true or false, “style not sincerity is the vital thing”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scholar Gipsy critical analysis

-
Image
 The Scholar Gipsy analysis  "The Scholar Gipsy" by Matthew Arnold, revolves around the seventeenth-century Oxford story taken from philosopher Joseph Glanvil's The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661). The poem is a take on the conflicts that prevailed in seventeenth-century Victorian Society. This period was a time of confusion and doubt. People grew more fascinated by the modern encroachments sprouting in their society. Developments in science questioned the very base of people's religious beliefs and many were put into a trance of scepticism. The publication of Charles Darwin’s monumental work ‘Origin of species’ released the Victorian conflict of ‘religion vs science Arnold has based this poem on a story from Glanvil’s work where he tells the tale of a poor Oxford scholar who left his University life and his studies behind to join a band of wandering gipsies. The Oxford Scholar is mesmerised by the wonders of mysticism practised by the gipsies and decides to learn every
Read more

Origin of English Drama

-
Image
The Beginning Drama originated in classical Greece. Athens, the cultural centre of Greece produced three genres of drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr. The famous dramatists of this time were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writers Aristophanes and, from the late 4th century, Menander. From Greece, the drama entered the Roman empire. Three Dramatic Unities  The Greek and Roman critics recommended three dramatic unities which must be observed by a good dramatist. They are Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. Unity of Time implies that the action in a play should not exceed the limit of twenty-four hours; Unity of Place means that the scene should not change too often from place to place, and the Unity of Action means that the Tragedy and Comedy should not be intermixed. Origin of English Drama The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious predispositions of mankind. The same is the case not only with English drama but with dramas of other nations
Read more

The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary and Notes

-
Image
                                    The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary "Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact" - Arnold In his seminal work, the “Study of Poetry” Matthew Arnold opines that one should evaluate poetry by comparing and contrasting it with a piece from a high classic. According to Arnold, poetry is worthy of high destinies. We can notice in our society that many of the religions, principles, rules, creeds, and dogmas are all becoming questionable and broken over time. In the case of poetry too, many find it difficult to evaluate the true essence of good poetry. Arnold wanted to treat poetry as something worth higher value-capable of higher uses and called to higher destinies. He quotes lines from Wordsworth to define poetry, it is“the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science”; poetry is “the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge”. All our beliefs like religion and philosophy are but the shadows an
Read more