Discuss the way Wilde portrays Mistaken Identities in TIOBE

Introduction

• Mistaken identity drives the plot and satirises the frivolity and performativity of Victorian society

• Wilde, writing in the Fin-de-Siècle, uses comedy of manners, melodrama, and farce to mock obsession with names, appearances, and trivialities

• Mistaken identities reveal that Victorian respectability is largely performative

Point 1 - Fictional “Ernest”

• Gwendolen & Cecily obsessed with name ‘Ernest’ - satire of superficial values - not deceived but actively participate in creating mistaken identity

• “We are both engaged to be married to your brother Ernest, so it is a matter of some importance to us to know where your brother Ernest is at present” (Gwen Act 2) - complex compound - obsessive reasoning

• “Absolute confidence” - calm declarative sentence, intensifier “absolute”

• “I pity any poor woman whose husband is not called Ernest” (Cecily Act 2)

Point 2 - Town vs Country

• Town vs country heightens comedy of mistaken identity

• Gwen (town) = rigid, socially superior, easily deceived

• Cecily (country) = imaginative, flexible, embraces misunderstanding

• Conflict over ‘Ernest’ exaggerates cultural differences = comedy & satire

• Reconciliation (Sweet & wounded) = superficiality

• “It is obvious our social spheres have been widely different” (Gwen to Cecily)

• Contrast/juxtaposition - town vs country

• Melodrama - bickering exaggerates social pretensions

• Satire - mocks social expectations

Point 3 - Bunburying

• Jack’s Ernest & Algernon’s Bunbury critique identity as a social construct

• Deception framed as duty (“Mr Ernest has been suddenly called back to town”)

• Names are double entendres - sincerity vs frivolity

• Dramatic irony makes audience aware of the lies

• Modal verbs - frames lies as obligation

Point 4 - Algernon’s impersonation of Ernest to meet Cecily

• Algernon impersonating Ernest = theatrical instance of mistaken identity

• Physical impersonation vs Jack’s earlier verbal lies

• Cecily accepts deception - mistaken identity becomes collaboaraive

• Confident declaratives = “My dear Cecily”

• Dramatic irony - audience sees danger before characters

• Romanticised lexis - willigness to believe fiction

• Farce/comedy of manners - exaggerates social absurdity

Point 5 - Final revelation of Jack’s true name

• Jack’s true name = subversion of Victorian seriousness

• Lady Bracknell’s sudden approval shows arbitrary u/c values

• Resolution highlights the fragility and contingency of social class values

• “All his life been speaking nothing but the truth” = symbolic bathos

• “The records”, “The christening” = semantic field of documents expose fragility of social categories

Conclusion

• Mistaken identities = comedy + social critique

• Wilde critiques Fin-de-Siècle social values

• Victorian identity portrayed as performative

• Hyperbolic speech = exaggerates absurdity

• Farce & comedy of manners highlights societal hypocrisy