The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde said in an interview ″we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality″. To what extent does the play dramatize such a view?   Support your answer with textual evidence from the play. (Up to your choice) (Responses between 150-200 words each). Need a respond: In Oscar Wilde′s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, it shows examples of his view that ″we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality″. An example of trivial things being taken seriously is Gwendolen and Cecily′s obsession with the name Earnest. They did not care for usually more important things such as a man′s personality, traits or looks. They only focused on a name. Gwendolen states ″The only really safe name is Earnest(786)″. On page 798, Cecily says ″It had always been a girls dream of mine to love somebody whose name is Earnest″. A name has no bearing on a human being themselves. An example of a serious event being taken trivially, is the apparent death of Jack′s brother ″Earnest″. The story of his death was pure fiction. The death of a human being- especially a relative is a serious matter. Jack made it to be a very little deal. To lie about something like that is in very bad taste. That is something very serious and should not be taken trivially. Jack and Algernon joked that ″Earnest″ could die from a ″severe chill- while in Paris″.  Example: 1. After reading your discussion post I thought your response was valid and used detailed Quotes from The importance of Being Ernest. In your post you had a good explanation between how the play The Importance of Being Earnest, connects and dramatizes Oscar Wilde′s quote. Your summary of this quote was similar to mine, which was we should treat insignificant things in life that we take for granted more serious, and all the serious things that seem overly significant with limited and well thought out triviality. We both also used the same concept of the name Ernest being valued more than their characteristics. 2. I really like your interpretation of Mr. Oscar′s quote saying that humans should take important things seriously and things that aren′t important with some care. Your example goes very well with Mr. Wilde′s quote ″we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality″. the example that you highlighted in the story was  Gwendolen and Cecily′s obsession with the name Earnest.  and I do along with the fact that the characters didn′t look into earnest′s personality, traits and look. And you provided very good textual evidence that goes well to your claim. ″ the only safe name is Earnest.″ which Gwendolen said. and ″It had always been a girl′s dream of mine to love somebody whose name is earnest.″ what the reader can get out of this is that these two characters only focused on the little things (i.e. the name Earnest) and not the big things (personality, traits, looks)   Need for a respond: The Importance of Being Earnest dramatizes such a view from the quote above to the extent of the play being at the center of things not appearing what they seem to be in reality. Identity plays a key part in this play, how the characters reveal their baggage of true identities and secrets they each old. In the play, things may not need to be as serious as they are, this can be illustrated multiple times in the play.  This point of view can be shown how Jack also goes by another identity, Earnest. It can also be shown when Miss Prism reveals a life long secret of how she left a baby at a station who was to be Jack as a child. Which comes to be revealed that Jack actually is Earnest. Further supporting this could be when Jack speaks, “My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact it’s perfectly ordinary. Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my place in the country under the charge of admirable governess, Miss Prism.” Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I, Pg. 678. The following quote here illustrates how throughout the play the characters feel that things may not be as “trivial” as they may seem to be.  Example: 1. I liked the take you approached on your post. I personally believe that the quote was a hidden message, telling people to find themselves while they pretend to be someone they aren′t, as I also found this to be a main theme of the play; however, your explanation of how identity plays a role in how characters reveal their baggage of true identities and secrets they told represent the quote well. Jack does go by a different identity as a scape goat to be able to party in London and meet up with friends, which led him to reveal his true identity when the mishap happened with several woman thinking different men are Ernest, and exposing them in their lies. Also, I loved how you added the quote “My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact it’s perfectly ordinary …″ as it followed your point perfectly. Your point gave me another view on this quote. 2. I really find your interpretation of Oscar Wilde′s quote interesting. In this comment, it seems that you decided to take a more personal look into the meaning behind the statement, addressing that the things that are trivial in life are different to each individual person. For characters such as Jack, revealing his true identity does not seem to be as important compared to characters such as Gwendolen. The quote you added in this comment further solidifies this point, by having Jack proclaim, “My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all″, it allows readers to see that Jack′s perception on his origin is not as important and is trivial compared to other peoples view on their upbringing .