The Importance of Being Earnest

compare and contrast cicily and gwendolen

Importance of being earnest

Act 2

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Gwendolen and Cecily are two completely different sides of a woman. While Gwendolen is concerned about appearances and the ways in which people view her, Cecily is innocent and beautiful, at one point compared to a "pink rose." Gwendolen shows the reader the way in which people of her time period (the Victorian Age) were concerned about things on the "surface" - she looks for a man named Ernest because she thinks the name will ensure the kind of person he is. On the other hand, Cecily is a bit devious, wanting to live in a fantasy world that creates the man she wants to love and then sets her up to create fantasies around that man. Still, she is relatively innocent and more real than Gwendolen who will, in all likelihood, grow up to be just like her mother, full of outrageous ideas but likable nevertheless.