Physical Appearance and Sea

¶ … Being Earnest Of the four common traits that run through Wilde's work, the two most prominent in this play are decadence and absurdity. Decadence runs throughout the play in many ways, but especially with food. The fifth line of the play, and several subsequent ones, deal with the cucumber sandwiches for Lady Bracknell and the "eight bottles and a pint" of champagne that were consumed on a previous night.

The material availability of everything the characters of the play desire allows the frustration and confusion of their non-material desire to be all the more comedic. The decadence also applies to the characters' affections though; the girls are so used to getting what they want that they fall in love with men simply based on their name. This is the ultimate example of superficiality and decadence in this play, when personality ceases to matter in the shadow of a name.

This is also one of the biggest examples of the absurd. The fact that both Cecily and Gwendolyn have decided they will fall in love with a man named Earnest, and expect both Jack and Algernon to change their names to match those intentions, is topped only by the absurdity of each of these men first being willing to change their names, and then Jack's final discovery that his name is in fact Earnest.

The unlikelihood and seeming un-reality of each step in this situation is completely absurd, but it is this absurdism that drives the play. This strain can also be seen in the opening scene, as part.