Earnest Essay: The Importance Of Being Satire

Oscar Wilde’s play entitled “The Importance of Being Earnest” illustrates the concept of dual personality, fantasy, love, and lies. Jack, Algernon, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all live in lies. They are manipulated by their fantasies and desire for perfect relationship and love. Jack, the protagonist in the play, is the root of lies because of his imaginary brother named Earnest. Algernon uses the name to win Cecily, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are both fascinated by this name because it expresses strength and perfection of manhood. Due to their search and desire to have Earnest, the male and female characters escape from the reality. Therefore, Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest portrays a gender doubled

People only stressed attention to manners and and a person’s moral character.. “Ahem! Mr. Worthing, after careful consideration I have decided entirely to overlook my nephew’s conduct to you.”(Wilde 48). This quote was from Lady Bracknell after Mr. Worthing just informed her of Algernon's recent mis-doings. This shows that Lady Bracknell shows no sympathy towards Mr.Worthing, because all she is worried about now is Algy marrying Cecily to make him look better in high society. Another example on how Wilde expresses triviality is with Lady Bracknell again. Lady Bracknell says this just after she had been interrogating Cecily, “...We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces...”(Wilde 47). Lady Bracknell is hypocritical too in this act because she was just talking about not wanting her son to marry Cecily, but after hearing about Cecily's fortune she wants her. This clearly shows how the Victorian society did not worry about the person themselves, but focused on if they had money or any other type of fortune. Although Lady Bracknell shows great examples of Triviality, she is not the only person that shows it. Gwendolen in the first act tells Mr. Worthing that she only loves him and would marry him just because his name was Ernest. “I am told: and my ideal has always been to love some one of the of Ernest”(Wilde 10). If this does not show just how insane

In one of Oscar Wilde’s most enduring play, The Importance of Being Earnest, it displays very noticeable pun, referring to the word “earnest” honest and loyal. Filled with parodies of the Victorian society, in where the play shows how deceptive the characters really are. Jack Worthing, who fakes his identity with a fictitious character, Earnest, uses to escape his responsibilities. While Algernon using the same alternative of escape from reality, “Bunbury”,an invalid friend that will provide him a means to do as he pleases. All characters in the play seem to not tell the truth whether it is their names or any details of their lives. With a double meaning title, it seems like Wilde wanted to joke around with his audience, making it the perfect parody to enjoy.

A person’s name and position in society are significantly important for the upper class, due to the fact that if one were to marry into the family, a key member of the family would judge the person by their social class and the family name they carry to see if they are worthy to being a part of their lineage. In the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a person's social class is highly admired. The main characters are high in society and are falsely appearing to live up to great expectations. In Oscar Wilde’s play, the theme of the social class is extensively explored through the characters, although they are living double-lives.

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, there is a lot of humor that can be found. Specifically, developed behind the characters in this play that display many instances of irony and how important it was to fit into the “status quo” of this time period. There are specific behaviors from the characters of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon that portray Wilde’s opinion of society during the Victorian Age. The attitude of these characters is snobbish and their manners display double standards and superiority. The play’s use of mockery and irony of these satirical situations is meant to publicly ridicule the self- loving attitude of the upper class while exposing their true absence of intelligence which causes their absurd social behaviors

This characterization adds to the blow of the upper class when we easily characterize Jack and Lady Bracknell. Towards the end of the play when Lady Bracknell is questioning the marriage between Cecily and Algernon, she is being very snobbish and shallow. At first, she is saying no to the marriage, but after Jack tells her how much money Cecily has, she exclaims “A hundred and thirty pounds! And in the funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her” (The Importance of Being Earnest 3.1). As you can see, all Lady Bracknell cares about is if she is wealthy enough to be a good wife. She believes wealth is the more important than if Algernon and Cecily loved each other because with their wealth they would be on top socially already. Another example is when Jack finds out that his name has been Earnest all along at the end of the play. He acts very snobby as well and believes he can just do whatever he wants without consequences. “... it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth” (The Importance of Being Earnest 3.1). This is very egotistical of Jack as he has been lying almost the whole play. The wealthy characters here seem like they can get away from anything and Wilde does a great job

Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, explores marriage and the way in which the upper class viewed it as a business. Through his characters Wilde also explores the theme of greed that runs in the upper class and Wilde exposes the pettiness that was typical of the upper class. He explores these themes and ideas by using humour and wit. Throughout these passages Wilde’s characters portray marriage as a business.

She wants Jack to establish himself as a man of importance, which shows that Lady Bracknell sees Jack as a minor, insignificant man. Then, she tells Jack to find a set of parents because both of his are dead. This is an absurd statement to say to someone who has lost their parents, but the ridiculousness of the requirement emphasizes the superficiality of Victorians. Throughout this whole exchange, many of Lady Bracknell’s ideals were revealed. She believes that the proper Victorian man should be rich and reputable. These details are very shallow, and they do not show a person’s true personality. Ultimately, it shows how Victorians like Lady Bracknell place significance on their status in society and how they are seen.

Her haughty aunt, Lady Bracknell, deems Jack unworthy of marrying of Gwendolen because he is an orphan with no knowledge of his parents. Algernon Moncrieff Jack's friend, and nephew of Lady Bracknell, also assumes the Ernest identity in an attempt to woo Cecily, Jack's ward who is a woman who also dreams of marrying a man

Specifically, Wilde ridicules the fixation his characters have with wealth and social status. For instance, the cunning and narrow-minded Lady Bracknell is extremely fascinated in discovering what the wealth and statuses people surround her have. An example of this is when Lady Bracknell challenges the guardian of Cecily Cardew - Jack, in regards to her wealth: "I had better ask you if Miss Cardew has any little fortune?" "A Hundred and Thirty thousand pounds in the funds," this alerts Lady Bracknell whom instantaneously switches her views of Cecily, due to having some wealth. This portrays the hypocrisy of Lady Bracknell and this hypocrisy is furthered as she says: "Few girls of the present day have any really solid qualities."

Plays often use literary devices to create humor. Oscar Wilde uses dramatic irony in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, to satirize the upper class of the Victorian era. This play tells the story of Jack and Algernon, two men who each create alter egos named Ernest, to help them escape the responsibilities in their regular lives. Each man falls in love, Jack with Gwendolyn and Algernon with Cecily, but both women believe they have fallen in love with a man named Ernest. They do not know about the men’s double lives.

In Oscar Wilde’s whimsical play The Importance of Being Earnest, society,and class are strong motifs as the play progresses. Most prominently, Lady Bracknell’s character is implemented to exaggerate the higher class, depict the ideals of society and effectively expose the other character’s status.’ For instance, Lady Bracknell staunchly believes that one should never waste time sympathizing with “invalids” like Mr. Bunbury, for he should “...[make] up his mind whether he was going to live or [] die,” (1.718); this is exceptionally critical for the seating to be apt at her dinner party. Moreover, while Lady Bracknell holds her nephew, Algernon, in high esteem, her interactions with Jack presents their stark inequality of social status. To expand,

During the Victorian Age, The Victorian upper class society judged things through appearance and many laughed at those morals by turning them upside-down through a language, which is satirical, funny and witty. Oscar Wilde was an author during the time that displayed humor into his writing. In “ The Importance of Being Earnest”, Wilde created ridiculous situations and characters whose lack of understanding which cause them to react to things inappropriately. Different characters in the play embody those values and provide us insight into the upper-class society of the Victorian period. The play is centered on the idea of identity, love, marriage and money. Many of the characters’ statements, especially Algernon’s, are humorous because they

In The Importance of Being Earnest, the author, Oscar Wilde uses characterization to put forth his theme of how humans attach importance to concepts that have very little meaning at all by describing each character to be judgmental and cruel towards one another. Lady Bracknell, for example, believes wealth is by far more important than breeding, and tends to bully everyone in her path including her own daughter Gwendolen. In the play, the society focuses more on how each person presents themselves, rather than their brutal actions. The Aristocrats, who are known as the upper class, tend to treat their close family and relatives poorly. Whereas the lower class, such as Jack and Cecily, have more trustworthy and compassionate relationships with their families. Even though Jack is made up to be trustworthy, he somehow turns out be a manipulated liar. Jack Worthing is a character in the play who repeatedly tells people his name is Ernest in the city, and Jack in the country. The only time Jack has ever showed his honesty was when he confessed the love he has for Gwendolen Fairfax.

In one specific scene of the play Act 1 Scene 2, just after Jack has proposed to Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell enters the room and sends her daughter away; she then begins to interview Jack to see if he would qualify as a possible son-in-law. Based on this specific passage the reader is able to examine the text in its’ irony to influence social agreements of the Victorian era from a gender and