Earnest Social Structure

       In the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wilde focused on the Victorian Age by mocking the Victorian principles and ideals. Wilde utilized satire and mockery through the character to make fun of their culture, principles, behaviors, and morals of the Victorians. Wilde also used the characters in the play to demonstrate the political, social, and religious views in the late 1900’s.

Many dramas are told in a specific way in order to make a point. Being written as a comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde adheres the idea that drama should never teach but only entertain. The play ridicules the two protagonists Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing who carry a double life. They lie in order to have everything they want, and also to be able to conquer the women they love. John with his desire to marry Gwendolen Fairfax faces the difficulty of achieving her mother's consent, and most important has to deal with the trouble his lies has caused. Same situation applies to Algernon who wants to marry Cecily Cardew, and who faces the difficulty of confronting the truth about who he really is. The play is mostly amusing

The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy play written by Oscar Wilde and first performed in 1895 at St. James’s Theatre in London. This play is considered “Wilde’s most popular work and continually revived today” (Raby, 1997, p. 165). Therefore, through this essay we will reveal aspects of both satire and Victorian Society. For this sake, we will begin by defining the main aspects of both these terms, so that then we can easily recognize the elements from Wilde’s play.

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

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest the setting is Victorian England, which is pertinent because of the social rules that play a role in the play, such as how a woman should behave. Oscar Wilde’s main goal while writing this play was to critique the upper class citizens in a comedic light. He achieved this through writing his characters as people who didn’t quite follow the rules, but could still keep up their appearances when need be. The character Cecily Cardew is an example of a character who can pass as a respectable noble when they try but that personality they show is in fact a fake. In truth, Cecily’s character is by no means innocent but she is charming and clever in ways she can hide that fact. Her character is not interested

Viewing the play of The Importance of Being Earnest from a feminist perspective portrays the men in the Victorian Era to be misogynistic. A perpetuated stereotype in this play is that women should be protected from the truth. “Jack:[In a very patronizing manner] My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman”(29)! The belief that women are fragile and unable to handle anything serious is present. Furthermore, when Algernon discovers that Cecily is convinced that they had met before and had had many romantic encounters, she is presented as mentally insane. This perpetuates the belief that women depend on men and could not be satisfied without one in their life. In addition to this, Gwendolen and Cecily are the ones being deceived by Jack and Algernon. This shows that women are stereotypically submissive to men and can be taken advantage of. Through evaluating The Importance

Every line, every character, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is set on supporting Oscar Wilde’s want for social change. The Importance of Being Earnest was written during the late period of the Victorian era. During this period social classification was taken very seriously. It could affect working and living conditions, education, religion, and marriage. Wilde explores the issues of social class and turns it into a comedic play. He humorously criticizes Victorian manners and attacking the society of the luxurious life. The audience becomes self-aware as the characters reflect on themselves. Plays such as this become successful because of the backgrounds the writers come from and the experiences they have had.

Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest (.1993.) is an enlightening epitome of social class in the Victorian era. The satire is driven by the frivolous behaviour, superficial lives and artificial norms within the Victorian aristocracy. Incorporating his own opinion into the play, Wilde continually attacked and mocked their hypocrisy, views on marriage, and their mannerisms. Throughout the play, Wilde used an abundant range of literary techniques to reinforce his opinion. Irony, paradox and hyperboles, as well as witty epigrams and aphorisms were used astutely and were ubiquitous throughout the play. This contributed to the satirical style and tone of the text, and enabled Wilde to effectively communicate his critical perspective on social class in Victorian England.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, premiered in London in 1895 when Wilde was in the peak of his career. During this time of the Victorian Era, society was very moral and chaste, at least on the surface. There was a very specific code of behavior that governed almost everything, but focused mainly on the topic of marriage. This affected Wilde first-hand as he was married to a woman but also involved with men which was forbidden at the time. Using the themes of dualism and marriage, Wilde is trying to show the audience the ridiculous nature of Victorian society. Through the reoccurring theme of dualism, Oscar Wilde uses sizable amounts of satire to not only mock the trivial Victorian society, but more specifically to ridicule

Gender roles are an important theme placed in The Importance of Being Earnest. “The feminist movement has already been in full swing. Women already moved in the path of education. With the considerable level of education, women have already started toward the direction of freedom.” (Bachelor and Master). In the play, Cecily has a governess hired by Mr. John Worthing educating her to become more successful on her own. “Wilde presented Lady Bracknell talking about the position of men. She says, in her talk with Gwendolen ‘house is the proper place for man.’ . . . This bit of conversation reveals women have also begun to move freely in the occupational world.” (Bachelor and Master). Prism is used by Wilde, in the play, as an awakened woman who serves as a governess to Cecily, who writes novels. Wilde averted to see the limitations of the feminist movement. Feministically awakened and educated women to cling to more job of governess. (Bachelor and Master). Miss Prism is used as a symbol of feminism used by Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest to show that women were on the move in life advancements. “In the play, Cecily and Gwendolen discuss changing their gender roles in their conversation about male domesticity, indicating that their belief that ‘homes seems to be the proper sphere for the man.’ Marriage, however, remained most women’s primary goal and occupation. Arranged marriages had been on the decline since the late eighteenth century, but were not unknown among the Victorian upper class.” (Bachelor and Master). “LADY BRACKNELL.

The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde’s play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others’ lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they

The theme of marriage is magnified throughout Oscar Wilde’s captivating novel, The Importance of Being Earnest. By ridiculing the cultural norms of this time, Wilde scrutinizes and comments on the Victorian age as a whole. Wilde utilizes several characters in his play to point out the absurd ideologies of the Victorian upper class society. A prime example of this is Lady Bracknell, a character who wholeheartedly believes that people of London who are “upper class” should have power, while those “below” should not. Lady Bracknell quickly becomes the driving force of the plot exhibiting the behavior of common Victorian Age citizens. The play’s blatant use of satire is intensified by the actions of Lady Bracknell to expose the outrageous principles

The The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde, is a play set during the Victorian Era. It is about the lives of characters named Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, Miss Prism, and Rev. Chasuble that lived during that time period. One of the main topics discussed in The Importance of Being Earnest is marriage. Overall, Wilde portrays marriage differently throughout the play for the upper and lower classes of society.

Ultimately, Lady Bracknell thinks that the most significant thing is financial and social security rather than emotional happiness. In the presence of Mr. Worthing, Lady Bracknell insolently proclaims, “I feel bound to tell you that you are not on my list of eligible young men…” (p.15) Lady Bracknell’s triviality cleverly represents the senseless and ridiculous beliefs embraced by the Edwardian upper class. The Importance of Being Earnest mocks the conventional and hypocritical way that is used to address serious matters such as love. Cecily Cardew is constantly lost in her own reverie and falls madly in love with ‘brother’ Ernest. Cecily’s absurd obsession with a person she has never encountered is justified when she declares, “I always [write letters] three times a week,” and “we have been engaged for the last three months.” (p.38, 39) The play wittily presents the outrageously absurd concept that Gwendolen and Cecily can only love men named ‘Ernest’. Cecily’s and Gwendolen’s insistence that there is something about the name ‘Ernest’ that can “inspire absolute confidence” is deliberately exaggerated so as to better ridicule British society. (p.39) Although humans are named arbitrarily by their parents, Gwendolen insists that names depict the true nature of one’s character. Like everything else in the Edwardian age of ideals, the notion of falling in love is ludicrously thrown out of proportion in order to mock Edwardian social life.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde, first performed in 1895. The title works on a pun between the adjective "earnest", meaning honest or sincere, and the name Ernest, which the two female protagonists of the play, Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are fond of. Indeed, they have this deep desire of marrying a man named Ernest. The funny thing is, their two suitors, Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, pretend both to be named Ernest. This lie, which contradicts totally the real meaning of being "earnest", leads to a misunderstanding between Cecily and Gwendolen during the scene 2 of act II of the play. While talking of their respective suitors, both supposedly named Ernest, they tend to think Ernest is just one person,