Satire in the Importance of Being Earnest Introduction Throughout Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wilde routinely uses satire throughout the story amongst character dialogue and actions to scorn the Victorian society audience. Oscar uses satire to mock love, and the concept of marriage as well as the Victorian-aristocratic class system and society mentality. The play is described as “A trivial comedy for serious people”. Satire makes this seemingly serious play into a comedy
Oscar Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance, written and published in 1893, a witty melodrama that challenges morality, piety, and depicts gender inequalities in the Victorian Era. Critics deemed A Woman of No Importance as being on the, “weakest of the plays Wilde wrote,” 1 of the 19th Century because was described as being very shocking and unpleasant to theatergoers of this time for questioning the gender inequalities of the era. Moreover, this play is characterized as being a sentimental comedy where
This source is an essay examining how Wilde shows “the impact of Victorian society’s unrealistic expectations of the individual” in both The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the article, she talks about gender roles and societal expectations along with the ways characters in the play conform to or reject them. Although the essay is written by a student at McKendree University, the writing is not difficult to understand. This essay is well-documented and seems unbiased
Gender and Class in Oscar Wilde’s Play A Marxist critic uses an approach that treats literary texts as material products describing them in broadly historical terms. In Marxist criticism, the text is viewed in terms of its production and consumption, as a product of work that does identifiable cultural work of its own (Chaucer, 297). Gender, is in other words, a construct, an effect of language, culture and its institutions (Austen, 427). Many gender critics are interested in how a culture constructs
Mytia Terry Subject: The Importance of Being Earnest exhibits a “high seriousness of intent” that Wilde wished for. 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
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
Draft The Importance of Being Earnest is set in late Victorian England, a time of social reform. Society was rediscovering art in its many forms yet as a consequence, The Upper class continued their program of suppressed inferiority. The lower classes were treated with disdain and disgust and the animosity between the groups was easily visible. Essentially, the late Victorian era was the beginning of a mini cultural renaissance, yet Upper Class society, which forms the basis of the play was rigidly
Social Status in Persuasion and The Importance of Being Earnest Social status refers to a person 's position or importance within a society. I have done some research and have acquired information over the way social status is addressed in both the writings of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. In the novel Persuasion we can see how the characters go beyond their means to uphold their title and social value. In the play The Importance of Being Earnest we can see how the social rank and wealth of a person
was very much reflected in his social lifestyle, personality and dress sense; but above all through his many dramatic works that reflect his often contrasting attitudes toward himself in his extravagant and highly esteemed approach to his writing of classic English literature. This is true for drama: the playwrights who write plays often incorporate aspects of their own lives into the plays, be it their character, or in their influence from other persons or social aspects of their lives. This is
The Importance of Being Earnest was one of the best comedy manner plays I have read thus far. The play was written by Oscar Wilde, which happened to be the best masterpiece he has ever written out of all four of his stage comedies. The Importance of Being Earnest was first published in 1899. This play was a self-parody and unreliably explanation on the dramatic farce genre for Wilde. This play is a comedy of manner during the Victorian Age. The Victorian Age was a period of peace and sensibility