Oscar Wilde And Earnest Analysis

In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde revealed that animalistic traits can tint a character’s intellectual attributes. All of the characters possess an overwhelming desire which seems to diminish their morality. Wilde uses Jack Worthing’s animalistic behaviors to reveal that his animal self is damaging his intellectual self. The play is presented to show that the characters retain an exaggerated pleasure with food, which shows their pleasures in inanimate objects. Every character in the play is drawn into lustful relationships, thus mutilating their psychological self. By embracing their animalistic traits the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest begin to blemish their intellectual character which inhibits their overall

Jack’s cousin Cecily can be described as naive. Cecily believes in a different world than the one she lives in. An example of this is that she has already written letters to her husband, that does not exist, and according to her letters they have a rough relationship. Cecily is very opinionated but she does not speak her mind as often. Cecily falls in love with Algernon, while he is pretending to be Earnest. Cecily is not immune to the lying and she says that she has always dreamed about marrying someone with the name of Earnest. Cecily is the epitome of a women being raised in the Victorian Age. She has the best of education and sheltered from the harshness of the real world. Cecily has never met a truly wicked person and one of the thing she does not appreciate is hypocrisy. “I've now realized for the first time one my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest" (Wilde 57). Cecily believes that if you have something to say no

Possibly more so than other plays, The Importance of Being Earnest is driven by an exceptionally vivid and diverse cast of characters who all, to some extent, treat matters differently to one another. In the play, Algernon almost obsesses over his clothes and style of fashion while Jack takes great responsibility in serving the proper customary snack of cucumber sandwiches to Lady Bracknell. Each character has their own serious priorities and treats personal things with triviality. “Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.” On the other hand, Algernon treats the serious matter of marriage with complete triviality and rather refer it to as ‘business’ over romance. “I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.” “I thought you had come up for pleasure? I call that business.” Though Algernon’s thoughts on marriage are individual, other characters share similar views, creating a separate theme of the trivialisation of marriage that further expresses Wilde’s beliefs throughout the play just as characterisation

Cecily and Gwendolen were perfectly happy to become attached to something that appears to be true and real rather than taking a closer look to expose the genuine nature of Jack and Algernon proves that the two young women were more attached to the name of both men, and did not consider their actions and words to verify them not being earnest – exposing both women as superficial. Algernon’s occupation with his outer appearance and Lady Bracknell’s need to look good in the eyes of others proves them both to be superficially committed to their external manifestations. It is possible that Wilde was revealing what the upper class life resulted in, and that as one rises higher in status one loses themselves, becoming preoccupied with what others want and what others think, forgetting one’s true

Setting: Begins in a flat in London then proceeds to a manor house in the countryside in the late 1800's.

Miss Prism also represents the dichotomy and somewhat relates to Cecily. In the fact that she acts in the manner a respectable victorian woman should, she is secretly (or so she thinks, though it is apparent to others) buring with passion for Rev. Chasuble. While around him she acts mannerly and as if she has no intrest in

The notion, to be a gentlemen was one of the upmost importance, even so that when the time came that Wilde was revising and preparing his novel for publication he abruptly changed the name of the picture framer that is called to Dorian, the rendition of the name from Ashton to Hubbard was due to Wilde’s perception that Hubbard is very much a tradesman’s name and that a picture framer is not to be anointed a gentleman’s name such as Ashton. Oscar Wilde, a “gentleman” made mockery of his society, indubitably knew what this title meant and was preservative over his right to such a term. Acquitted with a double first from Oxford University, residing in London’s most fashionable district and attending to various gentlemen’s clubs Wilde was the archetype of the cognomen.

As an illustration, all the arguments Jack encounters through Wilde’s craft leads him to figure out who his mother is and the “vital importance of being Earnest” (Wilde 929). Ravelo believes Wilde’s political strategy of making ideologies for social and mental systems had an effect on the Victorian audience. She explains that ideologies are the portrayed mentally and develop into what she refers to as “social cognition” (Ravelo 73). That being said, their social context, beliefs and traditions greatly impact the attitude of the Victorian spectators while being manipulated by Wilde’s

What influences an author’s writing style? Maybe it is the time period, their age, or even the way they were raised and their beliefs. However, society influenced Oscar Wilde while he was writing his play The Importance of Being Earnest, and made it a play that the readers can still enjoy. In Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the characters’ identities are manipulated by the society, in which they live in, and their own speech and actions which cause them to live two separate lifestyles in the city and the country.

He symbolises a character of the upper-class society clearly recognisable to Wilde’s audience. Despite his gentlemanly figure, Jack isn’t what others perceive him to be. While living a double life, he deceives those around him with his forged respectable outer-shell creating a strong sense of moral hypocrisy. One prominent example is the way he ruthlessly judges Algernon’s actions without considering his own. During act II he retorts, "Your vanity is ridiculous, your conduct an outrage, and your presence in my garden utterly absurd" (Pg. 42).

However, the writing of the play relies on a creativity and richness that combine different styles. Oscar Wilde was gay in a society stifled by social conventions and governed by very tough laws on homosexuality. Nevertheless, some critics have argued that the playwright dared include homosexual connotations in the text. However, I would argue that more generally, despite very little room for maneuver, he managed brilliantly to challenge the social norms, sexual stereotypes and gender representations of his time while pleasing aristocratic London socialites.” Amongst the Victorian era citizens, a social system was categorized by the hostilities between the poor class and the rich class. During this time, the rich treated the poor poorly and unfairly. The self-centered and aristocratic Victorians placed high value on respectability and values, but in hindsight they themselves did not uphold their standards and customs. The play satirizes the etiquette, class system as well as the disposition of the Victorians, (Bastiat, 2010).

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest presents a satirical play that is used to emphasize the insignificance and absurdity of certain “rules” within Victorian society. The main characters in the play characterize Victorian high society; therefore, the criticism that arises from Wilde’s exaggeration extends further than the play itself. More specifically, Wilde exaggerates the consumption of food, something that seems to be routine in everyday life. Wilde plays on this theme of presenting such an ordinary event as an emotionally moving experience. He does this by making a connection between the presentation of food and a characters feeling of emotion that is unusual during the Victorian society.

Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a satirical play for earnest people. Wilde uses witty and humor through analogies or metaphors to address matters such as marriage and class structure. Wild’s play is much of a satirical attack toward the higher class in a Victorian society. The Importance of Being Earnest, acts as a storyline of living a double life. Jack and Algernon claim to be an ideal figure, Ernest, whom which attracts women. Both characters, living the double life, tend to get in a situation which leads to failure, when they were discovered of being frauds toward the ending of the play. Then, Jack’s history if revealed when it is discovered that, Jack has been actually living a lie all along. Throughout the play, Wilde demonstrates how the Victorian era had a corrupted class structure in which those in the upper class took pride in their knowledge and position to judge those who are not in the equal status as them.

One of the hints is when Lady Bracknell asked Jack’s income. “Jack: Between seven and eight thousand a year.” (Wilde, 992). Jack answered with a number that is very broad. Between seven and eight thousand is a huge difference. Jack said it like this because he didn’t have confidence about his income, so saying a broad number would be a safe option. Another subtle hint is when Lady Bracknell asked Jack to sit: “Jack: Thank you. Lady Bracknell, I prefer standing.”(Wilde, 992). Rather than sitting Jack chose to stand. This is because he is very nervous about being asked questions. He thinks Lady Bracknell will think of him as someone that lacks manners. From these two quotes, we can see that Wilde characterizes Jack as a person that lacks

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, son of William and Jane Wilde, was born October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. Wilde was born into a well educated and literate family, as his father was an ear and eye surgeon who had written multiple books during his practice. His mother was also a writer; she wrote articles relating to Irish nationalism, the rights of women along with multiple poems, essays, and stories (Shuman).