Satire In The Importance Of Being Earnest

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.

“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, political play, satirizes the beliefs in the Victorian Era such as; women not thinking, people only conversing from within their social class. A fine example of the strict conventionalism would be the character Lady Bracknell, lady of the house, the mother of Gwendolyn Bracknell and wife of Lord Bracknell. Lady Bracknell was like every upper class mother in the Victorian Era. She was looking for a man with a wealthy title and family, however, the man Gwendolyn loved was not very wealthy and had no title or family. Because of Lady Bracknell’s lack of knowledge of the man, she conducts an interrogation. During the examination of the man’s life, Lady Bracknell’s values come into focus. She believes

Throughout the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, gender roles in the Victorian culture are satirized with the character Lady Bracknell and her dominance over the other characters in Act one, Cecily and Gwendolen’s polite arguing in Act 2, and in Act 3 with Cecily and Gwendolen praising Jack and Algernon for being the better sex. Lady Bracknell controls her daughter and runs the family affairs while her husband is in bed sick all day. Cecily and Gwendolen are clearly angry with each other but are too polite to be outright disrespectful. Act 3 satirizes gender roles with the two ladies admitting how inferior they are to men. Oscar Wilde uses invective to project his comment that in Victorian culture there were several ridiculous rules for women that the only real role they had were to be housewives and hostesses.

Oliver Parker’s (2002) film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is sadly completely consumed by the romantic comedy style, masking Wilde’s key concerns and detracting from important comic elements of the play. This can be observed through the varying representations of characters, the film’s lack of contextual jokes, the more prominent sub-plot between Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism, the addition of music and the way in which dialogue, while remaining true to the play, has lost meaning in the film.

It was highly moral for a man to have a family and to be current in marriage; it boosts up his image and role in society. A man, who has been out of marriage for too long, is seen as idle. Wilde presents two characters, Algernon and Jack, who have a dispute whether marriage is silly or not. It suggests that not every Victorian man were keen on the idea of marriage. In the Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde displays a

A satire is a piece of work that is designed to ridicule or tease a group or organization, generally for the purpose of being humorous. “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a play by Oscar Wilde, is a satire, ridiculing class, gender, and marriage. This essay will describe some points from each of these sections, as well as give a brief synopsis of the play these examples come from.

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

The class system during the Victorian Period played a significant role on people’s lives. The class a person belonged to played an important role in that individual’s future. In Victorian England, class diversity and class placement either hindered or enhanced people’s lives. One work of literature that comments on class distinctions in Victorian England is “The Importance of Being Earnest”, by Oscar Wilde. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Wilde expresses the concern with the Victorian people endeavoring to maintain an upper class reputation--while hiding the reality of their lives.

Satire of Gender Within the Victorian Era Oscar Wilde in "The Importance of Being Earnest" satirizes gender within the Victorian Era. He does this by creating a foil between Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell. In this particular era, Lady Bracknell, is the perfect Victorian woman. She is prim, proper, and reserved. Whereas, Gwendolen is outspoken, clever, and bold.

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.

Wilde uses satire especially with the idea of marriage. In the society that he lived in, marriage is seen as a business arrangement. When Lady Bracknell questioned Jack to determine if he is suitable for her daughter, she

The peculiarities of the Victorian society seem to have been the main inspiration of Oscar Wilde, who at that moment was well-known for his lifestyle, when writing his most famous comedy: The Importance of Being Earnest. Throughout this story various themes such as identity, the creation of fictions, lies, social class and marriage are discussed. The theme of marriage is the most outstanding of the play and is seen from different points of view. On the one hand, the theme highlights the comedy of the trivial situations that happen in the play. On the other hand, the seriousness with which some characters treat marriage, stands out emphasising that marriage is an important thing, especially for Victorian society. Either way, affirming that

During the Victorian Era, both men and women searched for their ideal type based on the expectations of the Victorian society. However, due to the high demanding standards, many individuals were forced to deceive the people around them and engage in a double life in order to fulfill the desire of their potential partner. If the man or woman were unable to meet the standards of the Victorian society’s expectations, they would be labeled as unsuitable for their partner and would receive no consent from their partner’s family. In the play, the Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde analyzes the effects of society’s expectations on individuals.

In Act II of the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde creates humor through the use of the three levels of irony: dramatic, verbal and situational. This recurring elements can be seen throughout the scene in Algernon and Cecily dialogue with each other. Wilde does this in order to satirize love and romance in the Victorian Age as well as the standing values that it upholds. In the beginning of the scene, dramatic irony takes place when Cecily and Algernon “decide” to marry each other.

A central theme of English literature in the Victorian Era was the criticism of various facets of the society. With all the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution, authors such as Charles Dicken used their work to express their views on the social system and stratification of classes. Likewise, Oscar Wilde was a playwright whose criticism, expressed in the form of satire, mostly targeted the upper classes. His famous play The Importance of Being Earnest provides a prime example of the use of satire as a form of critic. Through the use of characterization and absurd language, Wilde mocks the value given to social institutions in the Victorian upper-class society.