Satire In The Importance Of Being Earnest

In the play “The Importance of being Earnest”, screenwriter Oscar Wilde explores the theme of wordplay and dramatic irony. Mr. Wilde is a talent poet with multiple written works under his belt, as stated on the site WWW.wilde-online.com. He was a Victorian writer that did poke fun at his own culture with his satirical writing style. From his writing, he is using humor to critique the attitude of the standards of the socialites around him. This is especially true with “The importance of being Earnest” due to its dry yet brilliant humor of how people will lie and hold back themselves to shield what they do not like about themselves or others. What really is interesting is his use of puns and irony, using one of the lowest forms of humor to hit the ridiculous nature of people around him. By using techniques of wordplay, puns, and even messages between this line display true intention of these characters.

The humor in Act II in the play "The Importance of Being Earnest" can be best described as both ironic and comical as both Algernon and Cecily have their conversation. Algernon who is pretending to be "Earnest" at the time begins to express his deep admiration for Cecily but he uses comical humor to express his feelings towards her, which brings lively hood and entertainment for the audience to enjoy. The ironic humor is used by Cecily to show how they were already engage before they even met which surprised "Earnest" yet made him happy at the time.

The Importance of Being Earnest, written by a fascinating Oscar Wilde reveals a story of social class and hierarchy during the roaring Victorian time period (1837-1901). Focusing his writing on the social classes, the play becomes comical when he exposes the flaws held by the upper class during this time. Wilde saw earnestness as being a key ideal in Victorian culture for much of British society struck Wilde as dry, stern, conservative, and so “earnestly” concerned with the maintenance of social norms and the status quo that it had become almost inhuman. This play depicts certain characters that conform so easily to the conventional social status and characteristics of the Victorian culture. Such characters include Algernon, Jack, Cecily, and Gwendolyn. These characters introduce many themes that focus on the Victorian lifestyle, primarily the issues of being “earnest” and one’s own morality.

What do all great authors, such as Oscar Wilde, do when they see something wrong in their culture? Simple: they show society how shortsighted it truly is by ridiculing its beliefs. It would be impossible to simply mock the beliefs of an entire culture without being labeled as crazy or an outcast, so they ridicule the culture indiscreetly. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a classic example of a highly esteemed work that uses satire to jeer at the cultural norms of the Victorian Era. The Importance of Being Earnest mocks the resolute mind-sets, the aloofness of marriage, and the class-system with satire during the Victorian Era.

Have you ever seen a film that introduces satire to make fun of the upper class? This film uses exaggerated and ironic situations that mock the social class, gender and marriage. The film uses social behavior and social terms to incorporate its message. It makes fun of what people found important in the Victorian era. The Importance of Being Earnest is both funny and cleaver.

Algernon Moncrieff’s values are different than the other characters. The females of the play are materialistic and eager to marry for superficial reasons like money and class. Algernon realizes this and chooses to value himself by eating, drinking, and “Bunbury[ing] all over Shropshire” (Wilde 1941). In a way, Algernon is protecting himself from becoming trapped in a set up marriage, until he naturally falls in love with Cecily Cardew in the

In the satirical play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” the playwright, Oscar Wilde mocks the ideas that Victorian society had about marriage. The scene in which Jack, one of the main characters, attempts to persuade Lady Bracknell to allow him to marry Gwendolen, her daughter, is over dramatic and humorous in order to show how the Victorian society treated marriages. Oscar Wilde subtlety argues, through comedy, that most marriages are for financial and social gain instead of love, emotions, and personality. Wilde creates the outrageous character, Lady Bracknell, to represent the traditional Victorian ideals. He hyperbolizes her ideals and manners, that she is incredibly stubborn about, so much so that they are no longer polite or

The relationship between Algernon and Cecily undergoes an irony too. At the first meeting between them Algernon begs her not to think him wicked, and she replies:

In Victorian society, the conventional norms of status, gender roles, and marriage were closely linked by an institution that men and women were placed with unrealistic demands and expectations from society. Women were brought up by their parents to become the perfect housewife, and men were forced into marriages based on status within the society. In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” he mocks the typical Victorian conventions and ideals of what society held on the individual. I will be examining the techniques Wilde uses, such as satire, symbolism, and farcical situations, and showing how he takes those Victorian

Previous to Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Victorian comedies consisted mostly of high and low comedy and of ‘dirty or vulgar jokes, dirty gestures, and sex’. Hence, it is possible to suggest that contradictory to Edouard Roditi’s interpretation, the Importance of Being Earnest carries a moral point of view in the fact it does not exploit sex or sexual preferences to effectuate drollery; Wilde provokes laughter through mistaken identities and the consequences of ‘bunburying’ perhaps to allude that his opinions it that sexuality is not a laughing matter. Providing this interpretation is true, it is acceptable to assume that the reasoning behind the negative criticisms the drama received when first written were due to the fact critics felt appalled that a piece of writing could prove successful without it consisting of any sexual nature and hence deemed The Importance of Being Earnest as, ‘dull in comparison to other plays read over the years’.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde uses comedic inversions on the topic of love and marriage to criticize and to humorously mock accepted social norms during the Victorian Age.

Though it contrasts with his apparent romanticism, Algernon treats marriage and courtship as a business with specific rules to follow. This attitude from his part is explicitly stated in his discussion with Jack in Act I. When Jack expresses his intention to propose to Gwendolyn Algernon answers: “I thought you had come up for pleasure? … I call that business.” (Wilde, 289) On the other side, both Gwendolyn’s and Cecily’s attitude towards marriage serves to emphasize that the Victorian upper-class focused on trivial matters.

In Wilde Importance of being Earnest in the first scene there was humor in there. Algernon was stuffing his face. Wilde likes to make fun of all Victorians from the upper classes. He make fun of their class values, makes refers to men liking men, and he even uses landmarks that are familiar to the upper classes. Jack and Algernon have a double life or living life through masks. We know Algernon is from the upper classes. People think self-gratification can be a powerful tool against the Victorian values of duty/virtue (Summary and Analysis Act I: Part 1). Whenever they talk about food, they refer to lust. They will never talk about it in polite society.

The Importance of Being Earnest . The play functions as a satire, a comedy that

Being “earnest” is impossible in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. Earnestness is more often equated with sincerity. Sincerity or earnestness is not only displayed in the title but it is the main theme of Wilde’s work and using satire, the playwright shows the hypocrisy of the morally upstanding, and the inability of the upper and middle class of Victorian England to be earnest.