Satire In The Importance Of Being Earnest

In ‘The Important of Being Earnest’, Oscar Wilde's ridiculing representation of Victorian Society comments on the ridiculous behavior of the Victorian Society’s inability to recognise the difference between important and unimportant issues. Therefore, Oscar Wilde subverts Victorian values to mock and imply triviality and superficiality. Wilde forces the audience to rethink the importance of their life and how they act while also scrutinizing the ignorance of the characters in upper class society through mocking their morals and obsessive fascinations. Wilde's uses the inversion of what isn’t serious and what is to ridicule Victorian Society. Despite this, Wilde wanted to create something beautiful and superficial. Hence, it would be more

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800’s. Wilde wrote the play as a means to satirize the Victorian model and social values. He points out the Victorian Period tendency to value an individual’s status and superficiality over there true personality and nature. In Act II, during Algernon and Cecily’s dialogue, Wilde creates humor by poking fun at their relationship. He achieves this by using ridiculous-diction, “double life” and irony.

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.

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is truly a satire. In The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde mocks the society in Britain, and the rules it followed in the 1800s. He uses satire in the description of every character and other themes like marriage, intelligence, morality, and lifestyle primarily aimed at the upper class of the time. At the turn of every page the use of satire proves again and again to be ideal when questioning the morals and values of people.

Lady Bracknell’s character represents the “New Woman” and clearly Algernon has to overcome any obstacle to please her. Lane, as the servant, a lower class citizen, acknowledges the hierarchy and aids Algernon in response. Wilde also wrote the scene where Algernon eats the entire plate of cucumber sandwiches as a sign of rebellion against the supreme woman figure. Algernon feared the consequences, and as a result concealed the truth. The cucumber sandwiches symbolize the need to be accepted within society and its commodities. Wilde devises the cucumber sandwich discussion to provide insight regarding the power shift from men to women at this time.

A comedic work of literature is often just one that was meant as pure enjoyment for the reader. Other times, comedy is meant to shed light on a serious situation or instance the public refuses or is uncomfortable talking about in a non-comedic setting. However, the greatest type of comedy is one that makes the reader think, one that provokes “thoughtful laughter” from them. “The Importance of Being Earnest”, a satirical play written during Victorian Era Britain by Oscar Wilde, is such a piece literature. By poking fun at the time period in which his characters live in during one particular scene, as well as illustrating the unsubdued hilarity of a character during that scene, Wilde is able to elicit thoughtful laughter from his audience, ultimately showing them that life is far too serious and needs to be taken more lightly.

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

I chose to write on Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest and the effect that his use of satire has on the audience. I chose this topic because I really enjoyed reading this play and am intrigued by Oscar Wilde's writing style. Wilde uses satire as a scare tactic towards the Victorian society. His use of satire as a scare tactic draws the audience in and is very effective. Wilde’s play mocks principles, marriage, religion and the search for love in the Victorian era.

Elinor Fuchs sees the play as a world that passes in front of the critic in ‘time and space’; one that has elements that must be understood (Fuchs, 2004, p 6). These elements closely resembles Aristotle’s six elements of a play- plot, character, thought, diction, music and spectacle- elements that are clearly identifiable in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.

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.

AThe Importance of Being Earnest a play written by Oscar Wilde is set in England in the late Victorian era. Wilde uses obvious situational and dramatic irony within the play to satirize his time period. According to Roger Sale in Being Ernest the title has a double meaning to it and is certainly another example of satire used by Wilde. With a comedic approach, Wilde ridicules the absurdities of the character’s courtship rituals, their false faces, and their secrets. (Sale, 478)

High-level comedy awakens a realization of how superficial people, especially the upper class, can become when they feel superior to others. In the comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde uses the character Lady Bracknell to target how indecent and hollow the Victorian upper class behaves. Through the use of situational irony, Wilde stimulates “thoughtful laughter” in the audience to mock the Victorian’s sense of morality. Lady Bracknell’s conversation with Jack Worthing targets the Victorian upper classes idea about education with the use of situational irony. As Lady Bracknell questions Jack to see if he can be a suitable husband for her daughter Gwendolen Fairfax, she asks him if he has an educational background

In this passage of the play, Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, humor is expressed in many ways. Dramatic irony and satire are the most common sources of humor and he makes it very noticeable.

Plays often use literary devices to create humor. Oscar Wilde uses dramatic irony in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, to satirize the upper class of the Victorian era. This play tells the story of Jack and Algernon, two men who each create alter egos named Ernest, to help them escape the responsibilities in their regular lives. Each man falls in love, Jack with Gwendolyn and Algernon with Cecily, but both women believe they have fallen in love with a man named Ernest. They do not know about the men’s double lives.