The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde has demonstrated his proud works of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray throughout the existence in Victorian Society by exemplifying the truth and honesty the society doesn’t carry with them. The Victorian society does not engage in speaking of the truth and the involvement of staying honest between others. Due to trust running deep within these two terms, one must understand that the Victorian society had some trust issues between persons. As one has noticed within The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack and Algernon both encounter problems with truth and honesty while trying to persuade Cecily and Gwendolyn to take part in marriage. Throughout the novel of The Picture of Dorian Gray, one observes the

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

A key idea Wilde explores through the two protagonists of the play is their abuse of deception. Though the script is driven by Jack and Algernon’s determination to earn the heart of their ideal lovers, they do so by ignoring all moral principles of sincerity and integrity along the way. The two male characters

       One of the first things Wilde chooses to mock in “The Importance of Being Earnest” is the institution of marriage which is a social satire. In the play, marriage

“The Importance of Being Earnest,” a satirical play written by Oscar Wilde, discusses a vast variety of criticisms regarding the late Victorian societal period. In this comedic drama, focusing on and analyzing certain minor characters leads to a more effective interpretation of the messages attempting to be portrayed to the audience. For example, through the persona of Lady Bracknell, Wilde effectively mocks the concept of marriage for social status rather than love. Additionally, interpreting the roles of the lower class servants allows the readers to internalize the desperate need for social reform that the author felt at the time period. Finally, the entire concept of Bunburyism, or masquerading as an alternate persona, satirizes the hypocrisy of the Victorian Era.

Wilde and Galsworthy both write about marriage, one of the main themes in each story. Marriage in this time mirrored a business deal in that both partie should benefit, whether it money or social standing. Algernon firmly believes in this concept: “I thought you had come up for pleasure?...I call that business” (Wilde 3). In the beginning of the story, Jack arrives in town with the intent to propose to Gwendolen. Algernon sees marriage as s union absent of love; love is not required for a marriage. Jack is successful and Gwendolen is beauty, and according to Algernon nothing else is needed. Moreover, in The Man of Property, the narrator hits the nail on the head: “Most people would consider such a marriage as that of Soames and Irene quite fairly successful; he had money, she had beauty…” (Galsworthy 175). A marriage’s success depending on the service provided to the other person, not love or any other emotional connection between the partners. They could hate each other, but if they had money and beauty, society considered the marriage a success. Soames and

It’s a satire of the Victorian Era, when an intricate code of behavior governed everything from communication to sexuality. The most important rules applied to the farce of Victorian marriage it’s a satire of the Victorian Era, when an intricate code of behavior governed everything from communication to sexuality. The most important rules applied to the farce of Victorian marriage—a topic that hit home for Wilde, who was married to a woman but sexually involved with men. During the Victorian period, marriage was about keeping socially unacceptable impulses under the covers. We can see this at work in the The Importance of Being Earnest. The ridiculous end of the play of the three engagements in five minutes is a "happy" one because everyone gets together, but underneath this perfect happy ending there's more than a just a little hint of darkness. The Victorian morality is slightly hinted at by Wilde in a satirical manner. Dr. Chasuble's relaxed concentration on Sermon reveals his loose preoccupation with moral consciousness. The moral consciousness of the Victorian people can be known a bit from the religious commitment of Dr. Chasuble. Chasuble is the sort of priest who gives sermons repeatedly with a view to satisfy the moods of the attendants. Instable moral consciousness of Dr. Chasuble reflects from his surrender to the affections of Mrs. Prism. Life in Victorian society was full of hustle and bustle. People were anxious. Much more business kept people confined in their own privacy. The deeply hidden anxiety made Victorian people absent-minded. Miss Prism is a victim of Victorian absent-mindedness. “Algernon: Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility” (Wilde I.17) Algernon thinks lower classes should set a moral example

The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and the novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson showcase the Victorian era. With memorable characters like Aunt Augusta, accustomed to tea time and addicted to her cucumber sandwiches, and the loveable Dr. Jekyll, driven by his own devilish work, one is almost able to hear the trotting of horses with carriages on cobblestone streets. While the thought of high society and misty mornings is appealing, both works of literature are also used to convey the ludicrousness of Victorian society. Whether it is Algernon or Jack bunburying in the country or Dr. Jekyll’s transformation into the detestable Mr. Hyde, each one has found a need to create a separate entity from themselves due to societal pressures. Wilde’s lighthearted mockery of the things central to society, such as class struggle and marriage, and his deliberate focus on things less meaningful, like cucumber sandwiches, adds a much more serious tone to his play in modern society than Stevenson, who uses graphic images and internal struggle to convey his thoughts on society and encourage reader introspection.

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

Food is a crucial part of everyone’s lives. It gives people energy and nutrients to essentially grow, move, work, play, think and learn and most importantly, to survive. It is the one thing everyone in this world knows despite its shape, form or smell. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, food and eating are constantly being presented. Wilde uses the character’s constant consumption of food to emphasize the overeating, excessive consumption and self-indulgence of the upper-class members of the Victorian society. The necessity of food becomes a euphemism for all the things pleasurable yet is also used as a way to suppress emotions. With the outbreak of the new era for women, food introduces Wilde’s playful yet snub opinion on the freedom of women, while still referring to the struggles of being accepted in society.

Satire, in which Wilde places throughout the dialogue, is used to deride Victorian age concept of marriage and exhibit the theme to the audience. This is evident when Wilde addresses how Gwendolen and Cecily refuse to marry a man if their names were not

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.

Through the two main male characters, Algernon and Jack, Wilde seems to be suggesting that, marriage can become such a serious issue that it requires sacrifices. The first ‘sacrifice’ that they are willing to do is to get rid of their ‘imaginary friends’: Bunbury and Ernest. The second one occurs when they come to acknowledge that, in order to marry the women they love, they need to change their name to Ernest and that this can only be done through baptism. The girls see this as a demonstration of ‘self-sacrifice’ and ‘physical courage’ (Wilde, 2008, p. 296), pleasing them enormously and emphasising how serious is for them to achieve the goal of getting marry. This willingness to change their identity, highlights that their desire of getting

Like any good dandy, Algernon constructs himself from the outside in. He does not insist on having an identity, he simply exudes one, and that contradictory persona lays the foundation for The Importance of Being Earnest as a play. In truth, Algernon “could not exist at all without a public whose standards of taste, hierarchies of value and conventions of discourse he could predict” (Godfrey 28) because of his ironic twisting of those same values. Wilde’s play, in the same way, could not exist if it did not have the framework of aristocratic London to echo and satire. Wilde’s values are woven throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, to the point where the concept is given life in Algernon and the story given traction by the duality of dandyism.

The desire of manipulating marriage in “The Importance of Being Ernest” is directly related to these factors. Oscar Wilde portrays his characters regarding these factors and has a point to teach his audience the flaws about marriage.