What Is Wilde's Parallel Structure In The Importance Of Being Earnest

       In the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Oscar Wilde focused on the Victorian Age by mocking the Victorian principles and ideals. Wilde utilized satire and mockery through the character to make fun of their culture, principles, behaviors, and morals of the Victorians. Wilde also used the characters in the play to demonstrate the political, social, and religious views in the late 1900’s.

The gulf between the upper class and its servants is explored in the scenes with Merriman and Prism. When Lady Bracknell unexpectedly shows up at Jack's, Merriman coughs discretely to warn the couples of her arrival. One can only imagine his humorous thoughts as he watches the wealthy tiptoe around each other and argue about what should be important. When Lady Bracknell hears the description of Prism and recognizes her as their former nanny, she calls for Miss Prism by shouting "Prism!" without using a title in front of her name. Imperiously, Lady Bracknell divides the servant from the lady of the manor. Wilde's audience would recognize this behavior on the part of the servants and the upper class. The stuffy class distinctions defined the society in which they lived.

One might believe that honesty is one of the building blocks of a society and is what initiates trust between people; furthermore, the Victorian era was a time period in British history where rules and morals appeared to be strict. The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, a nineteenth century author who was one of the most acclaimed playwrights of his day, is a play set in the Victorian time period that demonstrates how trivial telling the truth was. Different characters throughout Wilde’s play establish their dishonestly through hiding who they really are and pretending to be someone whom they are not. In an essay titled “From ‘Oscar Wilde’s Game of Being Earnest,’” Tirthankar Bose describes the characters from The Importance of Being Earnest as playing games with one another, which is a result of the deceit that was present in the play. Although the Victorian time period is a time characterized by strong morals and values, The Importance of Being Earnest proves this notion to not apply to telling the truth and ultimately questions why truth is not valued in the Victorian time period amongst other strictly upheld values. Honesty is not valued throughout the play because some of the characters felt to need to appear as if they represented the strict morals that were common throughout the time period.

“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.

example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class to

Throughout the play, aristocratic social relations are revealed, specifically with regard to how individuals within the society conduct themselves by embracing dual personalities. These individuals typically advocate one belief yet act in a completely different manner. On the whole, Wilde fashions a comedic environment in order to create absurd characters devoid of insight, which makes them behave unsoundly. Wilde’s use of satire to elucidate various elements of Victorian society reveals the superficiality and hypocrisy of its characters and their ideals.

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.

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

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, two gentlemen exemplify the result of dishonesty and hypocrisy. Set in Victorian England, the two bachelors, Algernon and Jack, fight over which one of them will take the name Ernest in order to win their own girl. Wilde circumvents conventionalism and employs superior satirical strategy to not only teach the importance of being earnest, a characteristic held dear by Victorian society, but he also chastises his world for the hypocrisy between man and woman and between upper and lower classes.

This is not the case in the play; when Algernon is at Jack’s country home he eats all of the muffins, despite Jack telling him to stop. There are also some comments made that are rude and, frankly, absurd, such as when Lady Blackwell tells Jack that it is carless for him to have lost both parents. TS2: The purpose of satirical works, according to Jago’s Literature and Composition, is “to use irony, wit, and humor to expose societal shortcomings, human folly, or injustice.”

Amidst a world portrayed in Victorian fashion, decadent and proper, Oscar Wilde’s mind raced. His play The Importance of Being Earnest brings to light the stereotypical upper class societal mindset commonly found in the late nineteenth century. By poking fun at the ridiculously wealthy and reputable, Wilde created a play filled with strikingly exaggerated irony and satire. Wilde’s finished product not only displayed a parody of upper class behavior, but also the foolishness of adolescent love and obsessions over one’s reputation. Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest exemplifies comical ideals of identity mixups and romantic mayhem through the use of understatement, overstatement, and irony in order to portray Victorian society

This satirical view is closely bound to the atmosphere of the time. The play itself deals itself with a typical Comedy of Manners storyline, the trivial social standards, love affairs and the aim of gaining the most money with the least effort. These subject matters are transfixed into a witty dialogue of which is usually a focal point of Comedy of Manners material. The play criticizes and upholds the Upper classes ideals at the same time. Oscar Wilde’s satirical view of the Upper class is a paradox in itself as he was part of it. The Importance of Being Earnest also supports elements of the well-made play.      

Oscar Wilde described his play as “a trivial comedy for serious people.” This is because, despite its light-hearted character, Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a critical satire of the falsity which characterized Victorian society in which he lived. One of the foremost characters in this incisive piece of social commentary is Jack, the unfortunate fellow who has mislead his fiance Gwendolen about his identity. Jack’s deception and the motives for his deception contribute to the meaning of the work by highlighting the superficiality, hypocrisy, and chicanery of contemporary society.

Lady Bracknell not only holds status higher than love, but has a deep rooted philosophy that to marry someone without a similar amount of money is preposterous. Wilde uses this pervasive societal ideal, and embeds it in the play during the interaction between Lady Bracknell and her nephew Algernon in regards to his intention of marrying Cecily. The first idea that manifests in Lady Bracknell’s mind is that Algernon is far to good for Cecily, and this idea is based entirely on her dislike for Jack, Cecily’s guardian and therefore she refuses to marry them until she hears the amount of money Cecily has. Lady Bracknell says, "A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive lady, now that I look at her" ( III. 97 ). In this quick turn of events Lady Bracknell is seen to again prioritize something above love, when it comes to this marriage, monetary wealth. Oscar Wilde sends a clear message to the readers that the upper class aristocrats are concerned with very petty and materialistic things. This is evident during Lady Bracknell’s initial reaction after hearing of Algernon and Cecily’s engagement. Lady Bracknell is solely concerned with Cecily’s financial standings disregarding the importance of moral values. Furthermore she is convinced that her social status gives her the privilege to approve or disprove the marriage, thus

In Oscar Wilde’s play, he showed the upper class had many requirements for potential wedding partners, wealth being a key requirement. He also showed that women weren’t allowed to marry outside of their class, even if they loved the person. Overall, the text above shows that marriage was different for the lower and upper classes of society.