William Wilde 's The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay

In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde revealed that animalistic traits can tint a character’s intellectual attributes. All of the characters possess an overwhelming desire which seems to diminish their morality. Wilde uses Jack Worthing’s animalistic behaviors to reveal that his animal self is damaging his intellectual self. The play is presented to show that the characters retain an exaggerated pleasure with food, which shows their pleasures in inanimate objects. Every character in the play is drawn into lustful relationships, thus mutilating their psychological self. By embracing their animalistic traits the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest begin to blemish their intellectual character which inhibits their overall

The playwriter Oscar Wilde sexual philosophies are reinforced throughout his play, The Importance of Being Ernest. Wilde’s characters and choices of stage direction evoke a tone of sexuality and deviance. The characters’ social belief’s and identities are in parallel with the Literary Queer Theory on many key points.

It has been said that ‘comedy, beginning in turmoil but ending in harmony, celebrates life.’ This relates well to ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ where Wilde proves that this comedy of manners does conform to this model since it traces the movement from distress to happiness. In this comedy of manners there is a movement from distress to happiness, even though some characters such as Algernon do not learn any lessons and stays ‘bad’.

Throughout much of the play and especially the beginning, Wilde satirizes the setting in which both the characters as well as his audience live in. This satirization specifically requires that the audience be thoughtful whenever Wilde makes a joke, resulting in the thoughtful laughter which makes a true comedy. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is set during the late 20th century in Britain, a time period known as the Victorian Era, in which the British Empire was at its absolute peak. The dominance of Britain in world affairs resulted in a sense of

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

Jack does not admit to being a Bunburyist, even after he is exposed as such, while Algernon not only admits his wrongdoings but also takes pleasure in it. Algernon's enjoyment stems from his own cleverness and ingenuity with his philosophy on life being blatantly apparent in his statement, "one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life. I happen to be serious about Bunburying..." (Wilde, 40) Still, Jack takes the idea of Bunburrying too far, and even though Algernon states to him, "I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburrying. I want to tell you the rules," Jack has no interest in hearing about these rules and thus acts as a prime example of the consequences of the general hypocrisy of the Victorian mindset which Wilde seems to comment on in this case.

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.

Wilde uses a deceptively flippant tone and irony to criticize the hypocrisy of the upper class in Victorian society in relation to living an earnest life. Earnestness as a virtue was of paramount importance during Victorian Society, with people constantly striving to live an earnest life, that is, a life of honesty and seriousness in intention and purpose. The Victorian society was passionately obsessed with the ideals of earnestness, that individuals in the upper middle class were pressured to go to any lengths to lead such a life, even if it meant a difference between what they said, how they acted in public and what they honestly thought. "My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing

Oscar Wilde's, "The Importance of Being Earnest" revolves around the dichotomy of the true definition of honesty versus the victorian definition of honesty. It is apparent that Wilde's opinion is that true honesty is expressed through being genuine to one's self as opposed to putting on a front as is important in victorian ideals. In this work, Wilde uses humor to off-set the seriousness of the theme of the story. One who has studied this work can also clearly see that Wilde is using sarcasm to say things that would not have been accepted by society if they were said bluntly. For example he exemplifies in a very sarcastic manner the hypocracy that victorian society represents by the very fact that they pretend to uphold honesty above all

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, premiered in London in 1895 when Wilde was in the peak of his career. During this time of the Victorian Era, society was very moral and chaste, at least on the surface. There was a very specific code of behavior that governed almost everything, but focused mainly on the topic of marriage. This affected Wilde first-hand as he was married to a woman but also involved with men which was forbidden at the time. Using the themes of dualism and marriage, Wilde is trying to show the audience the ridiculous nature of Victorian society. Through the reoccurring theme of dualism, Oscar Wilde uses sizable amounts of satire to not only mock the trivial Victorian society, but more specifically to ridicule

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)

Oscar Wilde uses Algernon as a representative to criticize the aristocracy through selfishness, arrogance and hypocrisy presented by Algernon. When Algernon is at Jack’s home, his attitude of talking to Jack reflects his selfishness and arrogance. Wilde portrays how Algernon devours all these muffins from Jack’s perspective, “Well, that is no reason why you should eat them all in that greedy way” (Wilde 1766). Jack’s comment on Algernon’s behavior satirizes the selfishness among aristocracy. Later on, Algernon demands Jack to stop eating muffins, “Jack, you are at the muffins again!

The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde's play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others' lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they liberate

In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, many aspects of Victorian society and modern life are satirized. Marriage is a central aspect of American life- a dream for some and a nightmare for others. Marriage also plays a principal role in The Importance of Being Earnest- the dream for the young couples, Algernon and Cecily as well as Jack and Gwendolen, but their dream is the plague of Aunt Augusta, also known as Lady Bracknell. Oscar Wilde uses witty dialogue to ridicule traditional courtship and marriage.

The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde definitely proved itself to be “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” I saw the play at State University’s State Theatre. The play was long, in a three-act structure, yet it moved along at a good pace. They did a nice job of preparing the audience, there was an interesting lobby display with sketches of each of the costumes with fabric samples and they played music to fit the time period before the show began.