The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay

In order to fully understand the meaning of “The Importance of Being Earnest” and its importance in its time, one must look at Oscar Wilde’s background in relation to the Victorian time period. Biography.com states that Wilde had a very social life, growing up among influential Victorians and intellectuals of the time. As he grew older and became a successful writer, he began engaging in homosexual affairs which was a crime during the 19th century. He eventually started a relationship with Alfred

Both The Importance of Being Earnest, a comedy play written before 1900, and The Middle, a contemporary comedy about a weird family which attempts to get together despite incredible differences and challenges, use comedic techniques to get the reader or viewer more interested. These strategies work in that one is more likely to continue viewing or reading while laughing and relating to the information as well. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde takes the reader on very wild ride through

Oscar Wilde uses a comedy of manners to present a critical view of late 19th century society in The Importance of Being Earnest through hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is the practice of demanding to have sophisticated standards or more honourable beliefs than one actually does. An example of hypocrisy can be seen in Act 1 when Algernon states that “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

Through the comparison of education of the upper and lower classes, juxtaposition is interlaced throughout ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Lady Bracknell is the foremost character to portray this satirical technique, as she considers the upper class to be much more educated than the lower class, merely because of social status. “The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde is a play which contain the lies of Jack and Algernon and how that affects the attitudes of their beloved Gwendolen and Cecily and ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde is about the lives of three men Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian Gray and it also includes how people were hypocritical towards Victorian ethics. In the book ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Lord Henry said, “We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle

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

Oscar Wilde's final play The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed in 1895, near the end of Britain's Victorian Era. As was common in Wilde's previous works, the play lightheartedly documents (and often mocks) Victorian society and explores a number of universal themes such as marriage, gender, and social class. One element in particular that Wilde repeats throughout the play is the superficiality of his characters. For them, appearance takes precedence over all else. This superficiality

Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest is a short play written during the Victorian Era by Oscar Wilde. In his play, Wilde’s use of mockery and irony is meant to publicly ridicule the self-centered attitude of the Victorian upper classes, as well as, to expose their hypocrisy, lack of intelligence, and ridiculous social behaviors. Wilde mocks the Victorian structure of society in Britain and the procedures it followed by satirizing issues such as marriage, money

The play Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde is an excellent representative of the comedy of manners. Typical, for Oscar’s style, there is always something hiding behind character than what the readers suppose. In the play women are very responsible for development of the action. I will provide the portrayal of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen and Miss Prism. A way how Wilde mocks Victorian society and its values and also brings up diverting questions about gender roles, where women are dominant

egos exist to create a balance between their affluent lives and their desired lifestyle. The upper class is constantly burdened by their social obligations. In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” the theme of social class is seen through the value of a name. A name is used to show the importance of how wealthy a person is during this time period. “. . . name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest” (Wilde 1521-1522)