ipl-logo

Humor In The Importance Of Being Earnest

300 Words2 Pages
In the “Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, Wilde uses humor in order to point out the narrow-minded views of society during that time. He does this by using comedic techniques in his text in order to satirize the institution of marriage and love throughout the story.
In the story, love is seen to be superficial and Wilde uses it in order to show how outward appearances and certain qualifications had to be met for each of the characters in order for marriage to happen. Love and marriage was seen more as a business and a goal rather than actually being sincere and truthful. This is seen in the story when shortly after meeting Cecily, Algernon says "I am in love with Cecily, and that is everything.” Then further goes on to propose to
Show More
Related
1236 Words | 5 Pages

In Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, humor is present in an influential form. Not all insane people have the capacity to laugh or find the humor in something as would normal people are capable of. Most people live terrible realities, drifting day by day in the plain, depressing in the place of an asylum. Patients have forgotten how to live because they are under the commanding rule of the head nurse, and under the behavior effect of drug doses and overbearing orderlies. The patients’ laughter is a therapeutic form.

Read More
646 Words | 3 Pages

The Roxanne adaptation movie made a great attempt at recreating the play Cyrano De Bergerac by utilizing elements of humor. The film utilized dramatic irony multiple times throughout the play by having actors say things that differed from what the audience knows actually happened which allowed the movie to have that banter-esque feel that the play brought forth. For example, Chris talks to CD about Roxanne and says she is not a rocket scientists but the audience knows she actually is: “What am I afraid of her for? She's no rocket scientist.” The film also used Blue humor to be risky in the scene where he talks back to individuals talking about his nose, “Pornographic: finally, a man who can satisfy two women at once!

Read More
1059 Words | 5 Pages

The Modern age works reveal that love is an artificial, unrealistic desire as seen through money, status, and women. In the novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald characterizes a love as senseless false wish. In the end when everything was falling apart and they would have had to pay for the mess they created they ran away. “They were careless people Tom and Daisy-

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? In his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895, London St. James’ theater), Oscar Wilde portrays the attitudes and society of Victorian upper class through character interactions within the ‘Bunburyist’ adventures of Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. The play’s comedic elements, in addition to the portrayal of power structures, are used as an effective medium to challenge the viewer to reflect upon Wilde’s criticism on institutions and values of the aristocracy. In conjunction to this, deeper analysis can be conducteds about marriage in Victorian aristocracy and their attitudes to members of other social groups.

Read More
920 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the story of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Oscar pointed out many oblivious actions done by the characters. He constantly used the characters to exaggerate actions of our society today. Wilde uses exaggerations to show how the characters were unable to be a complete individual without the face of the strict social expectations influencing their actions. Everywhere in the society, they are all unable to make their own decisions, and it is very hard for them to be truthful towards who they are without societal norms interfering causing them to lose all individuality. Wilde uses reversal to show how the characters actions were completely insane since they were trying to accommodate societal expectations.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

Through this satirical writing, Wilde uses comparison of beauty and industrialism and juxtaposition between compliments and criticism to paint American social values as backwards and unappealing in order to dispel the glamour of a romantic American culture.

Read More
928 Words | 4 Pages

Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest, set in the late Victorian era, London, is a portrayal of British upper class society and its conventions surrounded by a strict code of conduct. In 1890’s class society, earnestness was desired; to follow the moral code and social obligations in order to keep up one’s appearance. Besides, there was a huge gender disparity between men and women. In the play, Wilde criticizes the social inequality and Victorian upper class standards. He characterizes Victorian personae making fun of their qualities; hypocrisy, arrogance and absurdism, ultimately the very vital state and lifeline of not being earnest at all in Victorian society.

Read More
362 Words | 2 Pages

In today's society, marriage is based on love and commitment. It is not based solely on social status and money. In The Importance of Being Earnest, most of the characters did not particularly love the person they married. During the time period that this story is set, most marriages were arranged based on social status and the amount of money each person’s family had. People in those days did anything they could to be in a high social class, even if it meant marrying someone they didn't love.

Read More
1059 Words | 5 Pages

arch 2018 The Importance of Being Earnest: Oscar Wilde’s Criticism on the Upper Class Using humor, cleverness, and style, Oscar Wilde illustrates the lives of the Victorian upper class in The Importance of Being Earnest. More specifically, the “Trivial Comedy for Serious People” reveals in a satirical manner the insignificant concerns of Great Britain’s aristocracy. In the introduction of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings, editor Richard Ellmann creates an overview of Wilde’s best known work.

Read More
1653 Words | 7 Pages

Oscar Wilde’s Victorian melodramatic play The Importance of Being Earnest opened on February 14, 1895. Wilde used this play to criticize Victorian society through clever phrasing and satire. Throughout the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde displayed the themes of the nature of marriage, the constraints of morality, and the importance of not being earnest. One of the themes that Oscar Wilde includes in the play is the nature of marriage.

Read More
1044 Words | 5 Pages

The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde is an excellent play which has many underlying themes and suggestions especially with regards to the Victorian era, during which this was written. Many themes within the play are reflective of Wilde and his life, including his secrecy and supposed “double life,” his interest in aestheticism, his life pertaining the mannerisms and social etiquette during his lifetime. Today, Oscar Wilde is often remembered in part due to his well known homosexuality trial of 1895 (Linderd, 1), but his “second life” per se had been speculated on for years prior to it, in fact many of his plays contain subtle yet effective implications towards a possible piece of his life kept hidden from the public eye. The Importance of Being Earnest mirrored this double life through the utilization of Jack and Algernon's “Bunburying,” and their motives for lying to the ones whom they love.

Read More
1876 Words | 8 Pages

This essay illustrates how Wilde reinforce his criticism of the upper class at a satirical tone with his writing style at three levels: inter-scene, intra-scene, and within a word. Satire at the inter-scene level The use of fake identities is one of the motifs of the play. The use of motif is important to

Read More
1137 Words | 5 Pages

Love is a complicated affair, it involves the two lives of the couples and the lives of everyone around them. There are many factors that could break or make a relationship, for one to be successful they must be able to succeed in all of those factors. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest delves into these factors regarding love and marriage. Wilde stresses the importance of social status and gender expectations as a key guideline for a successful marriage. For Wilde, social status is defined as birth, wealth, and power.

Read More
782 Words | 4 Pages

Oscar Wilde is known for his homosexuality that eventually lead him to jail, and the perception that is captured from the novel for this topic, apart from being completely ironical in relation to what was established in the British society, is quite strong and could be understood as a consequence of his own life. Marriage and romance are pictured as pointless, imprisoning, faithless, and even contradictory. For example, it is shown a different perception on how love and company are always the ultimate achievement people aim to but is, however, vacant and the only thing that can be taken out of them is loneliness, “The worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic” (Wilde, 1993, 9). On the other hand, once commitment has been made, not only loneliness persists, but, what once was supposed to be love, becomes necessity for they try to escape from life using as a means the other person, “The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties” (Wilde, 1993,

Read More
1277 Words | 6 Pages

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a great example of her works that looks at the role of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Austen shows us the gender roles inflicted on women during this time period and how they are perceived. We see the strict gender roles that women were adhered to and the struggle for identity as a woman. Central to this novel is the vulnerability of women and the expectations surrounding gender influence everything and produce define results. Gender definitely determines and structures the world in which these characters live.

Read More

More about Humor In The Importance Of Being Earnest

Related Topics

Open Document