Language In Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Ernest

One of the main ways in which Wilde uses language and character in ‘The Importance of

Being Ernest’ is not only to entertain but also to criticise society. This is mainly reflected in the way that Algernon so frequently uses paradoxes to challenge and, in a way, poke fun at orthodox ideas and in the way that Lady Bracknell and Jack think so highly of society and indeed the way it must be ran. The character of Lady Bracknell is often used in a more comic fashion, but it is also true to say that she is used to criticise the way that society is ran. Lady Bracknell is one of the most traditional characters in the play. She herself criticises society, but not in the way that

Wilde does. She uses paradoxes to criticise the way that society is changing.

However, he also uses the character Jack to express the opinion that many ‘typical’ Victorians were indeed very hypocritical. This is shown

Blake 3 by the way that Jack takes such a moral tone on serious issues. For example, he takes a high moral tone about Algernon’s ‘Bunburying’ when he is, in fact, doing exactly the same thing.

It is also shown by the way that he talks about women. Our first impression is that his attitude towards women is honourable-that he respects them and believes that they deserve to be told the truth (shown in the way that he disagrees with Algernon keeping a secret about Bunbury and the fact that he intends to tell Gwendolen about ‘Ernest’). Yet he is later shown to be somewhat contradictory when he talks about not telling Gwendolen the truth about his fictional identity of Ernest, o his life in the

The way that Wilde uses the character of Algernon to criticise society is in a totally different way. The character’s language is full of paradoxes and puns, which challenge and criticise society in themselves.

His outlook on life is totally opposite to that of a ‘typical’ Victorian, allowing Wilde to reject the rules of normal society and create new Victorian concepts through Algernon. “I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.” Not only is this comic and typical of Algernon’s ideas, it creates the idea that society is wrong in what is said to be important and pleasure is actually the most important thing in life. Algernon also hates the idea of “washing one’s clean linen in public.” This is also totally controversial of typical ideas as even Lady Bracknell suggests that everything one does will be public knowledge. Although on the surface it can appear that Wilde uses character and language solely to develop comedy in the play, it can also be said that a more important idea of society’s criticisms is developed through the characters and