In Act II of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde the characters Jack and Algernon, and Gwendolen and Cecily awaken thoughtful laughter. This laughter is thoughtful because it shows two stereotypical reactions, and how ignorant they truly are. In Act II Gwendolen and Cecily are two stereotypes. The first stereotype the perpetuate is the typical bembo.
His intention in lampooning was for his audience to enjoy the irony and sarcasm of his work while criticizing the foolish view of the upper class. During the time play’s release, many critics wrote about their opinions of the play. Some critics saw his work as a fantasy, others said it was burlesque, but there were also critics who understood Wilde’s purpose for writing this play (Kohl 272). For instance, Norbert Kohl said, “He is made to laugh at the hollow superficiality hidden behind the mask of earnestness, and to mock the rich facade…” (Kohl 272). Khol clearly understood that Wilde’s purpose of writing The Importance of Being Earnest was to publicly and comically criticize the rich.
In the play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Oscar Wilde often satirizes the shallow conventions of Victorian upper class society. This is present in all parts of the play, beginning to end. Wilde uses marriage, religion, and relationships to truly narrow in on the shallow conventions of Victiorian upper class society. Between these three examples, Wilde truly dives into the upper class through satire. The first example of how Oscar Wilde satirizes the shallow conventions of the upper class in marriage.
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.
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.
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.
The aesthetic movement in England initiates the idea that one’s actions should be to expose the maximum amount of beauty in other individuals. In the nineteenth century, England was strongly opposed to the ideas of aestheticism by exhibiting more of the characteristics of Modern era. In the importance of being Ernest, Wilde uses the immoralities of Algernon to criticize the aristocrats that support the Victorian norms as opposed to aesthetic values.
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.
Appearance vs Reality The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a play about things not being as they seem. The play is about each individual man and woman’s wants and fantasies. The men want an escape from reality. The women fantasize about the man they will one day marry.
Oscar Wilde uses the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest to reveal his true feelings about the Victorian upper class. In the title of his play, Wilde uses a pun and character dialogue to display the hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the VIctorian era. Not only does the title stand for the adjective earnest, readers will understand that there is actual importance in being a man named Ernest. In the first act of the play, Wilde introduces Ernest.
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.
Firstly, through the characters of Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, Wilde toys with gender stereotypes. As Victorian men, it was unusual for men to have interests or behavior that was often associated with Victorian women. For instance, in the play, Algernon spent extravagant amounts of money on clothes and other luxuries, which was behavior often associated with women at the time. He also spent
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.
While many have been familiar with the title of the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, one should also pay attention to its subtitle, ‘trivial comedy for serious people’. The play is a satire that ridicules the upper class to point out its fault (Kreuz and Roberts 100).The aim is to ridicule the ‘serious people’, members of the upper class in Victorian society. The characters were too attentive to social propriety and etiquette, which were as trivial as the comedy suggests in the eyes of Wilde. As they were too stubborn to alter the behaviour, the propriety and etiquette became superficial and meaningless. Their idleness and hypocrisy are other points at which Wilde recurrently mock in the play.
Wilde’s comedic influence takes place in the characters placing emphasis on trivial things and treating serious matters with inconsequence. Though this play could be viewed as a simple comedy, what makes it a satirical work is the underlying social commentary. Wilde highlights his views on institutions such as love, marriage, and gender relations by satirizing their nature via reductio ad absurdum and thereby reveals their essential frivolity. Though marriage is traditionally viewed by society as the final step in a lover’s journey, Wilde intentionally separates marriage and love to the point where they seem mutually exclusive.
