ipl-logo

Outline For The Importance Of Being Ernest

874 Words4 Pages

I. Oscar Wilde uses food as a source of conflict between social classes and constructs in “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
a. By using food he light heartedly makes conflicted scenes slightly comedic.
b. In his play, Oscar’s two main characters Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, both have a made up double identity.
c. Jack uses the name Ernest when he goes into town, and his real name, Jack when he is in the country.
d. Algernon uses the name Bunbury, when he wants to escape into the country.
e. Both men invent this false identity so that they can move between the social classes and not settle in only one for their whole lives.
f. These fake names gives each man a chance to escape their daily lives and live in a fairy tale of their choosing. …show more content…

Oscar Wilde uses this scene to highlight the way that the higher social class you are, the more you know.
IV. After Algernon and Ernest’s, fake identities is revealed to the women they each love, they begin to eat the food that the women were just previously arguing about.
a. Algernon starts eating the muffins, and Jack says that it is ridiculous that he can sit and calmly eat when they are in a terrible situation.
b. Algernon states that the bread and butter could get on his cuffs if eaten in an agitated manner, while you have to calmly eat muffins; it’s the only way to.
c. Jack claims that Algernon is going to eat all the muffins, so he takes one and begins to eat as well.
d. Algernon adds that Jack eats the cake since he likes muffins better, but Jack protests saying that he should be allowed to eat the muffins since its his house.
e. By eating the food, they in a way, bash the idea of marriage due to the fact that they do not even care what they are eating.
f. The men do not care about what society has to say about eating certain food, they only care about which food they like and do not like.
V. Through out Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Oscar uses food as an analogy to poke fun of, and show, the conflict between social classes and

Show More
Related

The Meaning Of Lakoda's The Importance Of Being Earnest

1000 Words | 4 Pages

Names essentially are used to give meaning to a person, ordinarily a person fills in that criteria. In the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon, Ernest, and Cecily all have meaning behind their names and reasoning for their names that introduces themselves throughout the play. Algernon’s name comes

Read More

Lesson Before Dying Ernest Jefferson Character Analysis

590 Words | 3 Pages

Imagine knowing that in just one month you will sit in the last chair that you will ever sit in. Would you be able to walk up to the death chair? For you, this is a nightmare, but for Jefferson in Ernest J. Gains novel, Lesson Before Dying, this is a living reality in where he knows when he knows will die. Jefferson is very strong and was able to become thankful, become more selfless, and accept death. When Ernest J. Gains introduces jefferson, we know that Grant, a teacher, is in charge to change his perspective and help him improve in every way possible.

Read More

Slapstick Humor In The Importance Of Being Ernest

1085 Words | 5 Pages

Slapstick Humor: Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest is full of slapstick humor, where actions and body language, in addition to words, are used for a humorous effect. Oscar Wilde introduces Earnest’s double identity of being “JACK – … Earnest in town and Jack in the country…” (A.I, P.5) - the same person perceived to be completely different, depending on the setting. Algernon discovers this double identity without knowing it, in Act I, when he finds Earnest’s cigarette box with an inscription that reveals Earnest’s second identity. Slapstick humor is shown through body language when Earnest kneels on the sofa and follows Algernon around the room. Earnest becomes nervous when Algernon tries to read the inscription on the cigarette case and runs around the sofa in a chasing motion.

Read More

Earnest And A Modest Proposal

1276 Words | 6 Pages

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift are two pieces of satire. A Modest Proposal is a satirical proposal that suggested people should eat poor babies to alleviate famine and overpopulation in Ireland, as a way to mock the Irish government for not enforcing any solutions during the catastrophic state of Ireland. The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that highlights the superficiality of the wealthy. Swift and Wilde use different satirical techniques to critique their targets. Although the authors use different satirical techniques, they have both created pieces that are relevant today.

Read More

John Drinkwater Satire

576 Words | 3 Pages

I found that primarily The Importance of Being Earnest was satirical and humorous. Wilde focuses the story on the two aristocrats who seemingly had no other task, but to be sneaky and cunning. He writes with an insensitive kind of humour, which is equally entertaining and unsettling. John Drinkwater focuses on the joy and drama in the play. He also complements the simplicity of the story which I had not noticed till I had read Drinkwater’s criticism.

Read More

Literary Analysis Of Oscar Wilde's Impressions Of America

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

The Importance Of Being Earnest Quote Analysis

1366 Words | 6 Pages

The author is revealing that Jack is a man that would not say a statement in straightforward manner, but instead hesitates and gives hints to people. Jack is indirectly telling Lady Bracknell that he was left in a hand bag that was in good condition, and not in some broken hand bag. He is stating that his family, even though he

Read More

Gender Roles In Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest

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

Satire In The Importance Of Being Earnest

1225 Words | 5 Pages

Wilde further mocks the idea that Gwendolen and Cecily are engaged in the name rather than the characteristic of a person in the marriage. This is also a dramatic irony since they do not know that they are engaged to two different men who are pretending to be same Ernest but the reader can correctly understand the situation. It is silly to embrace the ideal of the name and determine their marriage based on a name. In the end of play, Jack finds out his real name and states that “I have now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being Earnest ”(54) Wilde applies the situation irony to point out that Jack’s Christian name is Ernest and he has been telling the truth all the time even if Ernest is his Bunbury at first.

Read More

Essay On The Importance Of Being Ernest

1029 Words | 5 Pages

Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.” (Wilde Pg10). Except the rationale of having the dignity to pursue and the satisfaction of being arrogant, another reason for conducting deception to others mentioned in “The Importance of Being Earnest” is for the sake of having more interesting lives according to Jack and Algernon. Finding the modern lives too tedious and boring, they make up fictitious characters, who are used as fake identities for those two gentlemen to shuttle between the town and the country at any time they want even if they behave badly. Unexpectedly, the so-called “Bunburying” practice do bring changes and trouble to two gentlemen’s lives.

Read More

Identity In The Importance Of Being Earnest

1172 Words | 5 Pages

Art, artifice and identity is the theme explored through the use of the two chosen stimulus texts Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl and The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Wendy Jones and Oscar Wilde respectively. Art and artifice merge as Grayson Perry uses his alter-ego, Claire, to express his creativity and identity. Similarly, the artifice of an alter-ego is part of The Importance of Being Earnest, as the play's protagonists, Jack and Algernon, deceive family and friends by lying about their identity to suit them best. The texts used to explore the theme are a review for the Guardian on the Grayson Perry memoir and an excerpt from Jack's diary set before the events in The Importance of Being Earnest

Read More

The Importance Of Being Earnest Double Life Analysis

715 Words | 3 Pages

Oscar Wilde’s mocking the Victorian way of life in “The Importance of Being Earnest” The Victorian age, which occurs, as its name says, during the time Queen Victoria ruled, is known for prudish, sanctimonious, and hypocritical behaviour of the people who lived at that specific period of time. Victorian people were often living double lives in order to maintain their appearance as moral and ideal in the eyes of the society but also to have fun and joy in “wrongdoings” without being marked as immoral, irresponsible and less than their society impose. This way of life Victorian people lived Oscar Wilde successfully mocks in his play The Importance of Being Earnest.

Read More

Climax In Oscar Wilde's Importance Of Being Earnest

1662 Words | 7 Pages

Climax - Jack and Algernon have separately made arrangements with Dr. Chasuble to be christened as Ernest later that day. Both ladies reveal that the other has been deceived, as they are both to marry the same person. When it is revealed that neither Jack nor Algernon are Ernest, they both demand where Jack’s brother Ernest is, which forces Jack to admit that Ernest does not exist at all. There is a progressive build in the play that leads to this moment, this is achieved through increasing deception and confusion, essentially the characters continue to dig themselves deeper into the mess that both themselves and each-other has made, which ultimately leads to their own demise. Falling Action (Road from the climax to the resolution)

Read More

Marriage In Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest

1653 Words | 7 Pages

Neither the master nor the servant respected the established verticality (Baselga). Not only did Algernon do this with Lane, but he also happened to have a conflict with Jack that is another jab at the Victorian idea of morality: Jack: It is a very ungentlemanly thing to read a private cigarette case. Algernon:

Read More

Aestheticism In The Importance Of Being Earnest

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

More about Outline For The Importance Of Being Ernest

Related Topics

Open Document