The Importance Of Being Earnest Societal Standards Essay

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is truly a satire. In The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde mocks the society in Britain, and the rules it followed in the 1800s. He uses satire in the description of every character and other themes like marriage, intelligence, morality, and lifestyle primarily aimed at the upper class of the time. At the turn of every page the use of satire proves again and again to be ideal when questioning the morals and values of people.

“The Importance of Being Earnest,” a satirical play written by Oscar Wilde, discusses a vast variety of criticisms regarding the late Victorian societal period. In this comedic drama, focusing on and analyzing certain minor characters leads to a more effective interpretation of the messages attempting to be portrayed to the audience. For example, through the persona of Lady Bracknell, Wilde effectively mocks the concept of marriage for social status rather than love. Additionally, interpreting the roles of the lower class servants allows the readers to internalize the desperate need for social reform that the author felt at the time period. Finally, the entire concept of Bunburyism, or masquerading as an alternate persona, satirizes the hypocrisy of the Victorian Era.

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, there is a lot of humor that can be found. Specifically, developed behind the characters in this play that display many instances of irony and how important it was to fit into the “status quo” of this time period. There are specific behaviors from the characters of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon that portray Wilde’s opinion of society during the Victorian Age. The attitude of these characters is snobbish and their manners display double standards and superiority. The play’s use of mockery and irony of these satirical situations is meant to publicly ridicule the self- loving attitude of the upper class while exposing their true absence of intelligence which causes their absurd social behaviors

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest the setting is Victorian England, which is pertinent because of the social rules that play a role in the play, such as how a woman should behave. Oscar Wilde’s main goal while writing this play was to critique the upper class citizens in a comedic light. He achieved this through writing his characters as people who didn’t quite follow the rules, but could still keep up their appearances when need be. The character Cecily Cardew is an example of a character who can pass as a respectable noble when they try but that personality they show is in fact a fake. In truth, Cecily’s character is by no means innocent but she is charming and clever in ways she can hide that fact. Her character is not interested

During the victorian era, traditional roles were considered to be significant. Women displayed as a face to be admired by the society while men are valued for their intellectual capabilities. Having written The Importance of Being Earnest during that period, Oscar Wilde knew that the gender roles were noteworthy that he decided to focus on one’s roles. While a lot say that the main role switch were given to women, I beg to differ. Wilde challenged the traditional views of gender roles in the play because of how he reciprocated what is expected of both genders by giving the men freedom to act out of morality and by granting women intellect and power.

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, and death throughout the play with each character.

Every line, every character, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is set on supporting Oscar Wilde’s want for social change. The Importance of Being Earnest was written during the late period of the Victorian era. During this period social classification was taken very seriously. It could affect working and living conditions, education, religion, and marriage. Wilde explores the issues of social class and turns it into a comedic play. He humorously criticizes Victorian manners and attacking the society of the luxurious life. The audience becomes self-aware as the characters reflect on themselves. Plays such as this become successful because of the backgrounds the writers come from and the experiences they have had.

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde was written during the Victorian Era, characterized for its moral values. Throughout the play, Wilde used satire as comical relief to show his deviance from the social order by making ridiculous the ideas of standards, morals and manners. Oscar Wilde criticizes the superficiality of Victorian marriage and courtship through the character Lady Bracknell and the name Earnest. Lady Bracknell is presented by Wilde as the true definition of a satirical character.

Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest (.1993.) is an enlightening epitome of social class in the Victorian era. The satire is driven by the frivolous behaviour, superficial lives and artificial norms within the Victorian aristocracy. Incorporating his own opinion into the play, Wilde continually attacked and mocked their hypocrisy, views on marriage, and their mannerisms. Throughout the play, Wilde used an abundant range of literary techniques to reinforce his opinion. Irony, paradox and hyperboles, as well as witty epigrams and aphorisms were used astutely and were ubiquitous throughout the play. This contributed to the satirical style and tone of the text, and enabled Wilde to effectively communicate his critical perspective on social class in Victorian England.

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 is trying to show the audience the ridiculous nature of Victorian society. Through the reoccurring theme of dualism, Oscar Wilde uses sizable amounts of satire to not only mock the trivial Victorian society, but more specifically to ridicule

AThe Importance of Being Earnest a play written by Oscar Wilde is set in England in the late Victorian era. Wilde uses obvious situational and dramatic irony within the play to satirize his time period. According to Roger Sale in Being Ernest the title has a double meaning to it and is certainly another example of satire used by Wilde. With a comedic approach, Wilde ridicules the absurdities of the character’s courtship rituals, their false faces, and their secrets. (Sale, 478)

Amidst a world portrayed in Victorian fashion, decadent and proper, Oscar Wilde’s mind raced. His play The Importance of Being Earnest brings to light the stereotypical upper class societal mindset commonly found in the late nineteenth century. By poking fun at the ridiculously wealthy and reputable, Wilde created a play filled with strikingly exaggerated irony and satire. Wilde’s finished product not only displayed a parody of upper class behavior, but also the foolishness of adolescent love and obsessions over one’s reputation. Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest exemplifies comical ideals of identity mixups and romantic mayhem through the use of understatement, overstatement, and irony in order to portray Victorian society

Previous to Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Victorian comedies consisted mostly of high and low comedy and of ‘dirty or vulgar jokes, dirty gestures, and sex’. Hence, it is possible to suggest that contradictory to Edouard Roditi’s interpretation, the Importance of Being Earnest carries a moral point of view in the fact it does not exploit sex or sexual preferences to effectuate drollery; Wilde provokes laughter through mistaken identities and the consequences of ‘bunburying’ perhaps to allude that his opinions it that sexuality is not a laughing matter. Providing this interpretation is true, it is acceptable to assume that the reasoning behind the negative criticisms the drama received when first written were due to the fact critics felt appalled that a piece of writing could prove successful without it consisting of any sexual nature and hence deemed The Importance of Being Earnest as, ‘dull in comparison to other plays read over the years’.

The Importance of Being Earnest has been referred to as “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” these “serious people” were those of the Victorian contemporaries. Wilde’s writings created this dimensional portal that allowed viewers to visualize and understand the actions that took place “behind doors” in this era. He suggested that these contemporaries should treat trivial matters with greater respect and pay less attention to what society regarded as serious. In Victorian society only several things were spoken about seriously: appearance, style, and money. Wilde not only expressed this philosophy in The Importance of Being Earnest, but in recently read, Lady of Windermere 's Fan as well. Oscar Wilde’s most commonly trivial matter was marriage and how it was seen as an arrangement, way of gaining social status, and a game.

The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde's play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others' lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they liberate