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The importance of being earnest as a satire
The importance of being earnest as a satire
Lady bracknell characterization
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IOBE What is called good society is usually nothing but a mosaic of polished caricatures.” (Friedrich Schlegel) An upper class society is merely a twisted web of superficial dogma amidst nonsensical wisdoms and outrageously absurd beliefs. Like many satirical plays, The Importance of Being Earnest is deliberately preposterous in nature so as to better ridicule Edwardian social life and cherished ideals. The Importance of Being Earnest is a stinging indictment of upper class British society of the time. The ingenious play mocks the concepts of aristocracy and love in Edwardian society, and addresses the notion of treating all important matters of life with genuine and earnest triviality. Much of the subtle and cleverly attributed criticism found in The Importance of Being Earnest is directed toward the excessively superficial upper class which Lady Bracknell, in particular, distinctly represents. Lady Bracknell is the ideal personification of a typical Edwardian aristocratic woman who is obsessed with high culture and proper manners. Lady Bracknell’s assessment of Jack’s worthiness as a suitor for Gwendolen is based on a ludicrous collection of social beliefs which include senseless wisdoms as “a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing” and “a man should always have an occupation” (i.e. smoking). (p.15, 16) This is a classic example of the extremely whimsical values that consume Lady Bracknell’s nonsensical beliefs. Lady Bracknell’s vanity is made evident when she hastily declares, “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter to marry into a cloak-room and form an alliance with a parcel?” (p.18) Lady Bracknell is not concerned whet... ... middle of paper ... ... wittily-crafted characters address solemn situations with unfeigned triviality, thus adding humour to the absurd Edwardian way of life. The Importance of Being Earnest, a satirical and hypocritical masterpiece, conveys the role of treasured values such as aristocracy and love, and addresses the concept of treating all serious matters of life with genuine and sincere triviality. Although excessively foolish in their nature, the characters of Oscar Wilde’s skillfully-written play truly represent the preposterous principles embodied by the Edwardian upper class. The ludicrous and incongruous ideals cherished by a noble society reveal the superficiality of the caricatures enclosed within. “Any relations in a social order will endure, if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy which qualifies life for immortality.” (George W. Russell)
When deciding what element a play should contain, one must look at a large variety of options. These options can alter how the audience depicts the play and change their overall opinions. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play set around 1895 where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, takes on two identities in order to avoid social obligations. This play’s era affects how the characters are dressed and how their households appear.
Oscar Wildes ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’’ is believed by many to be his most genius work and certainly has withstood the test of time. The play is set in London during the 1890’s in which time frame aristocracy and upper class held the majority of the countries wealth. Many of the comical aspects question the morals of the upper class in which he satirises throughout the play. One method of this, for instance is through one of the main protagonist, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon is an upper class individual who is oblivious to the world around him in such an exaggerated manner that it makes his character comically adjusted for Wildes own views. Many aspects of the time period are made a mockery through puns and witty remarks from the main protagonists, most if not all are portrayed in a sense that makes them undoubtedly a laughing stock. Wildes methods are not discrete; nor are they obvious, many of the comical comments made are by none other than the protagonists themselves. This furthermore enforces the corrupted morals of the time periods prestigious upper class by showing their sheer inability to acknowledge hypocrisy. For example, in act one; Algernon states “ Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.” This is especially amusing as Algernon believes that the lower class have a duty to set an example when in reality the matter of fact was quite the contrary. Algernon states that he believes the lower class are lacking in morals, he being arguably one of the most morally distorted characters Wilde created makes the double standards more prominent.
The wit of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest stems from his place in society and his views of it. He mocks the Victorian aristocracy through his statements and satirising of marriage dependent on social class and wealth, the careful implantation of comedic techniques which add to the effect of the message Wilde aims for the society to take into consideration and the ignorance portrayed by the Victorian society. These socially acceptable mockeries allow the audience to laugh at the satirical social statements while learning a didactic lesson about the current society issues. Through Wilde’s satirical wit, he completes the educational tales he was aiming for, emphasising to readers the insaneness that society can be and its rules.
The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded as one of the most successful plays written by Oscar Wilde, a great 19th century playwright. Oscar Wilde deals with something unique about his contemporary age in this drama. It addresses Victorian social issues, French theatre, farce, social drama and melodrama. All these factors influenced the structure of the play in a large scale. This play is basically a Victorian satirical drama showcasing the social, political, economic and religious structural changes that affected 18th century England. It was the time when British Empire had captured most part of the world including Oscar Wilde’s homeland, Ireland. The aristocrats of England had become dominant over the middle and poor class people and Wilde wrote plays with the motivation to encourage people to think against the English aristocracy and artificiality.
“Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone,” engraves Oscar Wilde as he sets the literary table with a bountiful demonstration of Victorian satire. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is evidently a comic critic of late Victorian value (Schmidt 5). Brought into this world from Dublin, Ireland, to well-heeled parents in 1854. Wilde received an opportunity for social improvement when graduating from Oxford University, after receiving a financial scholarship that gave him a first hand account of the upper crust society lifestyle which allowed him to acquire material to poke fun at (Moss 179). Wilde shows his characters as if they knew that people were watching them.
Irony is a literary device that involves ‘“a contrast between what is said and what is meant” (Kennedy & Gioia 192). However, some writers that incorporate irony into their narratives rely heavily on the reader to comprehend what they are trying to critique. Wilde uses two forms of irony into ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, situational and dramatic. Situational irony refers to “a contrast or incongruity between what we expect and what a character might hope to happen and what actually occurs” (Farner 223; Currie 148). Furthermore Wilde displays this form in the first act with Lady Bracknell refusing to let her daughter Gwendolen marry Ernest (Jack) due to being unsure about his family background, even though he is wealthy; … ‘to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel. Good morning, Mr Worthing’ (Wilde, 311). However she accepts the engagement of Algernon and Cecily knowing that Cecily is wealthy and with full knowledge that she is Jack’s (Ernest’s) ward. ‘Dear child, of course you know Algernon has nothing but his debts to depend on… When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind’’ (Wilde,
Lady Bracknell embodies the Victorian matron role with her domineering, snobbish, and lack of compassion characteristics (Orlich 373). Wilde tends to use Lady Bracknell as a stereotype of the upper class where she didn’t care about the type of person one was as long as they appeared to be of importance to society. This is a theme that we see reoccurring in the personality of Gwendoline, backing up the statement Alge made about women always becoming like their mothers in the end. Lady Bracknell’s shallow character is made more clear during the conversation she had with Jack about his childhood and telling him that he need to provide some sense of belonging before she would even consider letting her daughter marry him, completely disregarding the fact that he was lost in a train station
In Oscar Wilde’s drama The Importance of Being Earnest, he uses light-hearted tones and humor to poke fun at British high society while handling the serious theme of truth and the true identity of who is really “Earnest.” Truth as theme is most significantly portrayed through the women characters, Gwendolen and Cecily but to present serious themes comically, Wilde portrays women to be the weaker sex of society, despite the seriousness of the subject—the identity of the men they want to marry.
Satire in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a play by Oscar Wilde, set in the late 1800's. His actors are playing upper class citizens who are very self-absorbed. The play is set amongst upper class, wealthy people. They appear not to work and are concerned with their own pleasure.
C III. Each character of The Importance of Being Earnest brings his or her own attitude and represents different kind of characterization of Victorian people. The characters are given their own epigrams which can reveal their behaviours and values as the part of Victorian society. a. Algernon “Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what an earth is the use of them?” – Algernon Unwarranted judgement of Victorian upper class people is being depicted by this Algernon’s epigram.
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde plays around with the standard expectations along with the absence of compassion of a Victorian society in the 1890’s, he demonstrates this through several genres of comedy such as Melodrama, Comedy of Manners, Farce, dark humour and Irony, as well as portraying the themes, death and illness, in this play in a brilliance of unusual amount of references.
It has been said that ‘Comedy, beginning in turmoil but ending in harmony, celebrates life.’ and this is the general idea with ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ Wilde proves that this comedy of manners does conform to this model. As Lady Bracknell tries to prolong the resolution and tries to prevent the marriage between Jack and Gwendolyn, she can be seen as a ‘gorgon’ because she refuses to let Gwendolyn marry Jack. Despite this, She may be seen as a heroine because she is a strong, commanding woman who isn’t passive like traditional Victorian women as she makes decisions which indicates that she has power within the play. Furthermore, Wilde has constructed her in such a way that she dominates the company wherever she is present and judges people according to their wealth even though she is from a non-aristocratic background. Therefore, Lady Bracknell may be viewed as a character that stays ‘bad’. Despite the obstacles surrounding Lady Bracknell, there are some aspects throughout the play which do conform to this model. For instance, Jack faces problems during the play which are then resolved through his actions and are consequently followed by happiness in the resolution when he finds out ‘the vital Importance of Being Earnest’ . Similarly, the same can be said for Algernon who lies to please the women that he desires to achieve happiness in Act 3. Therefore, depending on each character and their actions beforehand, they either face happiness or distress which indicates that comedy does have some elements of movement from distress to happiness and from ‘bad’ to ‘good’.
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 themselves from the repressive norms of society. They have the freedom to create themselves and use their double identities to give themselves the opportunity to show opposite sides of their characters. They mock every custom of the society and challenge its values. This creates not only the comic effect of the play but also makes the audience think of the serious things of life.
In conclusion, The Importance of Being Earnest strongly focuses on those of the upper class society and the vanity of the aristocrats who place emphasis on trivial matters concerning marriage. Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both are beginning their marital lives based on deception and lies. Lady Bracknell represents the archetypal aristocrat who forces the concept of a marriage based on wealth or status rather than love. Through farce and exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the foolish and trivial matters that the upper class society looks upon as being important. As said earlier, a satirical piece usually has a didactic side to it.
Throughout the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde wrote plays such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest- his most famous play. Earnest is a comedic work that focuses on a pair of wealthy men. They have been leading double lives so that they can go off for periods of time and enjoy living without responsibility while still maintaining their aristocratic reputation. Because of Wilde’s invlovement in the aesthetic movement, it is not uncommon (or unfair) to believe that his work, Earnest included, is nothing more than fluff. That being said, it is also fair to argue that this particular play does have meaning in it. Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest as a commentary on the hypocrisy of the ideal Victorian character. Earnestness is sincerity- which most Victorians believed themselves to be- and so Wilde uses the word ironically. In his eyes, people who considered themselves sincere were actually smug, self-righteous, and pompous. He expresses these opinions clearly through the play’s over-the-top and frustrating characters.