How does Wilde use dramatic comedy to explore gender roles of upper-class Victorians?
Wilde effectively and regularly utilises the typical conventions of dramatic comedy to present a plot in which characters move away from a strict Victorian society: especially with regard to gender roles. Adhering to the conventions of a typical Comedy of Manners play, Wilde aims to comment, and most likely mock a civilisation heavily concerned with appearances, and upholding traditional values. He also firmly follows the codes of a dramatic comedy by using comic inversions to create a sense of disorder and subsequently discomfort within audiences, particularly Victorians. Wilde repeatedly questions the idea of the role of both women and men in the rigid, Victorian era and is shown to both conform and subvert the differing expectations of both sexes.
Primarily, Wilde portrays our two male leads as on the surface, high class males leading a stereotypical 'bachelor' lifestyle, initially adhering to the masculine gender role. The first discussion we see between Algernon and Jack centres around the art of 'bunburying', referring to a single male who is able to travel around the country by forming an elaborate deception, yet remaining respectable and conservative on the surface, a hobby in which both of our male leads partake in.
After Jack's admission of pretending to have 'a younger brother of the name of Earnest' we learn that this excuse allows Jack to travel up to town to socialise, leading a generally luxurious lifestyle, unknown to those who remain at his country home, this plot point links to a typical feature of a Comedy of Manners play, that the countryside was generally dull, while cities were thriving. Jack’s lifes...
... middle of paper ...
...d: 4th February 2014) http://predoc.org/docs/index-10009.html (Date viewed: 4th February, 2014) http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/ernest-bunbury-symbol.html (Date viewed: 15th February 2014) http://www.novelguide.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest/essay-questions (Date viewed: 15th February 2014) http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/title.html (Date viewed: 19th February, 2014) http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/themes.html (Date viewed: 23rd February, 2014) http://vanderlei.edublogs.org/the-importance-of-being-earnest/ (7th March, 2014) http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/grave-trivialities-the-use-of-comedy-in-the-importance-of-being-earnest-417/ (Date viewed:22nd March 2014) http://pbsandwichofdoom.hubpages.com/hub/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-Close-Reading-a-Trivial-Comedy-for-Serious-People (Date viewed: 2nd April, 2014)
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.
"I think it is high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind whether he
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...
Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
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.
In ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ Jack is presented as a character that has lied to get what he wants and because of this he has been given faults. Here Joc...
When Jack was first caught in his lie he awkwardly says “Gwendolen- Cecily- it is very painful for me to to forced to speak the truth...I will tell you quite frankly that I have no brother Earnest.” (Wilde Act II. Scene 1. Line 6). This embarrassing confession is Wilde’s way of making a point: that living a double life almost always ends up terribly awkward and inconvenient. Lies become exposed more often than they remain
“Jack: [Lady Bracknell] is perfectly unbearable …she is a monster, without being a myth” (Wilde 15). Lady Bracknell is a formidable character in the Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, an absurd play that explores high society’s ridiculous ideals in the early 20th century while simultaneously playing with gender roles. Wilde uses Lady Bracknell to emphasize the societal perception of gender on the Victorian classes and the flawed effect of society and social roles on these perceptions. Gender roles of the time typically display men as socially interactive, and well-known among other families of the same class. However, in The Importance of Being Earnest, things are quite different in Upper Class Society.
The irony continues to explain how Jack and Algernon were biological brothers. They were pretending to be earlier to play out their game of Bunburyism. Jack had told everybody he had a brother in which was he used as his justification to leave his home in the country and visit his "brother" in the city. Algernon pretends to be Jack brother "Earnest" in order to win over Jack beautiful "niece" Cecily.
While at his country manor, the main protagonist, Jack Worthing, claims he must tend to his troublesome younger brother Earnest, who resides in London. Once
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.
The pun on the word "Earnest" suggests two things; it stands for the name but also refers to honesty and integrity. It is also known as a `one joke' or a play on words. Though the name is spelt as "Ernest" the reader still recognizes the double meaning of the title. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationships base on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a `scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack,
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both plan on starting their married life with a lie. Lady Bracknell represents the typical aristocrat who focuses the idea of marriage on social and economic status. She believes that if the men trying to marry these girls are not of proper background, there is to be no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view