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Critical appreciation of the importance of being earnest
Critical appreciation of the importance of being earnest
Examples of humor in The importance of being Earnest
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“The Importance of Being Earnest”, by Oscar Wilde, is a novel that defies most of society’s morals. The characters react the complete opposite to how a normal person in today’s society would react. Wilde creates a sense of humor through an eccentric tone and also through actions and reactions of the characters and their situation. In Act II, Cecily and Algernon, “Earnest”, were conversing over Cecily’s diary, in which Cecily created a whole world of her own and included “Earnest”, without him knowing, because they have yet to meet. “Uncle Jack confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and bad. . . . I fell in love with you Earnest.” This creates a sense of humor because she fell in love with Earnest, before they were presented to each other, and later Cecily secretly engages herself with “Earnest”. “It was a girlish dream of mine to love some one whose name was Earnest,” Cecily fell in love with Earnest because the fact that his name was Earnest, not for his appearance, actions nor his personality. “The next day I bought this little ring in your name, and a little bangle with the true lover’s knot I promised you always to wear.” Throughout the entire scene Cecily reveals more …show more content…
fantasies through letters she wrote in his behalf. Wilde also creates humor through the fact that Cecily has presented Algernon with these random strange letters, Algernon, instead of being freaked out like any normal person would, he feels happiness and goes along with it.
Through the months Cecily wrote random letters to herself pretending to be Earnest, in which also included their “break up”. Whereas people in today’s society would call a therapist, and get a restraining order, Algernon “Earnest” is sad for the fact she broke the engagement off. “You’ll never break off our engagement again, Cecily?” instead of being freaked out about being engaged without his consent he is bummed out and asked if she’d dump him again. This creates humor because as to how normal people react, Algy reacts in the complete
opposite. Oscar Wilde successfully achieves humor, because today’s society people would say “there is no such thing as love” and Wilde portrayed Cecily as a character who fell in love with Earnest before they even met, simply because she has this fantasy of loving someone named Earnest. Wilde also creates humor with the responses Algernon gives Cecily, when she presented him with her outrageous letters. Wilde uses a unconventional diction to create humor.
Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both seems like carelessness.(Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest) This disagreement leads to further complications in the next two acts. Dramatic irony is portrayed in the second act. Dramatic irony is when the audience knows more than the character does. For example, we, the readers, know that Algernon is using the name Earnest to impress his cousin Cecily.
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.
Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is full of irony. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, the protagonists in the play, get themselves into a complicated situation called Bunburyism (as Algernon refers to it). They pretend to be someone that they are not to escape their daily lives. They lie to the women they admire, and eventually the truth is revealed.
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.
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.
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.
Similarly, in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both begin their marital lives based on deception and lies. As a matter of fact, Gwendolen and Algernon both know Jack as Ernest. When Jack proposes to Gwendolen, she becomes overly attached to the idea of marrying someone called Ernest. Gwendolen exclaims: “My ideal has always been to love someone of the name Ernest/There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence/It is a divine name/It has a music of its own/It produces vibrations” (Wilde 106), and Cecily is of the same opinion “it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest/I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest” (Wilde 116). Jack and Algernon never admits to Gwendolen and Cecily that they are living a double life, their relationships are based on lies. They are more occupied with the name Ernest than the fact of actually being earnest. In spite of leading a deceptive and double life, both men
The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners, whereby Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule marriage, love and the mentality of the Victorian aristocratic society. It can also be referred to as a satiric comedy. What is a satire and what is Oscar Wilde trying to emphasize by employing it in his play? A satiric comedy ridicules political policies or attacks deviations from social order by making ridiculous, the violators of its standards of morals or manners. Usually, a satiric piece doesn't serve only as a form of criticism, but to correct flaws in the characters or to somehow make them better in the end.
In the importance of being earnest Wilde used food to show hidden messages throughout the play, some that may reflect the personal pass of some characters and others that follow the conflict between two personals. Every instance where food is mentioned – from Algernon’s opening discussion of wine with his servant, to the girls’ insults over tea– is fraught with conflict. The fight over something as basic as food shows that it might represent another carnal desire: the comical effects and society’s harsh impression of being judgmental. The food messages within the play that contrast silliness and mistaken identity almost always gets discussed over food, which creates the link of importance of it; which can either make or break the situation.
Once making up a story to save Earnest, Jack left to London where he meets his friend Algernon Moncrieff as Earnest. He is later forced to confess his real identity due to a cigar case incident. While there, Jack confesses his love for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax as Earnest. Gwendolen disapproving aunt Lady Bracknell, does not allow Jack to marry Gwendolen due to the fact that he was an orphan and left at the train station. As a result, Gwendolen’s interest in “Earnest” increases even more.
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.
Algernon is a pompous man of seemingly strong, albeit unconventional, convictions. Wilde uses him for the sole purpose of mocking the sanctimonious institution of marriage. In the beginning of the play, Algernon considers Jack's intent to propose to Gwendolen to be "business," not "pleasure" (30). Yet eventually Algernon also resolves to propose to Cicely, discrediting his own established belief: "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is un...
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.
Cecily is more concerned with all the parts in a man being just like she pictures her perfect fairytale, than the actual man she is with. Instead of Cecily taking the time to get to know Algernon, She focuses more on morphing him into the man she wants to be with. Cecily writes letters and says they are from Algernon, “And this is the box in which I keep all your dear letters” (Wilde 32). In reality Algernon never wrote these letters “My letters! But my own sweet Cecily, I have never written you any letters” (Wilde 32). Cecily just made this up and it is part of her fantasy. Cecily also makes up that she has cut off their engagement previously. “To-day I broke off my engagement with Ernest. I feel it is better to do so. The weather sill continues charming” (Wilde 33). She believes that a relationship “would hardly have been a really serious engagement if it hadn’t