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

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Recommended: Social Class in victorian england

Oscar Wilde’s most famous Comedy of Manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, is farcical whilst also being critical of Victorian society. Wilde invites us to find meaning in the play even in the title with the word “importance”; in this nonsensical world Wilde has created, what really is important? Is our reality really so far from the version Wilde has devised dramatic physicalities Wilde gives many characters provide lighthearted humour but is it fair to say Wilde’s “masterpiece” has no substance or moral point?

Wilde uses Lady Bracknell to introduce his satire of Victorian attitudes towards marriage in the first act by making Lady Bracknell treat Jack’s proposal to her daughter Gwendolen Fairfax like a well thought out business proposition combining social status, lineage and wealth. Much like in the reality of Victorian society, Wilde portrays marriage as an ordeal that doesn’t involve love, or the bride-to-be’s opinion, in any way but instead is a decision made entirely by the father of bride. However, rather than Gwendolen’s father having the power, Wilde casts Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother, as the domineering figure to create blithesome humour through incongruity and gender role reversal. After a nearly clinical and cold cross-examination of Jack that removes any empathy the audience felt towards Lady Bracknell and therefore causes us to like the other characters even more, she decides Jack can’t marry Gwendolen until he tries to “acquire some relations as soon as possible” (1.2.215). This shows even Lady Bracknell, a member of the rich upperclass, realises heritage isn’t really important but fashionable and is perhaps only there for show, not that she cares, she simply follows the trend. Here, Wilde undermines the...

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...o demonstrate the lengths to which Victorians had to go to break free of suffocating moral repression brought about by a society that was obsessed with conforming to upper class ideals. Algernon symbolises the wild, unrestricted, side of Victorian society.

In final analysis, it is unfair to suggest that The Importance of Being Earnest is a shallow farce which has no ties to the historical context in which it was created; however, Wilde's references to the crucial issues of his time are usually overshadowed by his characters' own petty concerns, leaving the criticism an anticlimax that is easily ignored. The overwhelming evidence points to the play being an intricate and undeniably clever evaluation of Victorian life which leads me to be unable to agree with Archer in that The Importance of Being Earnest has no substance or moral point in nearly any way whatsoever.

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