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Oscar wilde the importance of being earnest essay
Oscar wilde the importance of being earnest essay
The victorian age in literature
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Oscar Wilde, the scholarly illustrative of the supposed Yellow Nineties, remained toward the end of the nineteenth century and sneered at the Victorian age. He mocked Victorian values most especially in The Importance of Being Earnest, presumably his most prevalent work. Turning on the play of words in the title, the dramatization additionally mocks the general concept of sincerity, a prudence to which the Victorians joined the most extreme centrality. To buckle down, to be genuine, straightforward, and open, and to live sincerely was the Victorian perfect. Wilde not just caricaturizes false reverence and sham prudence, he likewise taunts its real vicinity.
Wilde derided the high society of his time, and he paid a high cost for it. Inside of weeks of the principal generation of The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde's
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The considerable and tyrannical Lady Bracknell is given such brilliant lines that the group of onlookers becomes affectionate even of her. The plain, tense Miss Prism and her self important sweetheart, Canon Chasuble, would have been two-dimensional characters in anybody's treatment yet Wilde's. Be that as it may, he gives them things to say that are just as baffling and amusing as what the wittier characters say. Wilde's funniness is so captivating in light of the fact that it is not clear whether what is said is intended to propose all that it suggests. It is the sort of silliness that regularly requires a twofold take.
The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest relies on mixed up character, the same number of plots do, however very few do as such to such comic impact. What is interesting about the play is that the crowd understands that the characters could without much of a stretch be somebody entirely other than who they appear. It is no big surprise that groups of onlookers keep on adoring the play: Its diversion is inebriating, and its investigate of society is
The idea of absurdity in Victorian times was embraced by some writers and looked down upon by others. Oscar Wilde embraced the absurd whole-heartedly. This is obvious, if not even the theme, of The Importance of Being Earnest. Not only is the word "absurd" used many times in the story, but the ridiculousness of the characters and their roles conveys the ideas of absurdity in the Victorian Era.
A)Socialization/page 67: The process by which people learn the characteristics of their group- the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for them.
...Lady Bracknell was excited to hear that Cecily has wealth; she almost instantaneously consented to her marriage to Algernon. Wilde uncovers the frivolousness of their proclaimed love by displaying how Lady Bracknell would only consent for
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.
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 unveiled.
Wilde does this in order to portray Lady Bracknell with very strong Victorian views that are illogical and humorous to the reader thus satirising the values which are prominent in Victorian standards. Consequently it can be seen that Lady Bracknell is corrupt beyond reason, sacrificing the happiness of her daughter for her Victorian values and ridiculing Jack for his less than exemplary past. Some critics believe Lady Bracknell to be a ‘living parody of upper class values’ which can be
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.
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.
Foster, Richard. A. A. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance of Being Earnest” In College English, Vol. 18, No. 1 -. 1, October, 1956: pp. 113-114. 18-23.
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 Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, explores the theme of deception and social class conflict, and how detrimental they are to forming new relationships, through the conversation between Cecily and Gwendolyn. In the passage that starts on page 78 and extends to page 80, Gwendolyn and Cecily are formally introduced to one another establishing the plot of The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde utilizes a compassionate and gentle tone as Gwendolyn and Cecily first meet. Soon after, however, this tone changes to a blunt spitefulness between the two women. Wilde’s contradictory tones illustrates the fabricated nature of both Gwendolyn and Cecily. Each character’s false first impression illustrates the deceptive theme of the
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 no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view marriage.
In the play, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde ridicules and identifies the negative aspects of Victorian society through comedic dialogue. He uses characters with ridiculous personalities to demonstrate his idea of Victorian life. By making absurd scenes with foolish characters, it is his way of mocking the Victorian lifestyle passive aggressively.