Social Order Satire in "The Importance of Being Ernest"

1361 Words3 Pages

“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 where watching them. By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19).

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.

Oscar Wilde in the Importance of being Ernest satirizes the British education though the use of Lady Bracknell. While having a discussion with Jack Worthing, she reveals what she thinks about education system:

“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic f...

... middle of paper ...

...guistic talent work and how he develops a corresponding originality in social satire (Schmidt).

Works Cited

Baselga, Mariano. “Oscar Wilde: The Satire of Social Habits.” In Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, England: Colin Smuthe, 1994: pp. 13-20.

Foster, Richard. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance of Being Earnest” In College English, Vol. 18, no. 1, October, 1956: pp. 18-23.

Moss, Joyce. “The Importance of Being Earnest.” In Literature and its Time, Gale Group,

December 2002: pp. 178-182.

Wallace, Sarah. “The Importance of Being Subversive”. In American Repertory Theatre,

November 5, 2006

http://amrep.org/articles/5_2c/subversive.html

Mullen, Raymond. “The Importance of Being Earnest as a Social Satire”,

http://www.literatureclassics.com/essays/1021/

Schmidt, Arnold. “The Importance of Being Earnest.” In Drama for Students, Gale,

1998.

Open Document