The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde, pokes fun at the Victorian earnestness with sarcasm. The first piece of wit shown by Mr. Wilde is in the subtitle when he writes, “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” He continues to make general quips and witty remarks throughout the play, all the while prodding at the Victorian people. Mr. Wilde’s purpose of writing this play is to show how strict society is, how superficial everyone is in society, and how certain individuals do not agree with their society. The Victorian Era is portrayed as having a strict society. Mrs. Prism says, “Cecily, Cecily! Surely such a utilitarian occupation as the watering of flowers is rather Moulton’s duty than yours? Especially at a moment when intellectual Even though Cecily enjoys to water flowers, she is made to stop from doing so by Mrs. Prism to do more intellectual activities. According to the Victorian society’s rules, a young woman of Cecily’s social status should not doing such things as water flowers, which is chore for the lower class workers, even if she enjoys doing such a lowly act. There are many things that one may do which are improper and proper. Another example of a strict Victorian society is shown when Algernon is talking with Jack and says, “You are absurdly careless about sending out invitations. It is very foolish of you. Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations” (Wilde 6). Invitations are a very important role in the Victorian society. One must send out invitations so long before the actual event is to happen or else it is rude. This is an example of one of the many rules that the Victorian Mr. Wilde engendered this play to show society how superficial they are being by writing a character named Lady Bracknell. One of the many examples of Lady Bracknell’s superficialness is when she asks, “What is your income?” when she is interviewing Jack as a potential candidate to marry her daughter, Gwendolen. (Wilde 13). This question, among other, is a very superficial question to ask when marrying off one’s daughter. Lady Bracknell never asks Jack if he loves Gwendolen or if he will care for her. She asks about his income and investments. Lady Bracknell then asks about Jack’s parents and finds out that he does not know them. She says in response, “The line is immaterial … it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognized position in good society” (Wilde 14). Lady Bracknell is written into the play to portray the average parent during the Victorian Era. Lady Bracknell represents the Superficialness for the play. When she is deciding to marry off Gwendolen, she asks the suitors about their connections. She asks about their income and family ties. When Algernon tells her that he is going to marry Cecily, Lady Bracknell immediately responds with questions about Cecily’s heritage and fortune. Lady Bracknell is wary of Cecily until Jack mentions that Cecily has a very large fortune. After hearing that Cecily has a very large fortune, Lady Bracknell says, “Mrs. Cardew seems to me
In the Victorian era, in New York City, men and women roles within the society were as different as night and day. A man regardless of his extra curricular activities could still maintain a very prevalent place in society. A woman’s worth was not only based family name which distinguished her class and worth, but also her profession if that was applicable.
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Gwendolen confesses to Jack, or his confidante Ernest, “The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you” (10). That quote proved that Gwendolen’s drive to marry “Ernest” for him having the name Ernest, rather than marrying him for his character. Cecily also confesses something along the same lines as Gwendolen to Algernon, that even though she had never met him before she fell in love with him: “Well, ever since dear Uncle Jack first confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and bad, you of course have formed the chief topic of conversation…a man who is much talked about is always very attractive…I daresay it was foolish of me, but I fell in love with you, Ernest” (32). She is led to believe that Algernon’s real name is Ernest. Cecily and Gwendolen are attracted to Jack and “Ernest” because of their histories. Gwendolen was excited to find o...
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.
Gwendolen is a shining example of a victorian woman like most women in the era she has ideas, it was said she attended lectures, and is bent on self improvement, her costume should be a very frilly dress suited to the style of the time. Jack the play’s protagonist is another very victorian era character in public he is depended upon by his servants and his land, he’s also seen as a caretaker by many of the other characters throughout the play, by victorian era standards he is seen as a respectable and responsible young
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
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 satiric piece usually has a didactic side to it. In this case, Lady Bracknell learns that the same person she was criticising is actually her own flesh and blood.
“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 were watching them.
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.
So, talking about her importance for the plot, we may notice that she is the person who raises a lot of important questions and at last she is the one who has the power to answer it. By doing that, she drive the play to move to the destination. Back to Wilde’s time, this kind of the drama needs one kind people who serve as the obstacle which must be dealt with and overcome by the main characters. This is the basic explanation for Lady Bracknell’s importance in the play. However, she is more than that kind of obstacle. She blocks sometimes and she offers a way out also. After her interview with Jack, she finds out the serious problem-the unknown identity of Jack. So, Jack asks her for some solutions. She does give her opinion. And at the end of the play, we know that it is she who finally points out Jack’s real identity.
During the Victorian Era, the concept of how a “proper” man and woman were to behave came under fire and there were men and women on both sides willing to argue for their beliefs. Though the traditional Victorian Era attitude is long since gone and devalued, it can be very enlightening to see the ways in which these attitudes surfaced themselves in the literature of the time. Sarah Stickney Ellis wrote The Women of England: Their Social Duties and Domestic Habits from the viewpoint that women should self-abnegate their own beliefs and become fully interested in the man. And to illustrate this point, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43” will be closely looked at along with the essay to make some critical points.
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.
Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, play carefully uses satire as a didactic tool to mask the underlying social commentary with the help of comedy through characters theme and dialogue. Wilde uses satire to ridicule class and wealth, marriage and the ignorance of the Victorian Age. Audiences are continually amused by Wilde’s use of linguistic and comic devices such as double entendre, puns, paradox and epigrams, especially in the case of social commentary and didactic lessons. Characters portrayed in the play such as Jack, Cecily, Algernon and Lady Bracknell, allow Wilde to express his opinions on the social problems during the Victorian Age.
Victorian society could be quite pleasant, but only if one were fortunate enough to be born into the upper or at the very least the upper middle class. Members of the upper class lived in grand mansions on great estates; they kept busy with parties, dances, and keeping track of what other people in the same social class were doing. The only career for a woman in this society was marriage. Society wives were expected to represent their husbands with impeccable manners and grace and provide no hint of scandal. Etiquette was a full time occupation; what to wear, who to speak to, and when to curtsy, was of the highest importance. One of the biggest fears of the socially aware was ostracism. (Rose, 1999- 2012)
Wilde purposely used her role to portray how closed minded the society was, with her opinions and mannerism betraying a carefully calculated speaking pattern with witty epigrams and social wordplay to tear other characters apart. As a ruthless social climber and spokesperson for the status quo, she was not always part of the upper class but rather married into aristocracy, as she previously represent the formerly excluded. However, now that she is Lady Bracknell, she has opinions on just about everything and with her behavior enforcing social discrimination and exclusion for the outsiders from her class; she is an invention of Wilde’s to present his satire on these subjects. For example, when Jack proposed to her daughter Gwendolen, this was the moment that Lady Bracknell was able to “flex” her muscles and bend the rules to suit her pleasure as she saw marriage of more of an alliance for property and social security than love or passion. Thus Jack was placed on her list of eligible suitors if only he could pass her series of challenging tests. Yet at the same time Lady Bracknell relentlessly gives Jack “correct” but immoral advice on finding his parents. "I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire