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Oscar Wilde's literary criticism
Oscar Wilde's literary criticism
5 examples of the importance of being honest
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Recommended: Oscar Wilde's literary criticism
Everyone lies throughout their lives. As humans we can’t help it. Lies may help us to reach new opportunities or could allow us to avoid responsibilities. As human we may lie because we have realized something we could do better in a given situation that we did not do. Dishonesty is a temptation that we, as humans, cannot resist. A lie not closely monitored may become out of hand and turn into something undesired. In the satirical play The Importance Of Being Ernest, the playwright Oscar Wilde shows through irony that dishonesty if not carefully maintained, can snowball into an uncontrollable predicament.
The Importance Of Being Ernest mocks the Victorian values of being honest, to uphold responsibilities and to live life earnestly. This is
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Much like all these terrible poisons we call lies, this lie has been eating away at Miss Prism since she lost Jack. This is shown when Lady Bracknell catches sight of Prism and calls to her about the child. Many instances of irony are shown in this act such as when Lady Bracknell explains to Jack, “You are the son of my poor sister, Mrs. Moncrieff, and consequently Algernon’s elder brother.” This is ironic because after lying so long about Ernest being his brother he is told that Algernon is in fact his younger brother. This later becomes more ironic when Jack asks for his Christian name and after searching through army records they find his Christian name to be Ernest just as he has been saying through the whole play. Irony is wrapped up in the book by Jack’s statement, “Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?” This is shown that after all these lies Ernest feels like none of them were actually lies as they all turned out truth. When Gwendolen answers, “I can. For I feel that you are sure to change.” This one line shows the true irony of the play. It shows that in this time period in England, where Victorian values are so precious, they go against their strict social code of
The author uses situational irony throughout the story to show underlying traits of Miss Strangeworth. For example, when Miss Strangeworth starts writing her rumor-filled anonymous letters, “Although Miss Strangeworth’s desk held a trimmed
Literary Techniques - Irony: Elizabeth believes that lying is bad and will not be beneficial. However, she continues to lie about her husband’s affair even after Proctor confessed without her knowing. She then continues to lie and is dishonest about why she fired Abigail. Instead of telling Danforth that Abigail was fired because she was having relations with Proctor, she opts to tell Danforth that Abigail dissatisfied
Another example of irony is when Leonce comes back from his night of enjoyment and tries to wake Enda up to be his audience. Leonce gets annoyed when she does not give him her attention and here the voice of the story refers to Edna as him “sole object of his existence”. “He thought it very dis...
For example, in the beginning of the story, the narrator starts by talking about Mrs. Freeman. “Besides the neutral expressions that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings” (433). The irony in this first line is that she is a “Freeman,” yet only has three different expressions. Another example of an irony that is easily noticeable is when Mrs. Hopewell considered Manley Pointer as “good country people.” “He was just good country people, you know” (441). The irony in this line is that in the end, Manley Pointer, whom is supposedly is “good country people,” ends up being a thief who steals Hulga’s prosthetic leg and runs and not only steals, but admits that he is not a Christian, making the line, “good country people,” a dramatic irony. However, one of the most ironic characters in the story is Hulga herself as she understands little of herself, regardless of the high education she holds in philosophy. For example, Hulga imagines that Pointer is easily seduced. “During the night she had imagined that she seduced him” (442). Yet, when they kissed, she was the one who was seduced and having the “extra surge of adrenaline… that enables one to carry a packed trunk out of a burning house…”
There are so many examples of situational irony that is clear throughout these stories Mr. Mallard being dead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage better than Dee, Mathilde finding out she worked her whole life for nothing, and when Mr. Graves tells Tessie that Eva draws with her husband's family, Tessie is angry. Dramatic irony is everywhere as well. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead and when Dee never wanted anything to do with her heritage until somebody was impressed by it.
Irony – The is situational irony in that Julian acts the way he does to spite his mother and he is glad to see her get “taught a lesson,” but actually this is what kills her.
Some literary works exhibit structural irony, in that they show sustained irony. In such works the author, instead of using an occasional verbal irony, introduces a structural feature which serves to sustain a duplicity of meaning. One common device of this sort is the invention of a naïve hero, or else a naïve narrator or spokesman, whose invincible simplicity or obtuseness leads him to persist in putting an interpretation on affairs which the knowing reader—who penetrates to, and shares, the implicit point of view of the authorial presence behind the naïve persona—just as persistently is called on to alter and correct. (Abrams, 90)
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.
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
...ngagement, their re-engagement. Cecily is not the natural country girl. She possesses the self-assurance of the experienced woman. Without being cynical she makes her desires clear. And when Gwendolen and Cecily discover that their Earnests are impostors whose names are Jack and Algernon they decide that love can be restored only if Jack and Algy christen themselves Earnest.
We lie all the time, lying is not something new to our culture. We lie to our parents, we lie to our friends, we even lie to our significant other, but why do we do it? There is not one set reason on why we lie but they can vary from an insignificant reason to something more nefarious. A good operational definition of a lie is “A lie is a false statement to a person or group made by another person or group who knows it is not the whole truth, intentionally.” (Freitas-Magalhães) We have been raised to know that lying is usually a bad thing, and it’s better to tell the truth, not to mention the circumstances get exponentially worse if you are caught lying. No one wants to be labeled as a liar, or untrustworthy. This may sound unorthodox but I personally think lying is perfectly fine; depending on the situation. If you have a prima-facie duty to be dishonest it’s perfectly acceptable. Ross says a prima facie duty or obligation is an actual duty. “One’s actual duty is what one ought to do all things considered.” (Carson) I’m not the only one who finds this too be true. Ross would also agree with me, He says “Lying is permissible or obligatory when the duty not to lie conflicts with a more important or equal important prima facie duty.” (Carson) As I was doing research on this topic I did read one extremely compelling argument on why we ought not to lie. Aristotle basically said a person who makes a defense for lying could never be trusted. (King.)
, another example of dramatic irony in how the reader can be witness to a reality that neither May nor John can, the fact that May has also become lost in
Irony is the most significant technique that the author uses in this story. It shows the contrast between Louise's expectation and her limited reality. It also gives the story more twists and turns. The reader knows Louise's desire. However, her sister and her friend do not know.
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.
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.