Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Full essay writing of My ideal husband published by Oscar Wilde
Full essay writing of My ideal husband published by Oscar Wilde
The structure of importance of being earnest
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
During the 1800’s, marriage was viewed as less appealing and sacred as it is today. Attitudes regarding marriage have shifted due to the adaptation and advancement of social normalities. What was once a union between two acquaintances, usually influenced by the wealth of the male, marriage became more of a holy union based on unconditional love and sacrifice. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, marriage is unsatisfactory and disregarded by some characters, while embraced and valued by others. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon Moncrieff, a charming bachelor and Jack’s best friend, whom he knows as Ernest, considers marriage as a dreadful experience. While explaining his judgment apropos marriage, Algernon concludes, “. . .The essence of romance is uncertainty. If [he were] to ever get married, [he’d] certainly try to forget the fact” (Wilde …show more content…
Despite acknowledging his very true emotions, Algernon, although a believer of love, considers a long term engagement to be futile. After so much time spent with a significant other, the sensation of uncertainty seems to diminish. Although certainty in a relationship may be comforting, it could potentially lead to a sense of physical and or psychological ownership over one another. These outcomes frequently originate from evident or concealed insecurities of either partner, that may be subconsciously overlooked. Marriage is interpreted differently; a sacred union between two souls with the objective of supporting the betterment of each other, or, similar to Algernon’s interpretation, a selfish chore that reminds him more of business than pleasure. He has little faith in the nature of romance, and likely
England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage equality as a contrast to marital traditions of Regency England.
Marriage was the process by which men gained total control over women. The author indicates that a marriage at that period of time was not always carefully planned but was rather a spontaneous and passionate act. For example, Edna’s “ma... ... middle of paper ... ... was arrogant and overconfident of himself and his heritage, and was sure that the fault was Desiree’s never questioning his own ancestry.
Brockmeier’s short story represents a damaged marriage between a husband and a wife simply due to a different set of values and interests. Brockmeier reveals that there is a limit to love; husbands and wives will only go so far to continually show love for each other. Furthermore, he reveals that love can change as everything in this ever changing world does. More importantly, Brockmeier exposes the harshness and truth behind marriage and the detrimental effects on the people in the family that are involved. In the end, loving people forever seems too good to be true as affairs and divorces continually occur in the lives of numerous couples in society. However, Brockmeier encourages couples to face problems head on and to keep moving forward in a relationship. In the end, marriage is not a necessity needed to live life fully.
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest satirizes Victorian society. The witty epigrams of his characters provide light comedy masking the underlying theme of criticism of the Victorian way of life. Wilde's effective use of humour diffuses the tense theme of his work. In a Victorian society that emphasized progress, it was precarious for artists like Oscar Wilde to express an imperfect interpretation of life in nineteenth-century England. Wilde's attack on the ethics of his era is an attempt to fulfill the author's prophecy that art has the power to dictate life, not merely imitate it (614-615). At a time when the world measured progress in empirical research, Wilde chose to use the English language rather than the scientific method as his mean to transform society. The Importance of Being Earnest satirizes two main social constructs: social class and gender relations.
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.
Algernon is a pompous man of seemingly strong, albeit unconventional, convictions. Wilde uses him for the sole purpose of mocking the sanctimonious institution of marriage. In the beginning of the play, Algernon considers Jack's intent to propose to Gwendolen to be "business," not "pleasure" (30). Yet eventually Algernon also resolves to propose to Cicely, discrediting his own established belief: "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is un...
As the curtain for Act 3 open, the audience sees Gwendolen and Cecily in the morning room at the Manor House. A manor house is the mansion of a lord or wealthy person and the morning room is a sitting room used during the daytime hours. The manor house is in the country. The stage is designed to resemble the morning room. I picture the morning room to be above the ground floor for Gwendolen and Cecily are ‘looking out into the garden’ through the window. The two women are gazing out the window and examining the two men. The morning room will be quite similar to the ‘luxurious and artistically furnished’ room of Algernon’s flat located in the city. Knowing the Cecily is wealthy, evident on page 60 when Jack states Cecily has ‘hundred and thirty thousand pounds in the funds’, a number of assumption can be made of the morning room. Cecily’s father, the man who adopted Jack, must have been wealthy and prosperous. Upon his death, all his wealth might have been passed down to Jack and his daughter Cecily. Therefore the manor house, and the morning room, might be attractively designed, capacious, and well furnished. Since the morning room is a sitting room, there will be chairs and sofas. Sophisticated, historical showpieces might be seen on stage as the two women peer out the window. Elegant lamps and teapoys might be present. The window through which the two women are gazing through will be closed; light through the window might serve to illuminate the morning room. Books, paintings and various other luxurious objects might be present to indicate Cecily’s economic well-being.
"I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact" (Norton 2180). Through this statement and others in The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde creates a mockery and joke of the most sacred tradition in society; marriage. Wilde's intent in this play is to satirize and make fun of romantic situations that are far fetched but also contain some reality in the conversations of his characters. Marriage is discussed frequently by all the characters and the conversations are typically normal debates on what marriage is about, but when the characters lives are put in a situation concerning marriage the situation becomes far from ordinary. Through this statement and the play Wilde is showing how people say one thing but usually act differently when thrown into a stressful but pleasant situation. Through these contradictions Wilde has a way of toying with our ideals and emotions by showing that living life in an ordinary way is boring.
Jane Austen illustrates that an advantageous marriage was the ideal definition of marriage in the early 1800’s. It was usually based on status and social expectations with love being considered as an important component by a few people.
Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, who lives a life of bachelorhood in London. He has made up a friend in the country who is an invalid named Bunbury to escape his responsibility and social commitments in the city. The two bachelorettes in Wilde’s story are Gwendolyn and Cecily who are both in love with Ernest or the idea of marrying a man named Ernest. Gwendolyn meets Jack, who she thinks is Ernest because he is pretending to be Ernest and falls for him.
In her essay, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller discusses the state of marriage in America during the 1800‘s. She is a victim of her own knowledge, and is literally considered ugly because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her. Fuller feels that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world.
Marriage in the 19th century was a woman’s priority. Many times women married for social status or attraction but hardly ever for true love. In many cases the happiness of a marriage was based on whether the girl was beautiful and lively and the boy handsome and competent, and whether they were attracted to each other. Jane Austen would not believe that the happiness of marriage was based upon attraction, she believed it should be based upon love. In her novel Pride and Prejudice, she illustrates three main reasons for marriage, true love, attraction, and economics.
In his novel Vanity Fair, William Thackeray exposes and examines the vanities of 19th century England. His characters pursue wealth, power, and social standing, often through marriage or matrimony. The present essay looks at Thackeray's use of the institution of marriage in Vanity Fair to comment on how these vanities often come at the expense of the true emotions of passion, devotion, and love. Parental Ambitions
Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both plan on starting their married life with a lie. 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 to be no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view
Throughout Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, there are many examples of marriage. There is Squire Western's marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick's marriage, the mentions of Allworthy's wife, the marriage of Nightengale and Nancy, and the marriage of Nightengale's cousin and the clergyman, and finally the marriage of Tom and Sophia. Some of these marriages end with a happy ending and some do not and we, the reader, are supposed to look at these marriages and see why they went wrong or why they are good. Through all these examples of marriage, Fielding is urging us to question the current institution of marriage and what it is based on.