Identity And Social Class In The Importance Of Being Earnest By August Wilson

Identity and social class can be closely tied together. Identity is the part of a person that makes up who he/she is. Social class has been known ever since the late eighteenth century. In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Miss Prism’s identity of knowledge and education leads her into the middle class; while in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the monster’s identity leads him into no social class at all, in which he becomes excluded from society. Also, in the play, Fences by August Wilson, Troy’s identity of being an African American male leads in a conflicting struggle with society and with his relationships in his family. Much of literature and artwork can depict this idea of identity and how society places

In the book, Identity and Difference by Kathyrn Woodward, she goes into depth about one’s own identity. Struggling with identity is bound to happen because one might have a different perspective of the world that was set by one’s community, ethnicity, or even social class. Furthermore, identity gives us a certain place in the world in which one can be connected with society where he live. Though much of identity is used to show the difference in each other, it can also be used to show how similar one is to another. Identity, however, can be used to set one group apart from another. In the apartheid and genocide in Rwanda, the Hutu was seen killing off of the Tutsis due to social class differences where the Tutsis was apparently wealthier, taller, and higher in the social status than the Hutus. Social class differences contributes to how one perceive another identity to the other. Much of what makes up one’s identity has to deal with culture, also because the way one’s culture shape a person is due to his/her experience. This experience of cultures is what makes each individual different from one another and also contributes to one’s own ideas and morals. Identity can be used to separate one person from another, but it can also be used to see how similar one is to