Society’s view of social classes and one’s identity is continuously morphing to fit in new views and essentially to create an ideal culture. During the Victorian Era, the views of the social classes were very black and white when it came to the values and lives of the rich verses the poor. During this era there were many pieces of literature written to show example of the society they lived in. One of the most satirical of those pieces of literature is The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. The Victorian people were obsessed with image. It was important to know who your parents are in society. That lineage is how you can tell what your “ranking” is in society. It is a culture that is very much focused on your bloodline and how you …show more content…
When the two women are in this scene they are trying to show their dominance in society and in their class. Cecily asks Gwendolen if she would like sugar in her tea, Gwendolen answers “no, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.” In response, Cecily puts four lumps of sugar into Gwendolen’s tea. After giving her the tea, Cecily asks, “cake or bread and butter?” Gwendolen answers, “bread and butter, please. Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays.” Gwendolen’s comment on her choice of food is silently showing that she is far higher in rank than Cecily. Following Gwendolen’s answer Cecily “cuts a very large slice of cake” (Wilde, 1763) for Gwendolen that she gives to one of the butlers. This quiet show of dominance that Cecily creates toward Gwendolen is a good example of competing among your peers, and to Gwendolen, these choices are just another way to show your peers just how important and in style you are. She sets an exaggerated example of the real aristocracy in the Victorian Era that was coursing with pride and …show more content…
Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of aristocracy?” Jack replies to her with, “I’m afraid I really don’t know… I don’t actually know who I am by birth… I was found.” After Jack explains that he was found in a handbag in the cloak room at Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell tells Jack that “it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognized position in good society.” (Wilde, 1744) This is one of the key examples of the stress the Victorian society placed on the importance of your background. Lady Bracknell is the number one character to examplorate the importance of your
Concepts of femininity in eighteenth-century England guided many young women, forging their paths for a supposed happy future. However, these set concepts and resulting ideas of happiness were not universal and did not pertain to every English woman, as seen in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the Bennet sisters on their quest for marriage, with much of it focusing on the two oldest sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. By the end, three women – Jane, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte Lucas – are married. However, these three women differ greatly in their following of feminine concepts, as well as their attitude towards marriage. Austen foils Jane, Charlotte, and Elizabeth’s personas and their pursuits of love, demonstrating that both submission and deviance from the rigid eighteenth-century concepts of femininity can lead to their own individualized happiness.
Wilde’s strategically uses each of the characters to represent the manner in which those, who were in the upper class, would behave. As the play begins we are instantly battered with the satirically condemning wit that is Oscar Wilde. Algernon requests his servant, Lane, to produce the cucumber sandwiches for the arrival of Lady Bracknell. Lane and Algernon have idle chatter and end up on the subject of marriage. After Lane exits the room and Jack insists, “Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility”. This is Wilde’s analysis on the absurdity of the upper class and also gives us an improved view of the character Algernon. Algernon is a constituent of the affluent. He assumes less responsibility than his counterpart Jack,...
The play contains a constant exchange of verbal banter between the characters. Wilde does this in a comical way, while still using the witty remarks as a way to satirize the absurdities and excesses in the character’s lives. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother, is a lady of high society, and she bases her life on the standards and morals that the Victorian society proposes. The film replaces the verbal banter with physical humor which ultimately loses the satire and wit the characters have in the play. In Act I of the play, Lady Bracknell questions Jack about his life in order to approve her daughter’s engagement to him. Her questions are based on what the society deems important, instead of what she, as a mother, should care about. Lady Bracknell says, “Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes … What is your income?” (Act I. 1435). Obviously, the verbal banter between Lady Bracknell and Jack is quite comical, but more importantly it satirizes the things that Lady Bracknell and the Victorians value essential. The film modifies this scene into a more visual one for a modern audience. Lady Bracknell and Jack still have their witty conversation; however, Wilde’s intended effect of the verbal banter is lost. The director modified the verbal banter because a modern audience most likely would not comprehend Wilde’s intentions. The visual aspect of this scene is the director’s way of expressing the satires of the Victorian morals in a way that the modern audience will understand. In the film, this scene is made visual as Jack enters Lady Bracknell’s home. Large pillars, expensive paintings, and grandiose doors create the mood. She sits ...
One Victorian sentiment was that a civilized individual could be determined by her/his appearance. This notion was readily adopted by the upper classes and, among other things, helped shape their views of the lower classes, who certainly appeared inferior to them. In regards to social mobility, members of the upper classes may have (through personal tragedy or loss) often moved to a lower-class status, but rarely did one see an individual move up from the abysmal lower class. Although poverty could be found almost anywhere in Victorian London (one could walk along a street of an affluent neighborhood, turn the corner, and find oneself in an area of depravity and decay), most upper-class Londoners, who tended to dwell in the West End, associated the East End with the lower class.
The theme of the play is the issues within the Victorian society, which mainly focuses on the topic of marriage. This is demonstrated when Jack asked Gwendolen for marriage. Lady Bracknell responded by asking him about his social standing instead of asking do he really love Gwendolen or not. This proves that social rank is more important than people true feelings towards someone. Wilde uses irony to bring out his opinion on the social class issue. In addition, he symbolism to show the differences between the two social classes. Brigitte Bastiat believes that “Therefore Oscar Wilde rebels against the artificial and hypocritical social codes of his class and suggests that anybody can pass for an aristocrat with a bit of practice” (Bastiat), which tells how rank is more important than
Men of the time were held to the standard of being active in society. They were expected to be active in politics and social activities outside of the home. Expectations for men were also for them to be respectful and proper, especially when women were present. The character, Jack Worthing, in The Importance of Being Earnest, is the representation of the perfect Victorian gentleman. For example, Jack says to Algernon in Act I, “...My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!” (Wilde 1.2.236). In this simple quote, Jack describes the high standards and expectations that Victorian gentlemen were held to. But not only men were held to high standards, women were expected to hold themselves in the most proper way as well. The point of a Victorian woman’s life was to marry and domestically support her family. Women had little rights and in fact, prior to the Married Women’s Property Acts of 1870, women were forced to give up all property that they held to their husbands upon marriage. (Appell 1). Within the play, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen 's mother, is provided as a tool to explain the oppression put upon women of the time.
Many traditionally accepted practices Wilde finds disgustingly unacceptable; therefore, he completely satirizes them to express how truly shallow those customs are. In that time, and even today, it was very common for the families of two engaged people to do background checks on the opposite family. Therefore, when Jack Worthing, under the fake identity of Ernest Worthing, proposes to Gwendolen, it does not seem strange that Lady Bracknell would want to know Jack’s background. The extreme expectations in which Lady Bracknell has for a man suitable for her daughter are unimaginably high. Jack tells her about his impressive lifestyle and his success and Lady Bracknell complains that he lives on the wrong side of the street. Then Jack tells her the sad story of how he was abandoned as a child and she tells him that he needs to find his parents if he wants to marry her daughter. With these ridiculous responses Wilde is trying to emphasize that the upper class believe that they are worthy of more than anyone else and are insensitive to the feelings of others. Later on, Lady Bracknell tells Algernon that he can not marry Cecily, Jack’s ward. This wealthy woman only decides to chan...
. Generally, Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde’s opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power. Her opinions and mannerisms betray a careful and calculated speaking pattern. She is able to go round for round with the other characters on witty epigrams and social repartee. Despite her current position, Lady Bracknell was not always a member of the upper class; she was a social climber bent on marrying into the aristocracy. As a former member of the lower class, she represents the righteousness of the formerly excluded. Because she is now Lady Bracknell, she has opinions on society, marriage, religion, money, illness, death, and respectability. She is another of Wilde’s inventions to present his satire on these subjects.
In Victorian times, one who came from a wealthy and respectable family was considered to be a gentleman. This is clear in numerous characters in the novel, who are immediately perceived to be gentlemen as they boast a large amount of money and dress in the finest clothes. One example, Compeyson, uses this to get a reduced sentence in court, as Magwitch says ‘one, the younger, well brought up, who will be spoke to as such’. This highlights the importance of social class in the Victorian era and it is clear to see here that the justice system is very much more favourable to the higher social ranks, deciding how they would get treated and addressed, and that the punishment is not dependent on the crime, rather the individual at trial’s background and upbringing. Dickens has shown that the Victorian concept of a gentleman is all about wealth and social ranking, not the characteristics we see in a gentleman today.
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.
The average workers amid the victorian time needed to dependably have any expectations of climbing in the privileged societies. Through the diligent work and assurance they would possibly climb. The source clarifies the writing that was normal amid this day and age. Amid the Victorian Age, everything was tied in with working and progressing to the following level of social class. The idea of working amid this age was extremely essential, it was one of the deciding variables in the social class structure. Upon the activity/vocation a man had, their social class was decided for them. For instance, with path he is a worker and with him having the title of cleaning specialist/hireling he is naturally put in a lower social class than whatever is left of the
In ‘The Important of Being Earnest’, Oscar Wilde's ridiculing representation of Victorian Society comments on the ridiculous behavior of the Victorian Society’s inability to recognise the difference between important and unimportant issues. Therefore, Oscar Wilde subverts Victorian values to mock and imply triviality and superficiality. Wilde forces the audience to rethink the importance of their life and how they act while also scrutinizing the ignorance of the characters in upper class society through mocking their morals and obsessive fascinations. Wilde's uses the inversion of what isn’t serious and what is to ridicule Victorian Society. Despite this, Wilde wanted to create something beautiful and superficial. Hence, it would be more accurate to say everything in the play is presented as superficial so perhaps there isn’t a message that needs to be taken seriously.
...ntain her social class, and only worrying about wealth and style over the life and death of others. The art of manners and social discussions are expressed through the dialogue between Gwendolen and Cecily. Although both women showed hatred towards each other, it is done in a civilised manner. Wilde shows this by creating a stylised and artificial atmosphere by making the dialogue repetitive and parallel, thus making their dialogue and comments on insignificant subjects as part of having a polite conversation. Jack also shows the significance of high society and manners by showing that he has a high sense of duty and responsibility in the country; and being serious about Cecily’s education as it can help better her current position as well as his own. Hence, Wilde’s criticisms on high society and manners are expressed through the characters and their dialogue.
Abrams and Greenblatt (2006) write that early Victorian writers responded to the social changes due to the shift from an agricultural to an industrial society and the decline of traditional religious beliefs. This era focused on artistic and creative literature. Authors scrutinized obstacles of forming a personal identity in a world in which traditional social structures were breaking down. Socia...
The Victorian age and the Modern Literature era are two very different times for the literature world. Each era had a big impact through literature, politics, and economics. The Victorian era was a time of change during the reign of Queen Victoria between 1837 to 1901. The Modern Literature era also known as the Twentieth Century and After increased popularity in literature due to the rise of industrialization and globalization from roughly about the 1910 's to the 1990 's. Even though, both of these eras made an impact towards the way people see literature, their literature work is very different in terms of themes, subjects, purposes, and techniques.