The morals of the Victorian Era gained renown for their strict socials roles that existed for both men and women. However, Oscar Wilde rejected these morals as he not only wrote characters but also acted as a character who flippantly disregarded the strict moral code. In his play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde elicits a thoughtful laughter through the constant hypocrisy and non-sequitous behaviours of Lady Bracknell. Wilde uses her to explore the hypocrisy that he detested within Victorian Society, and through Lady Bracknell’s commentary on gender roles and marital roles, Wilde illustrates his own personal contentions with Victorian morals.
In the first act and the first appearance of Lady Bracknell, Jack receives a thorough interview from Lady Bracknell regarding his social status to validate his worth as a suitor to Lady Bracknell’s daughter, Gwendolyn. Lady Bracknell questions Jack concerning his smoking habits, and when Lady Bracknell learns that he smokes, she replies with: “I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is” (Wilde 45). The immediate humor of her response occurs due to Non-Sequitous logic she employs in that she regards smoking as an occupation. However, beyond the humor her diction reveals a Victorian view on gender relations since she only uses the words “man” and “men” indicating that she only objects to idleness in men. This attitude reflects the Victorian morals of the time but appears ironic since she and her daughter act as idle figures throughout the play, only talking and taking no action of their own. Additional, irony occurs in the statement that “a man should always have an occupation” since Jack in his r...
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...e acts as a social construct since she details her own rise to riches as a result of marriage, but society ignores the larger significance of marriage: procreation. This major aspect never receives any attention from either Lady Bracknell or Victorian society due to a cultural taboo. Wilde uses her views on marriage to illustrate the fundamental perversion of the Victorian matrimonial ideal since it uses marriage as a social construct while ignoring the sexual construct.
Lady Bracknell, as a character, acts as a caricature of Victorian society and morality, and when her views aspects of gender relations and matrimonial relations receive inspection, her true significance appears. Wilde intends to evoke laughter through her extremely strict and antiquated morals, but at a deeper level, he seeks to attack any system of rigid morals that often plague societies.
Oscar Wilde, the writer of The Importance of Being Earnest, celebrated the Victorian Era society while criticizing it in his play. Through his play, he utilized the humorous literary techniques of pun, irony, and satire to comment on the impact of Victorian Era society left on the characters themselves. These comedic literary devices also help to show how the members of this society in the Victorian Era live by a set of unspoken rules that determine politeness, as well as proper etiquette to live by. Wilde uses a pun in the title of the work, as well as in the character personalities. Different types of irony appear in many scenes in the play, to flout the rules of society, as well as mock the intelligence of the upper-class characters, compared to the lower-class characters. Wilde satirizes the rules of the upper-class society of the Victorian Era through the dialogue of the characters. The time period in which these characters live, impacts their daily lives, and their personalities.
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.
AThe Importance of Being Earnest a play written by Oscar Wilde is set in England in the late Victorian era. Wilde uses obvious situational and dramatic irony within the play to satirize his time period. According to Roger Sale in Being Ernest the title has a double meaning to it and is certainly another example of satire used by Wilde. With a comedic approach, Wilde ridicules the absurdities of the character’s courtship rituals, their false faces, and their secrets. (Sale, 478)
Wilde’s criticism on high society and manners are shown by creating absurd situations and characters whose lack of insight causes them to respond in an inappropriate manner. An example is shown in Lady Bracknell’s preoccupation with her own parties and that the lack of sympathy for invalids makes her react to the news of Bunbury’s illness in an exaggeratedly cold manner. “I think it is high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me”. This quote conveys the audiences that Lady Bracknell is more concerned with the propriety of her music arrangements over the life and death struggles of Bunbury. As mentioned earlier, Lady Bracknell displays a great deal of pride and pretense through her sense of entitlement and by...
...erpreted as dark and significant to the period. The comedy Wilde achieves is at the expense of the characters who are seemingly intelligent adding to the ironic structure that much of the comedy is based on. Many of the comic elements of the play are shown through human reactions to Victorian repression and the effect it has on the men and women of the time. Love seems to be nonexistent within the finds of the fierce and brutal Aristocracy when so many of the qualities they value are not based on human qualities but that of the class’s social norms. Wildes Characters are at often times not subtle about their distaste in marriage and love, Algernon is no exception to this “In aried lie, three is company, two is none” showing that they all have distorted views on many of the social practices that make them morally sound, thus adding to the satire elements of the play.
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...
Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
...ll’s power overtakes the other male characters like Algernon and Jack, who have their own personal unresolved crises in the start, putting them lower down the scale of the social group. There is the idea that Wilde portrays Lady Bracknell as the ideal figure for upper class women that both Gwendolyn and Cecily should aim to rival in the future. However, the playwright already demonstrates how the younger women in the play provide the main source of conflict, as they are the objects of affection, so the notion of the ‘New Woman’ may enable them to surpass the elder women’s, who still own patriarchal values, power in the society. At the same time Wilde is able to criticize the drama that not only the women but the whole of the upper class create from the details of each other’s personal affairs. Wilde’s ultimate point is that comedy reacts against social conformity.
Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, and Cecily Cardew are all female character’s who challenge gender roles. In the case of Lady Bracknell, she is presented more as a father figure to her daughter, Gwendolen, then a mother. In a scene in Act I, Lady Bracknell takes on the role of the f...
...her defiance to no longer comply with the gender constructions of society. Ibsen, therefore, criticises society’s compliance with the constructions of the culture and urges us to be more like Nora is at her epiphany. Lady Bracknell is memorable for her comically masculine traits and character. Not only does Wilde shatter our gender expectations, but ridicules the compliance of individuals in the performances that they make for society. Both plays raise questions regarding the submission of men and women to society’s presumptions and pressure regarding gender, and criticise individuals for conforming without asking questions. Each play makes us question our own performances for society and the performances of others in our lives. Nora’s realisation that she has married a construction is as unnerving now as it was to its contemporary audience because it forces us to look at our own behaviour and that of others around us, presenting us with a frightening and menacing awareness that we also may be existing in false and constructed lives.
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.
Wilde presents marriage as a state that is accepted in its superficiality. Lady Bracknell states’ ‘when you do become engaged to someone, I, or your father… will inform you of the fact’’. This statement exemplifies the typecast of a firm Victorian women reinforcing the idea that marriage was a business arrangement,; marriages were understood to be a useful financial and social ‘alliance’ instead of a joint enterprise of love and commitment. Lady Bracknell attempts to impose these illogical concepts from her own generation which are based on traditions and conventions. Wilde conveys this idea of ridiculing
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.
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
Wilde accomplishes achieving the satirical message that he intended for the readers through his use of exaggeration. He begins by Mrs. Cheveley spitefully telling Lady Chiltern that her “house” is “a house bought with the price of dishonor”