As more works enter the world of literature every year, authors must find ways to uniquely connect with their audience, and set themselves and their piece apart from other stories. Oscar Wilde uses satire throughout his story The Importance of Being Earnest to provide social commentary and lighten the mood in this comedy. The main characters appear foolish and pompous throughout, indicating his perspective on their time period, and how he believes those characters would interact with each other. Emphasized in the article “The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire” by Megan Leboeuf, the use of satire not only adds depth to a story, but also offers the author a protected voice and a chance to critique the time period they live in as a whole. …show more content…
Megan LaBeouf's article “The Power of Ridicule: An Analysis of Satire” claims that, “Messages that would be ignored or punished if overtly declared are reaching millions of people in satirical form, and making a real difference” (LeBeouf). This idea that a bold and explicit statement made by a writer or speaker could quickly be dismissed as radical or audacious and not analyzed makes satire a way into the reader’s mind. For example, as Wilde commentates on the social hypocrisy and division of class across the Victorian time period, he employs the character of Lady Bracknell to depict the issues with the class system. As the characters begin to become engaged, she immediately judges Cecily based on the fact that Jack is her guardian. However, her views instantly change when Jack tells her that Cecily has a hundred and thirty thousand pounds in funds, as she retracts and states "A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her" (Wilde 1474). Emphasis is placed on a person's wealth rather than their personality, sincerity, or compassion for the other. Marriage is viewed as an economic factor, whereby people marry for wealth or to conserve wealth in their families, especially Lady Bracknell who represents the guardian of an upper class society. She is however a hypocrite and uses social morals to her …show more content…
Wilde’s characters engage in foolishness throughout the story, and perform some actions that make the play more enjoyable for his audience. For instance, Algernon scolds Jack ridiculously as he is dressed for mourning of Jack’s fake brother. Algernon claims, “Well, I don't like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don't you go up and change? It is perfectly childish to be in deep mourning for a man who is actually staying for a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque” (Wilde 1460). Algernon is the character who foils Jack’s plan, so his ridiculous attack upon Jack’s wardrobe seems both shallow but silly. Even down to the word choices and logic Algernon uses, such as “childish,” and “grotesque” add to the absurdity of this statement, and help the reader not only get a glimpse into the characters true selves, but also enjoy the drama between them as comedy. This is furthermore seen as the two courting gentlemen eat muffins after they have just been exposed as liars to their suitors. During this time of distress, they end up in a trivial argument as Jack accuses Algernon of being heartless for gladly eating during this time, when Algernon responds back “Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner” (Wilde 1469). This laughable response offers slapstick humor to the audience, while continuing to provide satirical elements of the
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray addresses fundamental issues that are frequently neglected in society by incorporating satire into his novel. “Satire,” as defined by the dictionary, is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” Wilde frequently uses satirical principles throughout the entire novel, typically during incidents involving Dorian Gray. Wilde presents Dorian as a beautiful, seemingly innocent, individual with an aggressive desire for eternal youth and beauty. Wilde uses satire with the intent of bringing attention to the abysmal pursuit of beauty in everything and the craving to be beauteous.
The idea of absurdity in Victorian times was embraced by some writers and looked down upon by others. Oscar Wilde embraced the absurd whole-heartedly. This is obvious, if not even the theme, of The Importance of Being Earnest. Not only is the word "absurd" used many times in the story, but the ridiculousness of the characters and their roles conveys the ideas of absurdity in the Victorian Era.
...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...
The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded as one of the most successful plays written by Oscar Wilde, a great 19th century playwright. Oscar Wilde deals with something unique about his contemporary age in this drama. It addresses Victorian social issues, French theatre, farce, social drama and melodrama. All these factors influenced the structure of the play in a large scale. This play is basically a Victorian satirical drama showcasing the social, political, economic and religious structural changes that affected 18th century England. It was the time when British Empire had captured most part of the world including Oscar Wilde’s homeland, Ireland. The aristocrats of England had become dominant over the middle and poor class people and Wilde wrote plays with the motivation to encourage people to think against the English aristocracy and artificiality.
In the play, Wilde uses Algernon’s relationship with food to criticize the repression of desires during the Victorian era. Food also played a large role in Victorian society as a symbol of status and repression of urges. Upper-class Victorians were careful not to eat too much to show their self-restraint (“Victorian”). Similarly, eating plays a large role in the book and could symbolize “appetites and emotions that it is not respectable or polite to air openly” (Laws). Algernon’s chief vice appears in his overindulgence in food. Algernon’s preoccupation with food appears many times in the play and he often appears to be “[e]ating as usual,” according to Jack (1.296). At the beginning of the play, Algernon orders cucumber sandwiches for Lady
By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19). 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.
Wilde “awoke laughter” in The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde showed rather than falling in love because you actually liked a person, the people of the Victorian Era fell in love solely on minute details such as physical features, a person’s name, or how much wealth they had. The comedy comes into play when Wilde pokes fun at the process of falling in love, because the characters rush falling in love with the right person, the audience compares the character’s reality with the world’s reality.
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.
Satire in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a play by Oscar Wilde, set in the late 1800's. His actors are playing upper class citizens who are very self-absorbed. The play is set amongst upper class, wealthy people. They appear not to work and are concerned with their own pleasure.
Satire is a genre of literature that many authors have written in, particularly when writing in or about the Victorian time period. Authors would write satirical novels with the intent to provide constructive social criticism, to draw attention to issues in their society, and to shame individuals, corporations, governments, and society, in general, into improvement. Two writers who successfully use satire in their works are Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. Both writers satirize gender roles and social status in their respective works of The Importance of Being Earnest and Between the Acts. In his play, Wilde utilizes the techniques of inversion and puns to get his satire across, which work together to form a specific critique of marriage and social status in a Victorian society, and those that enforce these rules. Woolf, on the other hand, uses both parody and irony to create a more relatable and less direct viewpoint on society and the people who fit into it. Both Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf use satire to criticize gender roles and social status in a Victorian society, but through different techniques direct their satire at different audiences.
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde plays around with the standard expectations along with the absence of compassion of a Victorian society in the 1890’s, he demonstrates this through several genres of comedy such as Melodrama, Comedy of Manners, Farce, dark humour and Irony, as well as portraying the themes, death and illness, in this play in a brilliance of unusual amount of references.
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.
In the play, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde ridicules and identifies the negative aspects of Victorian society through comedic dialogue. He uses characters with ridiculous personalities to demonstrate his idea of Victorian life. By making absurd scenes with foolish characters, it is his way of mocking the Victorian lifestyle passive aggressively.
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