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how is satire used in the importance of being earnest?
dramatic irony in the importance of being earnest.
how is satire used in the importance of being earnest?
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The plot of “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, performed by Shem Productions is a Victorian melodrama where Jack Worthing, the protagonist, lives by a phantom name ‘Ernest’ in London, and by his original name in the country. This further leads to a series of misunderstandings among his friends, family and girlfriend. The central metaphor was the double life represented by the idea of ‘Bunburying’; an imaginary term given by Algemon. A similarity between Ernest and Bunbury is that they both are made up names/terms that enabled both Jack and Algemon to live a lie. The play was enacted without any narration or chorus music, which is different from the usual. In spite of this, it did not fail to keep the audiences’ interest in the
As a dandy, Algernon’s wealth and social status grant him the privilege of being able to avoid his responsibilities and obligations without any serious consequences. He does this by creating the fictional character of Bunbury, an invalid friend of his who he must attend to regularly, conveniently whenever he has a commitment he does not wish to fulfill. This practice allows Algernon to live a sort of alternate life, which is another parallel to Wilde. For a long time, Wilde, thanks to his wealth, was active in the homosexual community of Britain, despite such sexually deviant behavior being criminalized at the time. Algernon’s “Bunburyism” is an example of how in Victorian society, the upper class was able to ignore many of their responsibilities thanks to their wealth and social status. This can be interpreted as a criticism of the elites of British society, essentially an attempt to paint them as irresponsible and arrogant (two words that certainly apply to Algernon). However, it could also be argued that through his disregard for his commitments and social obligations, Algernon is rebelling against the status quo in order to maximize his own happiness, like a true dandy
By embracing their animalistic traits, the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest begin to blemish their intellectual character, which inhibits their overall persona. Jack Worthing’s, the main character, animalism impairs his morality. Jack creates a fictional character called Ernest Worthing, to act as a rowdy brother that is portrayed as a burdensome sibling. However, he created this fictional personage so he could be as frivolous as he pleased without his ward Cecily knowing of his obstreperous ways.
...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.
... Although absurd in nature, Oscar Wilde’s wittily-crafted characters address solemn situations with unfeigned triviality, thus adding humour to the absurd Edwardian way of life. The Importance of Being Earnest, a satirical and hypocritical masterpiece, conveys the role of treasured values such as aristocracy and love, and addresses the concept of treating all serious matters of life with genuine and sincere triviality. Although excessively foolish in their nature, the characters in Oscar Wilde’s skillfully-written play truly represent the preposterous principles embodied by the Edwardian upper class.
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.
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’s purpose in writing The Importance of Being Earnest was to display the artificial barriers that defined the aristocratic Victorian society, and to show that those particular people cared more about trivial subjects than what was of true value. He was able to portray this message in a comedic way.
Jack invents his brother “Ernest” so that he can excuse himself from the country, where he serves as Cecily’s guardian. Under such pretense he can escape to town, where he can court Gwendolen and entertain himself with extravagant dinners. Similarly, Algernon invents his invalid friend “Bunbury,” so that he has an excuse to escape from the city when he does not care to dine with his relations. Fact and fiction collide when Algernon arrives at Jack’s country estate, pretending to the elusive “Ernest”. His arrival upsets Jack’s plan to kill off his fictional brother and nearly derails Jack’s real engagement to Gwendolen. That Algernon coins the terms “Bunburying” and “Bunburyist” after his imaginary invalid to describe such impersonations highlights
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.
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.
After Jack's admission of pretending to have 'a younger brother of the name of Earnest' we learn that this excuse allows Jack to travel up to town to socialise, leading a generally luxurious lifestyle, unknown to those who remain at his country home, this plot point links to a typical feature of a Comedy of Manners play, that the countryside was generally dull, while cities were thriving. Jack’s lifes...
The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is full of irony. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, the protagonists in the play, get themselves into a complicated situation called Bunburyism (as Algernon refers to it). They pretend to be someone that they are not to escape their daily lives. They lie to the women they admire and eventually the truth is unveiled.
Oscar Wilde begins with a joke in the title that is not only a piece of frivolity. It concerns the problem of recognising and defining human identity. The use of earnest and Earnest is a pun, which makes the title not only more comic, but also leads to a paradox. The farce in The Importance of Being Earnest consists in the trifle that it is important not only to be earnest by nature but to have the name Earnest too. Jack realizes "the vital Importance of Being Earnest"(53) not till the end of the play. Algernon calls the act of not being earnest Bunburying which gives the plot a moral significance. Bunburying means inventing a fictitious character by which one can escape the frustrating social norms. Algernon says to Jack:
The pun on the word "Earnest" suggests two things; it stands for the name but also refers to honesty and integrity. It is also known as a `one joke' or a play on words. Though the name is spelt as "Ernest" the reader still recognizes the double meaning of the title. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationships base on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a `scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack,