“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a comedic play by Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde. It was first performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London (Woodring). “The characters in this play are Mr. Worthing (Ernest in town, Jack in the country), his ward Cecily Caldew, his fiancée Gwendolen Fairfax - daughter of Lady Bracknell, and his friend Algernon Moncrieff - nephew of Lady Bracknell; the plot is that Algernon, as her guardian's fictitious younger brother Ernest, becomes engaged to Cecily, so both girls are engaged to 'Ernest' but neither to Ernest. (Stone).” The title “The importance of being Earnest” is a clever play on words because suggests a connection between the name “Earnest” and the action of being earnest, but; in the play, the characters that uses the persona of Earnest are not earnest at all (Schmidt). Oscar Wilde lived during the nineteenth century, also known as the Victoria era. During this time, people placed emphasis on self-image and had high moral values. One could say that his play, “the importance of being earnest”, is a play about social rank and moral standards. The moral of the play is that “honesty is the rule of the day” (Schmidt). Although the lesson is an apparent one that supports Victorian values, Wilde uses a creative way to create an engaging story that displays and slightly mocks Victorian social norms.
In this comedy, Oscar Wilde mocks the role of women during his time. In his play the women have a lot of power, unlike the actual role of women during that time period. For example, Jack and Algernon are so in love with Gwendolen and Cecily that they consider getting christenings to change their names. They also, eventually, agree to give up their double lives and start bein...
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...: 67-75. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Scott T. Darga. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Schmidt, Arnold. "An essay for The Importance of Being Earnest." Drama for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Stone, Geoffrey. "Serious Bunburyism: The Logic of The Importance of Being Earnest." Essays in Criticism 26.1 (Jan. 1976): 28-41. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Scott T. Darga. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Wilde, Oscar. "The Importance of Being Earnest." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 1937-979. Print.
Woodring, Carl. "The Importance of Being Earnest: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Posnock, Ross. “Roy Cohn in America.” Raritan 13.3 (Winter 1994): 64-77. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.
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.
Oscar Wildes ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’’ is believed by many to be his most genius work and certainly has withstood the test of time. The play is set in London during the 1890’s in which time frame aristocracy and upper class held the majority of the countries wealth. Many of the comical aspects question the morals of the upper class in which he satirises throughout the play. One method of this, for instance is through one of the main protagonist, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon is an upper class individual who is oblivious to the world around him in such an exaggerated manner that it makes his character comically adjusted for Wildes own views.
Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, play carefully uses satire as a didactic tool to mask the underlying social commentary with the help of comedy through characters theme and dialogue. Wilde uses satire to ridicule class and wealth, marriage and the ignorance of the Victorian Age. Audiences are continually amused by Wilde’s use of linguistic and comic devices such as double entendre, puns, paradox and epigrams, especially in the case of social commentary and didactic lessons. Characters portrayed in the play such as Jack, Cecily, Algernon and Lady Bracknell, allow Wilde to express his opinions on the social problems during the Victorian Age.
Reinert, Otto. (1956). Satiric Strategy in the Importance of Being Earnest. College English, Vol. 18, No. 1.
“Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone,” engraves Oscar Wilde as he sets the literary table with a bountiful demonstration of Victorian satire. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is evidently a comic critic of late Victorian value (Schmidt 5). Brought into this world from Dublin, Ireland, to well-heeled parents in 1854. Wilde received an opportunity for social improvement when graduating from Oxford University, after receiving a financial scholarship that gave him a first hand account of the upper crust society lifestyle which allowed him to acquire material to poke fun at (Moss 179). Wilde shows his characters as if they knew that people where watching them. By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19).
The Importance of Being Earnest Written, written in 1854, by Oscar Wilde, discusses many social matters occurring in the 19th century. Since The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy, it “awakens thoughtful laughter” (George Meredith). This comedic play often awakens thoughtful laughter, or laughter that makes someone ponder more about important issues. One of many of the primary instances of this is created by the ideas of marriage and love is a social device during this era. The characters didn’t fall in love because there was a romantic spark or that they felt a love connection with one another, they fell in love because the people they loved had a specific name, history, physical characteristics or economic status.
Introduction to English Literature. Course Reader. Drama and Poetry. Ed. Patrick Vincent. NE. University of Neuchâtel
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Peter Raby, ed. Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. London: Oxford University Press, 1995. 247-307.
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.
...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.
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:
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde during the Victorian era. It is a farcical comedy in which the main characters live and maintain a fictional persona to escape their responsibilities. To which Oscar Wilde uses secondary characters within the play such as Lady Bracknell to humorously make her the tool of the conflict and much of the satire. She is the first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnests and the unhappiness it brings as a result. Lady Bracknell was specially designed to represent Wilde’s opinion of the upper Victorian class repressiveness and traditional negativity. Hence minor characters such as Lady Bracknell play essential roles as they help both the plot and support the themes with assistance
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