Being Earnest Gender Roles Essay

During The Importance of Being Earnest, the idea of how each gender’s role in our culture centers throughout the whole play. During the Victorian life of this play, it is often that men have a greater amount of influence in the world than women. Usually, the men focus on political decisions, money, providing for their family, while women stay at the house and put their attention on cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children. Also, men are treasured for their brainpower and judgment, while women, on the other hand, are striking to men for their physical looks and cohabitation. But, there are a handful of instances where women roles often over power manly roles. Harold Printer uniquely added in characters such as Lady Bracknell, in higher positions of power than male characters like Jack and Algernon. Lady Bracknell is in so much power that she can show everyone that men can be irresponsible and not being smart when it comes to decision-making. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Cecily are characters that if you look closely enough, you will tell that they reverse gender role stereotypes by showing control and overarching power over the opposite sex. …show more content…
Women in this time period were seen as the stay at home mom who cooks and cleans while the dad goes out and works. Harold Printer added characters like Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen to reverse the typical female stereotype with power, but ultimately these female roles keep the same female jobs. They still stay at home to cook, clean, and tend to the children but they can overpower men at times. The play is still upholding normal roles and doesn’t change female and male roles around enough to challenge or change the idea of each gender role in