An Ideal Husband Analysis

Victorian literature was composed from roughly 1830-1900 under the reign of Queen Victoria of England. It is most often characterized by the hypocrisy of the social stratosphere and the precedence of good over evil. Victorian author Oscar Wilde, however, challenged the bounds of typical Victorian literature and ultimately “opened the door for the development of modernism” (Gutierrez-Folch). Two of his works, The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, portray Wilde’s ideas and attitudes toward Victorian literature in a satirical manner, encouraging audiences to recognize a deceptive society under Queen Victoria’s rule. The era of Victorian literature came on the wings of the diminishing Romantic period. Poetry about nature and abstract concepts transitioned to societal-focused works as more and more poets focused on the issues of their reality …show more content…
She is portrayed as stuffy and arrogant, with a great distaste for Jack that she takes no measure to hide. When Jack makes known his plan to marry her daughter, she refuses on the basis that Jack does not know his family’s true place on the societal ladder, as he was orphaned. In Act I, she confronts Jack saying, “I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible” (The Importance of Being Earnest 24) and soon after stating, “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter…to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel” (The Importance of Being Earnest 24-25). Lady Bracknell will only allow her daughter’s hand in marriage to a list of suitors she has personally approved, and Jack’s lack of familial status is appalling to her. The embodiment of Lady Bracknell’s character mocks the Victorian characteristics of superiority and social standing by exaggerating them through her condescension towards Jack and his