Criticism In Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest

When Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest premiered in 1895 the audience and critics alike we enthralled with the play’s original humour and witty dialogue. Despite this many Victorian critics such as William Archer found the play difficult to analyse and claimed that the play ‘raises no principle’ and has no serious point or moral standing. Considering that the nineteenth century audiences were accustomed to dramas that candidly addressed social and political issues, such as George Bernard Shaw’s Widowers Houses, this is unsurprising. I agree with A.B Walkley that the play has ‘no discordant note of seriousness’ , however, critics of the time would have claimed that Earnest raises no serious social criticism because it does not discuss anything …show more content…
Wilde uses comedic conventions such as epigrams, witticisms, puns and absurdities to open up discussion and to make the audience think about certain issues while making us laugh. Algernon’s remark that ‘if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them’ is funny because it is almost outrageous and inverts accepted concepts. However Wilde also uses irony to expose the hypocrisy of a classist Victorian society as Algernon exudes an undue air of superiority shown by his criticism of the lower classes for not being more useful when he is lazy and immoral himself. Another example of Wilde’s use of epigram is Algernon’s quip that ‘in married life three is company and two is none’ which again inverts expectations and suggests the monotony and unhappiness of married life through memorable and funny