The Importance of Being Ernest Essay

As social animals, human beings marshal themselves into social groups that construct the society. Such an act may appear to be a de minimis but forsooth, the setting that people are put into has a prominent effect on the person. In the dynamic play by Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, the setting is more than a mere backdrop that sets the mood for the play; instead, Wilde initiates a setting that acts as a nonhuman character in the play. That is, the setting, similar to the…

Victorian Satire in Oscar Wilde’s ”The Importance of Being Earnest.” Victorian era ideals are littered throughout Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Whether it be the act of bunburying, the prominence behind one’s name, or the suitability of someone in another’s hand in marriage, all are visited in this play in some form or another. Points of importance to Victorian culture are found quite trivial within the lines of this work published near the end of the same era, especially…

Ernest Husbands or Earnest Husbands? In the play The Importance of Being Earnest, the characters view love and marriage differently than we do in modern society. In the play, Cecily and Gwendolen fall in love with the name “Ernest” rather than the person or their ability to be earnest. Also, when Lady Bracknell was interviewing Jack, she asked many questions that we would not typically ask when considering marriage. In modern society, most people fall in love with someone because of their…

Oscar Wilde implements a heavy focusses significant attention on class in The Importance of Being Earnest. People with and without money behave very differently, though strive for the same response and impressions from their peers. The characters in this novel are exaggerated to the point of absurdity when it comes to their obsession with class. Victorian upper class demands its members to keep up an important image in society and value money and appearance above all else, including people.…

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…

authored works of literary merit such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde was one of the greatest wits of the 20th century because of his intelligence, flamboyancy, and humor. Unfortunately, the Victorian social prejudices surmounted him, when the father of a young man Wilde was romantically involved with left him a homophobic slur. Wilde was convicted of gross indecency, and was sent to two years of hard labor. After being released from prison, he lived for…

very much to either one's health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes” (Act I). Jack escapes from his country and changes his identity to Earnest to perform the things that he wants to experience. For Jack, being a guardian and a landowner is a great obligation for his ward and people. Through his alter-ego, Jack obtains freedom because he becomes…

had to create a younger brother named Ernest in order to go to town. Jack didn’t have an identity because he did not know what his background is. He chose to create his own identity, even though he lied to everyone about it. At the end of the play, Jack realized that the identity that he created is in fact who he is. Once he found out about his background, he was jumping for joy. Even more so when he found out that his name is Ernest. For instance, Jack aka Ernest states, “On the contrary, Aunt…

pleasure. This paper would focus on the witticism in Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, which exposes the dualities of identities in a society where the social relationships are rooted on false notions of deception. The play is a parody on the…

“The Importance of Being Earnest” is one of the greatest comedy dramas. On the other hand, a tragedy is also a genre of drama that is has a sorrowful and depressing ending…