The Importance of Being Ernest Essay

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde has a unique title and tons of irony in the play. Throughout the play both Algernon and Jack impersonate someone named Earnest, but they are both ironically not earnest. Specifically how they act frivolously, irreverently, and manipulate others. The definition of earnest is “showing depth and sincerity of feeling.” Throughout the play, the way Algernon acts frivolously makes him not earnest. In the first act, Algernon knows that bringing Jack to…

The Importance of Being Earnest: Written vs. Performed play. The Importance of Being Earnest , written by Oscar Wilde in 1895, is a romantic comedy play written about the happenstance, coincidence, and revelation that occurs one London season between two friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, and their paramours Gwendolyn Bracknell and Cecily Cardew respectively. Minor characters include Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother and aunt to Algernon; Lane, Algernon’s butler; Miss Prism,…

on word-play, puns, verbal irony, innuendo, and witticism to mock or satirize a particular subject. This is true of Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde, living in a society tainted by strict rules and customs, used this play to challenge social norms of the Victorian era. The double entendre included in title, The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, accents Oscar Wilde's witticism and word-play, as he mocks Victorian values by…

himself was arrested on charges of “gross indecency” after his affair with a young man came to light (Biography). With this knowledge, The Importance of Being Earnest takes on an entirely new meaning aside from being a mere farce. The play revolves around the idea of identity, and the process of coming to terms with that identity. Two men who adopt the persona of “Ernest” both lie about…

their opinions about the class system, one of whom was Oscar Wilde. He used his comedy play “The Importance of Being Earnest” to discuss serious matters about the class conflict in the Victorian period in a humorous way. In this essay I’m going to be discussing the representation of class in The Importance of Being Earnest and relating it to the class conflict in the Victorian period. The Importance of Being Earnest’s plot revolves around two couples who must go through…

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde describes the satire of Victorian attitudes about marriage. Lady Bracknell, a foremost symbol of Victorian society, wants to marry her daughter Gwendolen to a good family with a respectable and noble pedigree. Jack Worthing, the protagonist, wants to marry Gwendolen, the love of his life. The Cross- examination of Jack by Lady Bracknell depicts some of the foibles and hypocrisies of late Victorian society, in which the relationships were not based…

The quote, “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it,” stated by Oscar Wilde constructs interesting assumptions about his drama, “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Wilde himself. Because he was in touch with his feminine side, he was accused of being homosexual during the late 1800s which led the case being the “trail of the century” which condemned him to two years of hard labor. This play was published during the Victorian era, an era where homosexuality and…

Both protagonists are orphans who, perhaps unconsciously, seek familial ties, and in order to attain that dream of wife and family, each man is willing to place himself in the arms of a scheming woman. Gimpel denies his own doubts about Elka’s fidelity when she blocks his access to their bed, but then births a child soon after their wedding. “How can you make such a fool,” [Gimpel] said [to Elka], “of one who should be the lord and master?” (Singer 280). But the counsel of a learned villager…

Comparing Satire “The Importance of Being Earnest” takes place in the Victorian Era. The purpose of Wilde writing a satire about Victorian society was to awaken people. He wanted to let the people understand how ridiculous it was. “As for the particular locality in which the hand-bag was found, a cloak-room at a railway station, might serve to conceal a social indiscretion-has probably, indeed, been used for that purpose before now-but it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a…

Writing Task The use of satirical humor in “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde Throughout the play, Oscar Wilde uses satirical humor to ridicule and deride the members of the Victorian aristocracy. Wilde criticizes certain aspects of society, mocking social conventions such as marriage. This can be seen in the play when Jacks confides to Algernon that he is in love with Gwendolen and that he has come to town to propose to her, and Algernon replies that he thought that Jack…