Hypocrisy of Being Earnest The Victorian era was a time of smugness and pomposity for the newly rich generation who quickly rose in class during and after the industrial revolution. Nothing was as it seemed in this day when earnestness was allegedly the most prized attribute a man could possess. In Oscar Wilde’s classical satire‚ “The Importance of Being Earnest‚” every character embodies the ideas and values of this “earnest” age. Oscar Wilde’s primary character in “The Importance of Being Earnest
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In Oscar Wilde’s play‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ the conversations between characters reveal a lot about their relationships and create a language. The relationship of Earnest and Gwendolen is primarily based on a surface characteristic; his name. Gwendolyn is only attracted to Earnest because of his name‚ because she is so consumed by what others will think. Cecily is portrayed as the wholesome girl in this play who is attracted to the devious and mysterious Algernon. However‚ their relationship
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The Importance of Being Earnest Social class and public reputation are two of the most common things that influence a person in their decision making. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”‚ Oscar Wilde mocks a society for their reasons of choosing who to marry. Oscar Wilde expresses an ironic and satiric perspective on a society that builds a marriage upon a foundation of money‚ power‚ and deceit. The play “The Importance of Being Earnest‚” is one of the most perfect examples of satire in our
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The Importance of Being Earnest is a serious comedy about trivial matters The Importance of being Earnest is a play that satirizes the Victorian upper classes. In the play‚ Oscar Wide makes fun of the upper class in many ways. Most commonly‚ Wilde does this by using comic irony‚ humor‚ and witty statements. However‚ if we look deeper into the text‚ a lot of the trivial matters characters discuss have a serious side to them. Wilde uses these matters to satirize the Victorian upper even more. The
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In his play‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ Oscar Wilde portrays his beliefs by satirizing the beliefs and values of his society. Within Act I‚ Algernon states that “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Wilde’s witty epigram projects a major theme within the play. It attacks the perception of fixed truth. The major target of Wilde’s scathing social criticism is the hypocrisy that society creates. Often in Victorian society‚ its participants acted in overly sincere‚ polite ways while
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The Importance of Being Earnest Questions Themes (Feel free to see the questions related to the themes at http://www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/) Lies and Deceit Marriage Respect and Reputation Society and Class Gender Versions of Reality: Romance Love Foolishness and Folly Epigrams Define an epigram. What do the following epigrams say? Keep track of epigrams in the play. “Education is an admirable thing‚ but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing
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Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ A Trivial Comedy For Serious People is a play about two friends Jack Worthing and Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff. In order to get away from their lives the two men invent fictitious characters to explain their absence (Jack invents Earnest while Algy invents Bunbury) from the country in Jack’s case and town in Algy’s. To complicate matters the two men then fall in love Jack with Gwendolen‚ Algy’s cousin and Algy with Jacks ward Cecily. Both women believe
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The Importance of Being Earnest This novel‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ elaborates on the importance of telling the truth. You have two best friends‚ Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing‚ who create other people in their life. The plot of the story brings to the forth the concept of being honest. For example‚ Algernon admits that for him to be seen as polite‚ he makes up an invalid friend called Bunbury. On the other hand‚ Jack also comes up with a fake brother called Earnest. The aim of these
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Sonia Kaur Professor McLaughlin ENG 102 TH 7 C Topic: Research Paper on The Importance of Being Earnest Essay 4 How does Oscar Wilde satirize Victorian society in his play The Importance of Being Earnest? What is the genre of the play? Sure‚ it is a comedy‚ but where does Wilde put the emphasis on? Social satire. Social satire is a weapon using comedy in order to take a subject‚ in this case the Victorian Era‚ and ridicule it. In this sense‚ comedy is not only to entertain but also educate. Thus
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Discuss the use of duplicity and subterfuge for comic affect in The importance of being earnest. The importance of being Ernest written in 1899 by Oscar wild is a comedy of manners which was first shown to the Victorian society. Being a comedy of manners‚ the play includes many features of a Victorian melodrama including confusion‚ mistaken identity and a final happy ending. However subterfuge and duplicity is inherent in all characters and is the main source of comic value within the plot. We see
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