The Paradox of Victorian England
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, the characters construct a world that is filled with exaggeration, irony, and absurdity; this world's humor casts a spell on the audience, which paradoxically is created through an exaggeration of the very world the Victorian audience lives in. Thus, Oscar Wilde's social criticism is made doubly ironic; his criticisms include those of the Victorian ideas of marriage, class, morality, and the appearance of respectability. Wilde's main criticism in the play is with the institution of marriage. For although it is continually criticized by the characters, especially Algernon who calls it "demoralizing," marriage is in fact what all the action of the play moves toward. For instance, Jack continually tries to secure Gwendolyn's hand in marriage and Algernon tries to get Cecily to marry him. Throughout these attempts absurdities frequently arise. For instance, when Algernon is pretending to be Ernest, Jack's younger and more mischievous brother, Cecily informs him that they have been engaged for approximately three months, even though this was the first actual meeting between the two. Another oddity is that all the main characters are aware that marria
" Wilde's criticisms of marriage seem to deride both Victorian Literature, which often has marriage as its central issue, and English society, which, as Wilde asserts, "treats all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality. For instance, Algernon's lies, saying he is visiting his sick friend Bunbury at times when he wishes to break an engagement, are known by Lane, Jack, and apparently Lady Bracknell as well. Upon hearing this, Lady Bracknell quickly changes her opinion of Cecily Cardew and states, "Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her. In fact, Algernon even asks, "Really, if the lower orders don't set us [aristocrats] a good example, what on earth is the use of them?" The idea of immorality and maintaining an appearance of respectability in Victorian England is exemplified in this play as the characters frequently lie to suit their fancy, while still being able to preserve their reputations. Also, after learning that neither Algernon nor Jack was named Ernest, both Cecily and Gwendolyn proclaimed that their fiances' "Christian names are still an insuperable barrier. For instance, Cecily, who fell in love with her idea of what Jack's 'brother Ernest' was, conjured an engagement with him and even wrote "dear letters" to herself on Ernest's behalf. " The humor present in the sudden recantation of opinion exemplifies the irony deeply embedded in the Victorian class-system: although the aristocratic class is supposed to represent the ideals of English life, they often possess a great many flaws such as superficiality, arrogance, and a false sense of superiority. Another large example of wanting to maintain an appearance of respectability deals with the name "Ernest" and the obsession of it by the two main female characters. The most dominant examples of this are Algernon's Bunburying and Jack's creation of a brother named Ernest. The two females believe in the absurd idea that a person's name determines a person's character. " Lady Bracknell's eventual rejection of Jack as a suitor because he was "born, or at any rate bred in a handbag" exaggerates the impenetrability of the London class-system to such an extent that its ridiculousness is humorous. Lady Bracknell, who represents the prototypical aristocrat, as she is stuffy, arrogant, and haughty, tries, on multiple occasions, to prevent any non-aristocrat from breaking the boundaries of the class-system by marrying into her family. For instance, Lane, the butler who was married once before, calls his marriage a "misunderstanding," while Lady Bracknell, a married aristocrat, never seems to express any form of interest in her husband when his name arises in conversation. For instance, Lady Bracknell is concerned about her daughter's prospective fiance's qualifications, and whether Jack's father was born in the "purple of commerce," or whether he rose "from the ranks of the aristocracy.
Common topics in this essay:
Lady Bracknell,
Oscar Wilde's,
Victorian England,
Algernon Jack's,
Miss Cardew,
Importance Earnest,
Victorian Literature,
Lady Bracknell's,
Ernest Ironically,
Ernest Jack's,
lady bracknell,
victorian england,
appearance respectability,
named ernest,
play characters,
importance earnest,
characters play,
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Acceptance Essays
