How Is The Importance Of Being Earnest Relevant Today
While the Victorian era is remembered for having strict social rules and high expectations, one man decided to stand out. Oscar Wilde rose to fame with a likeable and larger-than-life personality that went against the cultural norms. His bold societal and political views, as well as his satirical plays, made him a popular character. He enjoyed expressing himself through colorful outfits and witty language. While loved for his fashion and speech, he also went through hardships and discrimination because of his lifestyle. Oscar Wilde’s struggles, life circumstances, and societal views are reflected in his play The Importance of Being Earnest, and are still relevant today. Oscar Wilde became a lively and popular character in his adult life.
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In the play, both Algernon and Jack have separate lives, a phenomenon they call Bunburying. Jack is known as “Ernest” in London and “Jack” in his hometown, while Algernon pretends to have a sickly friend named Bunbury who he ‘visits’ to get out of social obligations. Both characters invent double lives to escape the ones they live in. These exciting separate lives provide opportunities for the men to get away for a while and enjoy themselves. Oscar Wilde had a separate life as well. He was married to a woman with whom he had two children, but was a closeted homosexual, having secret affairs on the side with a lover named Lord Alfred Douglas (“Oscar Wilde’s Lasting Significance”). Homosexuality and sodomy were illegal in this time, and were highly rejected in society. Wilde likely included characters with separate lives as a way for the audience to reflect on why one would need such a way to escape, criticizing the pressures put on members of Victorian society. Whether to escape societal obligations and rules, or pressure to fit into a certain mold, Wilde recognized that people such as himself did not want to fit into a certain mold or obey such strict rules. Wilde certainly did not fit into any mold, and struggled within such a strict society, choosing instead to express himself in unorthodox ways. Wilde wrote the play The Importance of Being Earnest to show many parallelisms to his own
In the play, both Algernon and Jack have separate lives, a phenomenon they call Bunburying. Jack is known as “Ernest” in London and “Jack” in his hometown, while Algernon pretends to have a sickly friend named Bunbury who he ‘visits’ to get out of social obligations. Both characters invent double lives to escape the ones they live in. These exciting separate lives provide opportunities for the men to get away for a while and enjoy themselves. Oscar Wilde had a separate life as well. He was married to a woman with whom he had two children, but was a closeted homosexual, having secret affairs on the side with a lover named Lord Alfred Douglas (“Oscar Wilde’s Lasting Significance”). Homosexuality and sodomy were illegal in this time, and were highly rejected in society. Wilde likely included characters with separate lives as a way for the audience to reflect on why one would need such a way to escape, criticizing the pressures put on members of Victorian society. Whether to escape societal obligations and rules, or pressure to fit into a certain mold, Wilde recognized that people such as himself did not want to fit into a certain mold or obey such strict rules. Wilde certainly did not fit into any mold, and struggled within such a strict society, choosing instead to express himself in unorthodox ways. Wilde wrote the play The Importance of Being Earnest to show many parallelisms to his own