Satire Used in Oscar Wilde's Play Trival Play for Serious People

SATIRE USED IN OSCAR WILDE'S PLAY TRIVIAL PLAY FOR SERIOUS PEOPLE.

Satire is defined to be the use of humor to ridicule faults and vices. The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde is a social satire, using irony and paradoxes to insinuate the problems and faults found in the Victorian Society. The play is set in the late Victorian Era during a social reform. The class system was defined by the animosity between classes, the upper class treating the lower class with disdain and disgust. Wilde satirizes the class system, etiquette and disposition that was expected from Victorians. The play seems to be a criticism of society. The play is a light-hearted comedy but also a social satire utilizing this chance to criticize social issues.
The Importance of Being Earnest as in Act 1, Wilde must introduce his characters and setting. Both Jack and Algernon are living their living their lives through masks. Algernon is a stylish dandy a young man very concerned about his clothes and appearance in the pose of leisure man about town. Jack is a little more serious than Algernon, perhaps because of his position as a country magistrate and his concern over his unconventional lineage. The action and satire in Act 1 is heightened with the arrival of Lady Bracknell. She is an aristocratic Victorian and Algernon's aunt. Arrogant, opinionated, and conservative Lady Bracknell is the epitome of the Victorian upper class. Wilde uses her to continue his satire of Victorian attitudes about marriage. Marriage is a process of careful selection and planning by parents. Social status, lineage, and wealth combines to make marriage a business proposition that unites power. Lady Bracknell will tell Gwendolen when and to whom she will be engaged, and Gwendolen has nothing to say about it. Lady Bracknell cross- examines Jack, commenting on his wealth and politics. When she hears Jack has "lost" his parents she exclaims at his "carelessness." When Jack is critical of Lady Bracknell, instead of coming to his aunt's defense, Algernon says "Relations are simply a tedious pack of people who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die." Wilde uses Jack to comment about the cleverness of people " I am sick to death of cleverness, everybody is clever nowadays, the thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we still had a few fools left." When Algernon says, "We have," Jack wonders what they talk about. Algernon replies, "about the clever people of course." Wilde continues satirizing the Victorian love of the trivial when he ends the act with Jack and Algernon observing that nobody ever talks anything but nonsense.
Gwendolen's middle name could be "absurdity" she trivializes serious ideals and imagines people and events that have never existed. Strangely, she chooses a husband based on his name . Wilde is asking if marrying for a person's name is any more intelligent, or absurd than marrying based on wealth and parents. The entire Importance of Being Earnest is a laughable mockery, in both language and situation. Wilde shows us how the upper class does not marry for love or happiness but for convenience and social standing. The play itself begins with a mockery of marriage leading one to believe that to the characters, Algernon especially champagne is more important than love and companionship.
Jack's proposal itself is ludicrous. Gwendolen is only concerned that the form is correct. In fact, she fully intends to say yes only if his name is Earnest and she always wanted to marry an Earnest was laughable to the audience, but she is completely serious in her belief and finds that a perfectly acceptable reason to marry someone. Lady Bracknell does not at first approve of this union, but it is not because as a mother she sees the stupidity in marrying someone for a name, she is concerned with learning of his background, whether he is socially acceptable for her daughter. She is the epitome of the upper class, and of what Wilde liked to poke fun at. Even members of the society at the time had to laugh a little at the ridiculousness portrayed by Wilde in the play, especially when the arranged marriage idea is summed up by Lady Bracknell "An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be... you are most certainly not engaged, when you become so your father or I will inform you of the fact." Lady Bracknell who represents the guardian of an upper class society is however a hypocrite and uses social morals to her convenience. For instance, she refuses to let Jack marry Gwendolen because of his social background, yet she tries to justify a broke Algernon marrying Cecily.
Wilde humorously capture the absurdity of rigid Victorian value when he utilizes Miss Prism as his mouthpiece, a morally upright woman who has, nevertheless, written a melodramatic, romantic novel. The height of her absurdity over rigid morals comes when she hears that Earnest is dead in Paris after a life of "shameful debts and extravagance." The Victorian mania to exclude anyone and everyone who did not conform to social norms is touched on by Wilde's satire of reform movements. His word come from Miss Prism when she says, "I am not in favour of this modern mania for turning bad people into good people at a moment notice." Wilde is referring here to the duty of the upper class to provide moral role and convert those who are wicked to the good way of life. Algernon gleefully utilizes the ruse of helplessness when he begs Cecily to reform him. One of the clearest expressions of Wilde satirizing his upper class audience members is in the words of the minister. In Act II, Wilde also exposes the vacuity of the Victorian obsession with appearance. Algernon declares to Cecily that he would never let Jack pick his clothing because, "He has no taste in neckties at all." Also in Act II, Wilde's begins an attack on the concepts of romance and courtship. Gwendolen and Jack have already demonstrated that proposals must be made correctly, especially if anyone is nearby. Now, Cecily and Algernon are mockery of conventional courtship and romance. Cecily keeps a diary of her girlish fancies, and they are much more interesting than reality.
The satire of the Importance of Being Earnest lies mainly in the social jokes, but also seems to be a bit of a self parody. Wilde knew the life he was living and knew that in some aspects even though society would not accept him had they known the truth, and did not when they, he still played along and belonged, for a time at least.
In conclusion, The Importance of Being Earnest strongly focuses on those of the upper class society and the vanity of the aristocrats who place emphasis on trivial matters concerning marriage. Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Earnest" yet ironically, they both are beginning their lives based on deception and lies. Lady Bracknell represents the archetypal aristocrat who forces the concept of a marriage based on wealth or status rather than love. Wilde satirically reveals the foolish and trivial matters that the upper class society looks upon as being important. As earlier said, a satiric piece usually has a didactic side to it. in this case, Lady Bracknell learns that the same person she was criticising is actually her own flesh and blood.