What good does always being earnest do you if you are not "Ernest"? Oscar Wilde’s play‚ "The Importance of Being Earnest"‚ explores exactly this notion‚ following two men who readily abandon their namesakes in order to win the affections of their respective fair ladies. The play opens in London with a conversation held between these two men‚ Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. However‚ at the play’s origin‚ Algernon only knows his friend as "Ernest". This rapidly changes with the aid of a cigarette
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3 October 2012 Oscar Wilde‚ Victorian or Anti-Victorian? Oscar Wilde was a writer during the end of the Victorian era. This is one of the reasons that it is difficult‚ and still debated‚ whether he was a Victorian writer or not. His private life was far from the puritanical image of the Victorian era. The Victorian age was full of rigid sensibilities‚ while the anti-Victorian movement veered in the complete opposite direction. The anti-Victorians were much more adventurous with sex. There
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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is play which comically engages with socially prescribed roles and conventions. Set within late Victorian England‚ the play follows John (Jack) Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff‚ two gentlemen who create false identities in order to escape the burdens of upper-class life. Often subtitled as A Trivial Comedy for Serious People‚ the play is characterised by a constant sense of frivolity‚ whereby the seriousness of upper-class life is absent‚ allowing Wilde
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The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel written by Irish writer‚ Oscar Wilde. The main character‚ rich and beautiful Dorian Gray‚ owns his portrait‚ which instead of him becomes older and where are traces of sin and mistakes. While Gray becomes uncontrollable and ruthless‚ his appearance stays youthful and flawless. At the end‚ in his despair‚ Gray destroys the picture and himself. The novel gives us a very good lesson – we can do whatever we want
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An ideal husband Theme Essay Out of all the various themes that this outstanding play has touched upon or rather explored throughout the Victorian era‚ the one I found to be most prominent was the religiously occurring theme of the Feminine. Womanliness in the Victorian era was sure a rare occurrence to experience but Wilde definitely used this theme to underline the helplessness of a woman of the time. How Wilde began to explain or rather express his views on womanliness is by comparing mainly
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In the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde‚ one can predict Algernon will go to Jack’s house and that Jack and Gwendolen will not get married. First‚ one can predict that Algernon will go to Jack’s place. At the beginning of the play‚ Algernon asked Jack questions about his house. Then‚ later in the play he writes down the address Jack gives Gwendolen. In the play it states‚ “Algernon‚ who has been carefully listening‚ smiles to himself‚ and writes the address on his shirtcuff. Then
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De Profundis Oscar Wilde De Profundis DE PROFUNDIS . . . Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons. We can only record its moods‚ and chronicle their return. With us time itself does not progress. It revolves. It seems to circle round one centre of pain. The paralysing immobility of a life every circumstance of which is regulated after an unchangeable pattern‚ so
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not live without experiencing love. On the other hand though‚ love is just as often made a mockery of; it’s depicted as a useless feeling that only distracts people from logic and rational thinking. In The Importance of Being Earnest‚ a play by Oscar Wilde set in Victorian England‚ love is mocked which is evident in Cecily’s lust for Ernest‚ Gwendolen’s love for the name Ernest and Algernon’s ideas of marriage. Wilde’s parodying of love is obvious when Cecily falls in love with Ernest‚ Jack’s fictitious
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not been leading a double life‚ pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.” (IOBE P.24). Most people would not create another life in order to obtain happiness as their own should give them enough pleasure. In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest‚ not one‚ but two characters end up leading a double life with the same name. Jack Worthing is an upper-class man who lives in the country being Cecily Cardew’s guardian. When not in the country but in the
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Oscar Wilde’s The Young King’ is the tale of a young man’s metamorphosis‚ through a dream quest‚ that opens his eyes to the heart rendering struggle of the poor‚ who are exploited by the rich and the powerful to satisfy their own selfish needs. The change that takes place in the Young King reflects his attainment of the virtue asked for in Christ’s message. The story begins with "the night before the day fixed for his coronation" and the young king‚ "being but sixteen years of age" sits alone in
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