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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least. His biting humour and keen wit produced many popular plays and quotes of the time‚ and are still well known today. A satire is a play engaging the use of humor‚ irony‚ exaggeration‚ or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices. ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is one of his better-known satires‚ effectively ridiculing many of the Victorian values that were of the greatest importance at the time. Wildes cutting and playful dialogue show his utter contempt for these values‚ most
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and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest satirize conformity through the fetishization of products of Empire‚ status‚ and traditional sexuality in order to characterize society
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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 is a play that trivializes many things: the Victorian society‚ the nature of marriage and especially the concept of human identity. While identity is typically considered to be something concrete‚ the characters within the play are constantly in flux. This is especially evident in Jack‚ whose forms his identities as he goes through life. He transforms from a nameless baby in a handbag‚ to Jack the thriving member of the countryside bourgeois‚ then further on to become
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ESSAY – THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST Writers are often influenced by the ideologies upheld by society during the historical context in which they were writing in and texts can often challenge these ideologies‚ or uphold them‚ or even do both. Oscar Wilde’s‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ is a dramatic comedy of manners that takes place in polite wealthy Victorian society. Wilde successfully funnels the snobbery and superficiality of London’s elite during the 1890’s and has both challenged
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College of Florida The Importance of Being Earnest: A tale of Victorian mockery "Every word and every part of an individual was expected to be in accordance with the rigid moral and behavior rules‚ and each‚ even the slightest deviation from the rule was considered an offence which made the delinquent publicly disgraced. Even literature and art had its cannons which were to be respected" (Mathews‚ 2009). In Oscar Wilde ’s satirical comedy‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ Victorian hypocrisy is
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Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest follows Jack and Algernon‚ two young men living in Victorian England‚ whose attempts to court Gwendolen and Cecily are complicated by the fictitious identities they have created to escape social obligations. Over the course of the play‚ their various deceptions are exposed and things get further and further out of hand until a timely revelation brings the matter to a resolution. This play is primarily a satire that serves as a vehicle for Wilde to
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The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is regarded by many as one of the wittiest plays in the English language. However‚ it is not simply a “trivial comedy‚” as its title proposes‚ but also a cutting satire appraising the conventions of Victorian society‚ chiefly the upper class. Much of Wilde’s social commentary is portrayed through the speech of the dictatorial Lady Bracknell‚ who embodies Victorian upper class conventions. Having ascended to her current high social
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sandwiches for the impending arrival of Algernon’s aunt (Lady Bracknell) and her daughter (Gwendolen). Mr. Jack Worthing (a friend of Moncrieff’s and known to him as Ernest) arrives first. Jack announces that he plans to propose marriage to Gwendolen‚ but Algernon claims that he will not consent to their marriage until Jack explains why he is known as Ernest and why he has a cigarette case with a questionable inscription from a mysterious lady. Jack claims that he has made up the character of Ernest
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