identity. The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a clear example of when individuals find that their identities are being suppressed by society and‚ therefore‚ find ways to express who they want to be or who they are in different‚ more creative ways. Two factors that influence a person’s identity the most are circumstances and society. Circumstances influence a person’s values‚ morals‚ and ideals‚ while societies‚ specifically strict societies such as the Victorian era‚ suppress
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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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needed to follow specific guidelines. In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest‚ these expectations can be identified through Algernon and Jack‚ the “earnest” men of the play. Men had a greater influence and power than women‚ but there are many steps to take to be considered a “men.” The process is quite tiring; men didn’t only need to gain women’s respect‚ but also impress society as a whole and their peers sharing the same gender. Being a man was hard‚ they are the victims of social pressure
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A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Oscar Wilde mocked his audience while he entertained them. Perhaps his most loved and well-known work‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ satirises the manners and affections of the upper-class Victorian society. Satire is a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness‚ usually with the intent of changing or correcting the subject of the satirical attack. The play focuses on the elite‚ while making fun of the ludicrousness and extremity
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The Importance of Being Earnest‚ written by Oscar Wilde‚ is a play that was first performed and published in the late nineteenth century. This play was written during the decline of the Victorian era and portrays the lifestyle of the era’s upper class in the author’s amusing point of view. While this was the era of supreme manners‚ well-educated men‚ and the utmost marriageable women‚ Oscar Wilde depicts his characters in a more truthful manner by revealing their contradicting statements and dishonest
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Is The Importance of Being Earnest A Realistic Fiction? Realistic fiction is stories about imaginary people and/or events that can actually happen (Cullinan‚ 1989). The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde may seem realistic but‚ in fact‚ it is not. Fictional characters of the Victorian Period and various occasions of ridicule represent nothing but sarcastically mirror the reality of the Victorian society. The characters look humane and world view seems to be based on the Victorian society
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view‚ has lost its sting’ (Edouard Roditi) To what extent do you agree with this response to the play? By Molly Campbell With the definition of a satire being‚ ‘the use of humour‚ irony‚ exaggeration‚ or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity’‚ it is ludicrous to even propose that The Importance of Being Earnest is anything other than a satirical play‚ as the characters relishing in the upper class of the Victorian period unknowingly mock their own habits acquired to them due
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plays‚ be it their character‚ or in their influence from other persons or social aspects of their lives. This is clearly evident in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest. Many of the‚ especially social themes and issues of Wilde’s life are contextually applied to or expressed in The Importance Of Being Earnest. Class and superiority‚ gender themes with regards to marriage or wealth and the general hypocrisy‚ double meanings and the lives of the characters. The play generally takes a comical
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The modern age is often praised as the era of the woman‚ where the gender roles of Victorian society are completely reversed. In her thesis‚ Meijers says‚ “Throughout the Victorian period‚ there was a strict separation between the public and the private sphere. Men were to handle public affairs and women were to take charge of domestic life” (Meijers 7). In The Importance of Being Earnest‚ Oscar Wilde employs a reversal of gender roles‚ including a shift in power that predates this movement‚ effectively
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The Importance Of Being Earnest “Women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy” To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you have been studying? In dramatic comedy it can often be said that women’s roles are ‘tokenistic’ which essentially means: that women are there to serve a little more than the minimum‚ or may not serve much of a purpose at all‚ they may also follow social stereotypes during the era of this literary piece. In this essay I will be
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