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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In Oscar Wilde’s play‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ the conversations between characters reveal a lot about their relationships and create a language. The relationship of Earnest and Gwendolen is primarily based on a surface characteristic; his name. Gwendolyn is only attracted to Earnest because of his name‚ because she is so consumed by what others will think. Cecily is portrayed as the wholesome girl in this play who is attracted to the devious and mysterious Algernon. However‚ their relationship
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Importance of being prepared The act of being prepared has enabled humans to both lessen the impact of misfortunes and provide themselves with a basis of reaching a higher level. This in itself has been one of the major factors that had enabled society to develop this far without being destroyed in the process. Along with the everyday preparations that prevent students from failing a class‚ there are other higher stake preparations that are engrained into certain professions. Major example being
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Lauren Skarupsky English III Honors Summer Work The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Reading Questions 1. Explain how Wilde uses satire to critique Victorian society. Throughout the entire play Oscar Wilde critiques the Victorian society through each of the characters. The characters represent the Victorian era but have twisted views on the major emotions love and marry that are mentioned in the play continuously. Wilde depicts the society in which the characters live in as superficial
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conventions and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?’ Does the dramatic comedy in ‘Earnest’ seek only to amuse an audience or has the play more of a moral message than might‚ at first‚ be clear? The importance of being Earnest is a satirical comedy‚ which ridicules the social values of the Victorian Era. Despite the farce used within the play‚ the comedy is shown to have deeper meaning. As Freud said‚ “Every joke contains an element of seriousness; a joke
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All the Wrong Reason to Marry The work that will be discussed in this essay is the "The Importance of Being Ernest" and it was written by Oscar Wilde. The topic of marriage in this play involves the manipulative desires and dishonest values of marriage. The female characters in this story including Cecily‚ Gwendolen‚ and Lady Bracknell are all guilty of scheming and controlling marriage. The desires and mentalities of these women are identical to the women of the Victorian Period. The men
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Sidney Katz’s summary of “The Importance of being Beautiful”‚ she suggests that more attractive people can advance faster and easier in life than their less appealing peers. Katz explains her theory with different examples. One example is person perception‚ which is a branch of psychology that examines many ways in which physical attractiveness‚ or lack of it‚ affects all aspects of life. This helps explain the halo and horns effect. The halo effect is perceived as being beautiful‚ more generous
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The Importance of Being Earnest is a serious comedy about trivial matters The Importance of being Earnest is a play that satirizes the Victorian upper classes. In the play‚ Oscar Wide makes fun of the upper class in many ways. Most commonly‚ Wilde does this by using comic irony‚ humor‚ and witty statements. However‚ if we look deeper into the text‚ a lot of the trivial matters characters discuss have a serious side to them. Wilde uses these matters to satirize the Victorian upper even more. The
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Literature critical reading THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST‚ A TRIVIAL COMEDY FOR SERIOUS PEOPLE by the Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde‚ is a comedy about the customs and seriousness of society around Victorian values of that time. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST is an excellent example of what a satire is‚ by the use of satirical devices such as irony‚ sarcasm and farce to show the society in a ridiculous way. In the play‚ Wilde often satirizes the Victorian society and all the rules that weren’t
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