In the play “The Importance Being Earnest” Oscar Wilde wants to show that the caricature on high society. The play was in the 1800’s. A caricature is a charter or a physical fentress that exaggerates by making it bigger or smaller to make a person notice and laugh to show their weakness. Oscar Wilde makes us think if it’s really important to be earnest ? The story is about two boys that want to be named Earnest, so because of that they have a double life and they will need to handle the problems. Oscar Wilde want to make a caricature on high society by egaterating on Love, Manners and Death. Oscar Wilde makes a caricature of a high society by portraying love by having no emotion . He makes a caricature because Jack loves Gwendolen but she would only marry him if his name is Ernest. Cecily also loves Algernon because his name is Ernest. I think that women like this name because there is two sinification for Ernest there is the name and the adjective which means serious, honest, sincere and true but Algernon and Jack are not earnest at all. An example (page 8) Is when Jack asks Gwendolen if she likes the name Jack, and she says that Jack is a very boring name and she could never love someone called Jack. Another example (page 17) is when Miss. Prism tels Dr. Chasuble that when fruits are young there are green so you can never be sure of it, But when they are old they are good and tasty. She is saying that because she is old and loves Dr. Chasuble and she is the only one who
Another theme illustrated through Wilde’s use of motifs and symbols is the theme of superficiality. The theme of superficiality can be understood as a sense of the superficial view of outer beauty that is shown in the work. It relates to the concept of remaining young, which is an important factor of what is shown in the novel. This is an important part of the novel because outer beauty plays a bigger role for Dorian, than inner beauty does. In the beginning of the novel, Lord Henry and Dorian have a conversation that focuses on the topic of youth and Dorian 's outer beauty – Lord Henry mentions the fact that Dorian has a beautiful face, and later during this conversation, Lord Henry states that: “youth is the only thing worth having…”
Oscar Wilde wrote his plays against the backdrop of the Victorian English society. It therefore helps to discuss the salient aspects of the Victorian society. Victorian England is known for many paradoxes -- glaring contrasts between the rich and the poor, insistence on morality on the one hand and the practice of cynicism on the other, blooming creativity pitted against blatant constriction, imperial grandeur since Britain was then ruling almost one fifth of the total surface of the earth and domestic squalor since the majority of people did not have decent means of livelihood, and finally collectivity dictated by tradition opposed to the rapidly developing individualism. The class system denied the talented members of the lower classes access to social and economic advancement. The upper classes alone had the privilege of working in the government, the armed forces, and the church, while trade was monopolized by the rising middle class.
Through this satirical writing, Wilde uses comparison of beauty and industrialism and juxtaposition between compliments and criticism to paint American social values as backwards and unappealing in order to dispel the glamour of a romantic American culture.
Relatively all authors are very fond of creating an underlying message to criticize society. Authors do this through social commentary. The book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is no exception. The author, Oscar Wilde, criticizes the upper class through the consistent underlying idea that people are often deceived by one's beauty and are unable to understand the poison that fills the world is corrupting it. From the beginning of this book, the social commentary towards the upper class begins with the structure of the novel.
Throughout the story of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Oscar pointed out many oblivious actions done by the characters. He constantly used the characters to exaggerate actions of our society today. Wilde uses exaggerations to show how the characters were unable to be a complete individual without the face of the strict social expectations influencing their actions. Everywhere in the society, they are all unable to make their own decisions, and it is very hard for them to be truthful towards who they are without societal norms interfering causing them to lose all individuality. Wilde uses reversal to show how the characters actions were completely insane since they were trying to accommodate societal expectations.
On October 16, 1854, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born to a well respected Irish family in Dublin. His father, Sir William Wilde, MD, was a highly acclaimed doctor and philanthropist. He was the leading oto-ophthalmologic surgeon in Ireland and was later knighted for his work. Despite all the accomplishments that William Wilde had achieved, his son viewed his mother as the greater remodel, Lady Jane Francesca Elgee.
Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest, set in the late Victorian era, London, is a portrayal of British upper class society and its conventions surrounded by a strict code of conduct. In 1890’s class society, earnestness was desired; to follow the moral code and social obligations in order to keep up one’s appearance. Besides, there was a huge gender disparity between men and women. In the play, Wilde criticizes the social inequality and Victorian upper class standards. He characterizes Victorian personae making fun of their qualities; hypocrisy, arrogance and absurdism, ultimately the very vital state and lifeline of not being earnest at all in Victorian society.
Art, artifice and identity is the theme explored through the use of the two chosen stimulus texts Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl and The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Wendy Jones and Oscar Wilde respectively. Art and artifice merge as Grayson Perry uses his alter-ego, Claire, to express his creativity and identity. Similarly, the artifice of an alter-ego is part of The Importance of Being Earnest, as the play's protagonists, Jack and Algernon, deceive family and friends by lying about their identity to suit them best. The texts used to explore the theme are a review for the Guardian on the Grayson Perry memoir and an excerpt from Jack's diary set before the events in The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde’s Victorian melodramatic play The Importance of Being Earnest opened on February 14, 1895. Wilde used this play to criticize Victorian society through clever phrasing and satire. Throughout the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde displayed the themes of the nature of marriage, the constraints of morality, and the importance of not being earnest. One of the themes that Oscar Wilde includes in the play is the nature of marriage.
“Art for arts sake” was the motto and aestheticism was exemplified in both The Importance of Being Earnest and Oscar Wilde's own life. The usage of a dandy in the play is used to exemplify the love toward fashion during the time period, as well as to add comedic release through speaking in sarcasm and epigrams (Walker, 1). Wilde himself could be identified as a dandy in that he had an infatuation with interesting fashion and dressing well, as was he was often recognized as witty and quick on his feet in his conversations and his writing. Wilde was also known by many to be greatly interested in decoration and interior design, as displayed through his North American speech tour “A House Beautiful.” This exemplifies the Victorian eras high standards in appearance and visual
As a writer one is greatly influenced by their personal experiences with social, historical, and cultural context within their specific time period. Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was shaped by the aspects of the world around him. The themes of the text are are influenced by morality in the Victorian Era. Throughout the Victorian Era a deeper movement was also prominent in London called Aestheticism. Aestheticism is the worship of beauty and self-fulfillment.
In a very famous review in the conservative Scots Observer (edited by poet W E Henley) Wilde was almost accused of the crime of gross indecency, this was made illegal in the 1885 Criminal Amendment Act. Dorian Gray, “was fit for none but outlawed noblemen and perverted telegraph boys” said the reviewer. This reference was made because of the ‘Cleveland Street Affair’; it was a discovery that a male brothel (a house where men can visit prostitutes) was used by aristocrats to pay telegraph boys for intercourse. This was obviously one of the big reasons why people were shocked and also because he has homosexual relationships, which was used against him in his trial.
Wilde’s one and only novel certainly will make the readers think of the Greek mythical figure Narcissus (who fell in love with his own reflection) whose echoes has reverberated loudly all throughout the story, but The Picture also has its own uniqueness. It tells the story of a young, gorgeous socialite in 19th century London who is painted in a portrait. He half-heartedly prays that the painting, and not he, to bear the burden of age and sin which came true. When years passed and Dorian’s youthful appearance remained while his portrait decayed, it becomes apparent that his wish has been granted. Today, both the young and the aging can relate to Dorian, who could not imagine becoming old.
This essay illustrates how Wilde reinforce his criticism of the upper class at a satirical tone with his writing style at three levels: inter-scene, intra-scene, and within a word. Satire at the inter-scene level The use of fake identities is one of the motifs of the play. The use of motif is important to
Wilde’s comedic influence takes place in the characters placing emphasis on trivial things and treating serious matters with inconsequence. Though this play could be viewed as a simple comedy, what makes it a satirical work is the underlying social commentary. Wilde highlights his views on institutions such as love, marriage, and gender relations by satirizing their nature via reductio ad absurdum and thereby reveals their essential frivolity. Though marriage is traditionally viewed by society as the final step in a lover’s journey, Wilde intentionally separates marriage and love to the point where they seem mutually exclusive.