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’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.
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, is considered to be his masterpiece; it is known all over the world and is perhaps the most famous play in history. The play tells the tragic story of two young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who are trapped in a feud between their families. In the end, their actions lead to the deaths of six people including themselves. The key to understanding the actions of Romeo and Juliet is through science. By studying their behaviors, future similar teenage tragedies can be prevented.
1. “Retain that dear perfection which he owes / Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; / and for thy name, which is not part of thee, / Take all myself” (II.ii.46-49).
In his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895, London St. James’ theater), Oscar Wilde portrays the attitudes and society of Victorian upper class through character interactions within the ‘Bunburyist’ adventures of Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. The play’s comedic elements, in addition to the portrayal of power structures, are used as an effective medium to challenge the viewer to reflect upon Wilde’s criticism on institutions and values of the aristocracy. In conjunction to this, deeper analysis can be conducteds about marriage in Victorian aristocracy and their attitudes to members of other social groups.
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.
While watching Romeo and Juliet and The Fault In Our Stars, I could not help but notice the parallel action of the two movies. In the same way, both stories end in tragedy like the main couple’s of the stories end up in tragic. In the meantime, Romeo and Juliet are torn because of a rivalry between two families.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare has toyed with the emotions of its audience members for centuries. The play’s main characters, Romeo and Juliet, love one another in spite of the feud between their families and later on, in the wallows of grief, each take their own life. While the characters both meet their end tragically, it was their choices that realistically led them down that path. The cause of the two “star-crossed lovers” final end is not due to fate or destiny, but by their own foolish hands.
In spite of the fact that reading a Shakespeare play may not speak to most students, there are actually numerous advantages of reading Romeo and Juliet. Teaching Romeo and Juliet in schools will most certainly be helpful to students. The key advantages associated with the study of Romeo and Juliet consist of; students getting to learn about the way people spoke during Shakespeare’s time, the theme of the play being the ones that students can relate to, and the useful life lessons that can be learned.
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.
Using humor, cleverness, and style, Oscar Wilde illustrates the lives of the Victorian upper class in The Importance of Being Earnest. More specifically, the “Trivial Comedy for Serious People” reveals in a satirical manner the insignificant concerns of Great Britain’s aristocracy. In the introduction of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings, editor Richard Ellmann creates an overview of Wilde’s best known work. Describing how the play differs from the Irishman’s other writings, Ellmann assesses, “What seems clear is that Wilde has turned here from direct onslaughts upon conventional morality to a more olympian amusement” (xviii). Wilde utilizes
The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde is an excellent play which has many underlying themes and suggestions especially with regards to the Victorian era, during which this was written. Many themes within the play are reflective of Wilde and his life, including his secrecy and supposed “double life,” his interest in aestheticism, his life pertaining the mannerisms and social etiquette during his lifetime.
While many have been familiar with the title of the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, one should also pay attention to its subtitle, ‘trivial comedy for serious people’. The play is a satire that ridicules the upper class to point out its fault (Kreuz and Roberts 100).The aim is to ridicule the ‘serious people’, members of the upper class in Victorian society. The characters were too attentive to social propriety and etiquette, which were as trivial as the comedy suggests in the eyes of Wilde. As they were too stubborn to alter the behaviour, the propriety and etiquette became superficial and meaningless. Their idleness and hypocrisy are other points at which Wilde recurrently mock in the play. 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.
The Importance of Being Earnest contains many contains many characters that possess many different traits. In this play, Jack Worthing plays the protagonist and Lady Bracknell plays the antagonist. Although Jack Worthing is an interesting character, Lady Bracknell is one of the most memorable and satirical characters in Wilde’s play. Lady Bracknell is an arrogant, conservative, opinionated and ruthless woman that looks to rule the lives of others.