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The Importance Of Being Earnest Education Essay

959 Words4 Pages

To emphasize the upper class’ views on education, Wilde makes the characters dismiss the serious topic as being unimportant. When education is mentioned in the play, the issue is always pushed aside because another, less significant, problem is troubling the character more. For instance, in Act 2 of The Importance of Being Earnest, Cecily does not want to continue her tutoring with Mrs. Prism because she is more concerned with her appearance. Cecily conveys this idea by claiming in the play, “I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson” (902). By declining to focus the attention of Cecily on the more pressing matter, Wilde shows that education to the upper class is not their main concern. Explaining the perception …show more content…

Also in his essay, Schmidt presents an interpretation on how the wealthy feel about the poor receiving an education. Though not important to them, the upper class are imperative on the idea that the lower class should not have an education. Schmidt focuses this thought on a particular main character by mentioning,“Lady Bracknell links education of the poor with social unrest, fearing that the educated masses might forget their place and reject hierarchical class structure.” The upper class purposefully does not want the working people, represented in the play by Lane and Merriman, to get an education because they would then have the ability to successfully go against them. In Act 1 of The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell makes the arrogant simile when discussing Jack’s suitability for marrying Gwendolen: “I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone”

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