Satire in the Importance of Being Ernest Essay - 683 Words

Satire in The Importance of Being Ernest Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is truly a satire. In The Importance of Being Ernest, Wilde mocks the society in Britain, and the rules it followed in the 1800s. He uses satire in the description of every character and other themes like marriage, intelligence, morality, and lifestyle primarily aimed at the upper class of the time. At the turn of every page the use of satire proves again and again to be ideal when questioning the morals and values of people. Wilde uses satire especially with the idea of marriage. In the society that he lived in, marriage is seen as a business arrangement. When Lady Bracknell questioned Jack to determine if he is suitable for her daughter, she†¦show more content†¦He has a typical upper class Englishmen personality of the time in which satire was used many times. His extravagance, nonsense, irresponsibility are all qualities that make one laugh at his careless personality. He throws expensive parties, even though he is in a state of being in debt. As Lady Bracknell points out, â€Å"he has nothing but his debts to depend upon.† A great example of satire is when Jack tries to force Algernon to leave his estate. Jack: Merriman, order the dog-cart at once. Mr. Ernest has been suddenly called back to town. Merriman: Yes, sir. Algernon: What a fearful liar you are, Jack. I have not been called back to town at all. Jack: Yes, you have. Algernon: I haven’t heard any one call me. Jack: Your duty as a gentlemen calls you back. Algernon: My duty as gentlemen has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree. Jack: I can quite understand that. Satire is especially used to criticize people’s morals and outlooks on life. Algernon is very fashionable man, and is always overly dressed. This can be humorous but it also ridicules that type of picky lifestyle because young Englishmen of the time also worried too much about their clothes. As Lady Bracknell points out, Algernon â€Å"is nothing but he looks every thing†. According to Jack, Algernon is very prideful which is made clear from Algernon’s claim to being â€Å"immensely over-educated†. His view that relatives are â€Å"a tedious pack ofShow MoreRelatedSatire in â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† by Oscar Wilde Essay example716 Words   |  3 PagesA satire is a piece of work that is designed to ridicule or tease a group or organization, generally for the purpose of being humorous. â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest,† a play by Oscar Wilde, is a satire, ridiculing class, gender, and marriage. This essay will describe some points from each of these sections, as well as give a brief synopsis of the play these examples come from. The Importance of being Earnest includes three acts, with seven major characters. In act one, we start with a conversationRead MoreEssay about Absurdity and Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest1671 Words   |  7 PagesAbsurdity and Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest In Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, much is made of societal expectations, protocols, as well as the inversions of these expectations. A character, Jack Worthing, adopts an alter ego when going into town to avoid keeping up with the serious and morally upright behaviour that is expected of him as guardian to his eighteen-year-old ward, Cecily. Another character, Algernon Moncrieff, makes up an invalid friend Bunbury whoseRead MoreThe Significance Of Being Earnest, By Oscar Wilde1305 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to Barbara Tuchman, â€Å"satire is a wrapping of exaggeration around a core of society.† Satire exposes the absurdity embedded in society through exaggerated extremes of social norms. Satire is the hyperbolic expressions of absurdity, which provides clarity through sarcasm and offensive exaggerations to project a society’s ethics. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde exposes the absurdity of Victorian aristocratic social propriety. Wilde utilizes numerous ironic punsRead MoreAn Examination of Oscar Wilde’s Mockery of Victorian Conventions in â€Å"the Importance of Being Earnest†1559 Words   |  7 Pagesof Victorian Conventions in â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† In Victorian society, the conventional norms of status, gender roles, and marriage were closely linked by an institution that men and women were placed with unrealistic demands and expectations from society. Women were brought up by their parents to become the perfect housewife, and men were forced into marriages based on status within the society. In Oscar Wilde’s play, â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest,† he mocks the typical VictorianRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde980 Words   |  4 PagesEarnest Hypocrisy In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, two gentlemen exemplify the result of dishonesty and hypocrisy. Set in Victorian England, the two bachelors, Algernon and Jack, fight over which one of them will take the name Ernest in order to win their own girl. Wilde circumvents conventionalism and employs superior satirical strategy to not only teach the importance of being earnest, a characteristic held dear by Victorian society, but he also chastises his world for the hypocrisyRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1642 Words   |  7 Pagesnda Beckwith AMU/APUS ENGL200 Professor Green 25 Oct 2015 Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde can be termed as a complete satirical work because of the path it chooses on harshly, but at the same time humorously criticizing and ridiculing social issues, such as marriage, wealth and death. The author approaches these issues with absurd mockery evidently with the intention of tickling his audience while driving his point home. Regarded as one ofRead MoreWildes Use of Binary Opposites Is the Key Comedic Element in the Impoprtance of Being Earnest. to What Extent Do You Agree with This View?1615 Words   |  7 PagesWilde’s use of binary oppositions is the key comedic element in the Importance of Being Earnest. To what extent do you agree with this view? Throughout the play, Oscar Wilde portrays several binary opposites using the characters and themes of the play, such as the town and country, class, age, gender and morals. However I don’t think that the binary opposites are the main source of comedy in the play. The reason I find it comical is from the fact that the play is a comedy of manners as well as Wilde’sRead MoreThe Importance of Being Earnest Essay1439 Words   |  6 PagesA 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 extremityRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1775 Words   |  8 PagesThe Importance of Being Earnest is a comedic play that was written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800s. He believed that people in the Victorian Era took life too seriously. He wrote this play with various forms of satire to ridicule the strict lifestyle the upper-class were boxed into. The upper class had pretentious values and behaviors that characterized Victorian life. During the Victorian Era, people were living under Queen Victoria’s monarch. During her reign, â€Å"Queen Victoria, conveyed connotationsRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde913 Words   |  4 PagesWyndham Lewis recognizes, â€Å"Wherever there is objective truth, there is satire.† Most readers dont recognize this until they feel insulted, mostly due to the fact that humans don’t acknowledge their lifestyle flaws until others make them known. This concept has come to be the brick and mortar of the wry play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The significance of the notion of being earnest is contradicted in the play, through Wilde’s clever use of words, characters digression of societal