The Importance of Being Earnest Essay -- Literary Analysis

Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest is a timeless comedy of manners in which two young, light-hearted manpower, pretend their call are Ernest in a bid to impress their love interests, who two believe the name Ernest bestows magical qualities on the possessor. throughout the play, Wilde uses a miscellanea of social drama, melodrama and farce to appeal to the audience. Through his gentle use of put-on Wilde is fitted to ridicule his contemporaries and attack the values and attitudes of Victorian beau monde, such(prenominal) as wealth, hierarchy, respectability, morality and self- interest. Via satirical dialogue and dramatic irony Wilde is able to reveal the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Victorian era. The statute title The importance of being Earnest places an ironical importance on a plot near men leading retell lives, lying to family and friends about their private lives, so they can take trips away and do the things they truly want to do. Both Jack and Al gernon lead a double look, a life separate from their family and friends Jack uses his imaginary br opposite Ernest to escape his life in the country. Whilst Algernon uses his imaginary friend Bunbury to escape social gatherings, suggesting that both men find the stresses of companionship and their lives extremely restrictive, and in order to escape the constraints of society they must lie or deceive. Via his play Wilde claims that the majority of Victorian society wears some sort of social mask. Many critics have argued that each grapheme depicted in the play is an extension of Wilde himself, and that Algernon and Jacks double life represent Wildes own alter ego which hid his queerness and many of his illicit affairs from a society that frowned upon homosexual acts. Through his p... ...being Earnest and other plays page 325 http//www.shmoop.com/importance-of-being-earnest/writing-style.html Oscar wilde the importance of being earnest and other plays page 304 http//www.the freedictionary.com/earnest http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/themes.htmlDonohue and Berggren 1995, p.281 http//www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/111841-The-Title-The-Importance-Being-Earnest.aspx Kumaraditya Sarkar York notes, the importance of being earnest, pg. 6 The importance of being earnest and other plays Page 297http//www.gradesaver.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest/study-guide/about/ 22/04/2012http//sexualityinart.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/the-importance-of-being-earnest-a-comedy-of-manners-and-culture-revealing-double-lives-and-universal-truths/ 6/04/2012http//dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-importance-of-being-earnest/ 6/04/2012