Hidden Symbols in The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde takes place in 1895 and exposes the hypocritical social expectations of the end of the Victorian era. During the Victorian period, marriage was about protecting your resources and keeping socially unacceptable impulses under control.
The importance of being earnest is referred to as a comedy of manners because it ironically describes the conduct of the Victorian upper class. The play describes their behavior in a hypocritical manner. The play seems to be making fun of them. The upper class individuals are described as money minded, superficial as well as artificial.
Every page, every line of dialogue, every character, each symbol, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is bent on supporting Wilde's contention that social change happens as a matter of thoughtfulness. Art can bring about such thoughtfulness. If the eccentric or unusual is to be replaced with correct behavior and thought.
The importance of being earnest by Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule the cultural norms of marriage love and mind-set which were very rigid during the Victorian Age. Because it uses satire to ridicule these instituitions, it shows the deviance from the social order by making ridiculous the ideas of standards, morals and manners.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde that was first published in 1898. Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. See a complete list of the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest and in-depth analyses of Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Gwendolen Fairfax, and Cecily Cardew.
In Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, satire is used to emphasize the triviality and absurdity of certain conventions within Victorian society. The play’s main characters epitomize Victorian high society; thus, the criticism that arises from Wilde’s exaggeration extends further than the play itself.
In The Importance of Being Earnest the author, Oscar Wilde uses the character Jack as the male lead as well as the character in which the work affects the most. Jack is an upper class man who lives a very privileged life; one can see that Jack isn’t very happy with his own life with his creation of Earnest.