In his play, “The Importance of
Being Earnest,” Oscar Wilde uses satire to emphasize the ridiculous nature of
Victorian Society, and the mindset of the people who lived within that time
period. In the first act of the play, Wilde opens the play by describing how
prim and proper everything had to be, even if the people didn’t like doing
that. They had to have cucumber sandwiches and music playing in the background
and tea. The people however, seemed to talk sweetly and properly on the
surface, but once you actually understand what they are saying, then you begin
to understand how rude they were actually being. For instance, Lady Bracknell continually
criticizes Jack for “losing both of his parents” and being “careless” because
he lost both instead of just one.
In
the second act, Gwendolyn and Cecily, both thinking they are engaged to a man
names Ernest, end up getting in a fight over who is actually engaged to him.
They insult each other in the most proper of ways, like when Gwendolyn gives
Cecily sugar in her tea and a cupcake instead of bread when she asks for no
sugar and for bread. They insult each other, even though their fiancés are the
ones to blame, considering they are the ones who lied. On the outside, one
would think they were being so polite to each other, as Victorian Society was
during that time.
In
the third and final act, the satirical conversations between the characters is
even more noticeable. For example, when Mrs. Prism remembers accidentally
losing a baby and her handbag, and Jack was a lost baby in a handbag. Anyone
who is reading this play can only laugh and how strange it is, and how
seemingly obvious all these connections are that the characters don’t seem to
be grasping. The satire is excessive throughout the entirety of the play, exemplifying
how ridiculous the Victorian Period really was.
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