Oscar wilde's the importance of being earnest

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

There have been many talented literature writers, and one of the most famous ones lived in the 19th century. Oscar Wilde was born in Ireland on October 16th 1854. During his life, he wrote poetry that won awards and plays that were highly acclaimed. However, in spite of his great success as a writer, he died a sad and lonely death. On February 14th1895-and despite a major snow storm- London lived the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest at the St. James' Theatre.

The story in the play is about two young men, Jack and Algernon, who fall in love with two young girls, Gwendolen and Cecily, but they pretend to be other than what they say. But things are much more complicated than that: Wilde was a master in keeping his audience in theedge of their seats, trying to guess whether the young men will be able to marry their loves or not. Another conflict in Wilde's play is: the two girls say they can only love a man named Ernest, needless is to say that none of them is named Ernest. Wilde also presents a conflict in the form of Lady Bracknell, mother of Gwendolen, who is an snob woman that gets in the way of both couples.

Wildeuses an interesting device to involve the audience: he leaves some gaps that must be filled by the reader. For example, it is not explained what happened before the play began, it is not explained what Cecily's or Jack and Algy's parents were like. It is not explained either how Jack and Cecily met or what exactly Bunburying consists of. As if it was not enough, the reader-or the audience- isalso asked to predict how things will end or what will happen after the couples get married. Algernon said that “a man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it”, does this suggests that he will continue Bunburying once he married Cecily?

Other thing that characterizes Wilde is his use of puns, irony and sarcasm: “the familiar, universal aspects of humour that one caneasily identify in real life, regardless of time or culture.”(Puddington, A.) What Wilde does is making fun of “ungracious behaviours” of some people in society. For example when Algernon says “it is awfully hard work doing nothing” sounds absurd, yet, here Wilde criticizes aristocrats: indolent, parasitic people who live of inherit money and have no occupation but being served at all times.Upper-class in Victorian times and their values are the main point for Wilde's social critics. Another example of his mockery is found when Lady Bracknell tell Jack to “acquire some relations as soon as possible...make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent...before the season is over.” No person can produce parents, it goes against the laws of nature. However the point here is the superficialsociety who requires a family name and important background in order to pursue social status, paying no importance to knowing whether he is a good or bad person.

Lady Bracknell, an snob mother who overprotects her daughter Gwendolen- another snob- is used by Wilde to satirise not only the role of the controlling mother but also to show how social status affected their lives in Victoriansociety. Lady Bracknell considers herself as part of the elite and therefore refuses t marry her daughter with a man of no background: “ I and Lord Bracknell would not dream of allowing our only daughter- a girl brought up with the utmost care to marry into a cloak room and an alliance with a parcel.” However in the case of Cecily who has “really solid qualities”- thus referring probably to her reallysolid fortune- she shows her interest for money as well as social status.

Other humorous situation-also useful to criticize- is the name issue. Both Jack and Algernon pretend to Ernest in front of their beloved ones, Jack in town and Algy in the country. This leads to different comic situations, for neither Gwendolen nor Cecily will marry a man unless he is named Ernest, reinforcing the idea...