Large decorated carriages drawn by massive gallant horses, beautiful women dressed in striking gowns throwing magnificent parties, and five o’ clock tea times are common aspects of the Victorian Era. This is the period that a person should imagine while reading many of the works composed by Oscar Wilde.The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most important plays written by Oscar Wilde. The setting takes place in London during the present time of its production, February 1895 in the Victorian Era. Both main characters, John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, find an escape from their everyday lives through a pseudonym or false identity. John, usually referred to as Jack, uses the name of Ernest to retreat into the city from his life in the country with his eighteen-year-old ward Cecily. The story begins with Jack informing his friend, Algernon, that he is planning to propose to his first cousin, Gwendolen. Upon hearing this news, Algernon confronts Jack, who he knows as Ernest, with his discover of Cecily. When Jack ultimately tells Algernon about his false identity in the city, Algernon also confesses to having a pseudonym for the country. The plot unravels after Gwendolen accepts Jack’s proposal, under the name of Ernest, and Algernon decides to also use the identity of Ernest to meet Cecily at Jack’s country home. The conflicts arise when everyone ends up at Jack’s home, each knowing each other by a separate name.Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland to an aristocratic family in the midst of the Victorian Era. Wilde was marked as a brilliant child, receiving scholarships to Trinity College and Oxford University. He preferred to speak about and entertain the importance of ideas in life and often attacked the …
…en deceived, Jack’s anger with Algernon, and Miss Prism’s finding of her handbag are all events encompassed with superficial statements from the characters.The characters and their actions are accurately described as superficial because they act with an inability to develop ideas about the more important matters at hand. Each character focuses on the surface meaning of the predicament in which they are placed. With this external, hasty, and trivial outlook on life, the characters are destined for a life with little meaning for anything truly significant.?Works Cited
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Meisel, Martin. “Wilde, Oscar.” The World Book Encyclopedia. USA: Field Enterprises Educational Company, 1973.“Superficial.” The American Heritage Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1982.Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.
