Hw Oscar Wilde Pokes Fun at the Attitudes and Etiquette of the British Aristocracy
Oscar Wilde presents a very candid impression of Victorian society andits values in The Importance of Being Earnest. The title itselfrepresents the irony of the play. The word earnest works on two levels- first the name Ernest, which is the main focus of the play, and alsoit sounds like honest which is exactly what Jack and Algernon – thetwo main characters of the play – are not.
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There are four main themes which can be recognised in the play: socialsnobbery, money matters, appearance matters and false values andlastly, not being sincere. In this essay I intend to focus on eachcategory to highlight the society Wilde describes and the values heportrays. These will be backed up by quotations from the play.
The first theme I shall look at is social snobbery. Social snobbery iswhere one class looks down on a lower class; for example upper classpeople regarding the lower class as one to provide services for them.In the play Wilde often describes the social snobbery of thecharacters, Lady Bracknell being a prime example. She considers thelower class inferior to her as can be demonstrated by herinterrogation with Jack in Act One. She asks him ‘Do you knoweverything or nothing?’ She goes on to say, ‘I do not approve ofanything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like adelicate fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.’
Lady Bracknell then goes onto say, ‘The whole theory of moderneducation is radically unsound. Fortunately in Englandat any rate,education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove aserious d…
… Jack to acquire some relations ‘as soon as possible’and to make an effort to produce a parent of either sex before theseason is over. This is an impossible thing to do, but there is ironyas in the end, he does find out who his parents are, and though hecannot produce them in front of Lady Bracknell, she knows who they are- her sister and brother-in-law in fact. This is another time when thecharacters show signs of not being sincere..
In The Importance Of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde manages to put forwardthe social snobbery, superficial values, money and appearance mattersthat the upper class of society had and as he seems to be against allthis, he is biased. He pokes fun at most rules and regulations becausethey were mostly very superficial and generally of no great importanceto the well being of the world.
