Oscar Wilde The Importance Of Being Earnest Language Essay
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy that used the figure of the upper class dandy to critique the narrow-mindedness of the middle class in the 1890s. What makes this play so funny is that the upper class is illustrated as silly when they try to mock the earnest middle class. Proud characters who were bred in high society, such as Lady Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen, may think that they are making particularly nasty snubs, but they do not seem to realize that Wilde cleverly plays the joke on them. The receivers of the ‘nasty snubs,’ actually are sarcastic in turn, but the upper class fails to notice it because of their narrow-mindedness. In fact, it is the middle class who are portrayed as the characters with the most sense in the play. Through the use of satirical and sarcastic language, Wilde reveals the lack of
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However, like the narrow-mindedness, the upper class unconsciously proves that it lacks imagination. When Algernon visits Jack’s home in the country, he meets Cecily and falls in love with her. Thinking that he is ahead of the game, he underestimates Cecily’s imagination, and asks her to marry him. She responds: “Of course! Why, we have been engaged for the last three months…” This is enough to baffle anyone, and so Algernon asks, “But how did we become engaged?” (1722-3). She then launches into a detailed account of how the engagement took place; she even goes so far as to say which date she accepted his proposal. This is a perfect example of the middle class not lacking in imagination. Even Jack pretends he has a younger brother, Ernest, whom he has to constantly take care of in the city, whereas in reality, there is no younger brother; he simply goes to town to have fun and uses his ‘brother’ as an excuse. It is therefore safe to say that the middle class does not lack in
However, like the narrow-mindedness, the upper class unconsciously proves that it lacks imagination. When Algernon visits Jack’s home in the country, he meets Cecily and falls in love with her. Thinking that he is ahead of the game, he underestimates Cecily’s imagination, and asks her to marry him. She responds: “Of course! Why, we have been engaged for the last three months…” This is enough to baffle anyone, and so Algernon asks, “But how did we become engaged?” (1722-3). She then launches into a detailed account of how the engagement took place; she even goes so far as to say which date she accepted his proposal. This is a perfect example of the middle class not lacking in imagination. Even Jack pretends he has a younger brother, Ernest, whom he has to constantly take care of in the city, whereas in reality, there is no younger brother; he simply goes to town to have fun and uses his ‘brother’ as an excuse. It is therefore safe to say that the middle class does not lack in