Oscar Wilde The Importance Of Being Earnest Gender Essay
Imagine in Victorian society, a time when “men where men and women were women” to the highest degree, a woman being head of household, controlling social obligations, managing finances, and taking on the stereotypically paternal role of deciding possible spouses for children. Such scenario has only been widely accepted in the past handful of decades, never mind a time when women had very little control over when they could leave their home, yet in The Importance of Being Earnest, such a world exists. Oscar Wilde introduces a world in which women can be dominant figures without negative consequences. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde uses characters who possess inverted stereotypical gender traits and satire to criticize and mock the strict gender
…show more content…
The Victorian age was a time period when the rift between men and women became more apparent than ever. Each gender was confined and supposedly thrived in their own individual spheres, with women in the private sphere where they stayed in the home unless taken out to social gathering where they balanced out the harshness of the world inhabited by men with their grace and femininity (Hughes). Such unyielding separation between sexes caused some, such as Oscar Wilde, to speak out against unfair expectations.
The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the height of Oscar Wilde’s fame and was regarded as some of his best work and cemented him as someone of importance with great artistic skill. The subject matter of the play was no surprise coming from Wilde as he had frequently spoken out against similar subjects, speaking out against restrictive clothing on women, such as corsets, that prevented them from doing duties the same as any man (Brackett). Such vocal statements that went against the status quo, in public and his works alike, made Wilde a leader for progression regarding how women were viewed
Tolar 3
in
The Victorian age was a time period when the rift between men and women became more apparent than ever. Each gender was confined and supposedly thrived in their own individual spheres, with women in the private sphere where they stayed in the home unless taken out to social gathering where they balanced out the harshness of the world inhabited by men with their grace and femininity (Hughes). Such unyielding separation between sexes caused some, such as Oscar Wilde, to speak out against unfair expectations.
The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the height of Oscar Wilde’s fame and was regarded as some of his best work and cemented him as someone of importance with great artistic skill. The subject matter of the play was no surprise coming from Wilde as he had frequently spoken out against similar subjects, speaking out against restrictive clothing on women, such as corsets, that prevented them from doing duties the same as any man (Brackett). Such vocal statements that went against the status quo, in public and his works alike, made Wilde a leader for progression regarding how women were viewed
Tolar 3
in