A Brief on the Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde is remembered today for his use of epigrams and his plays. Wilde wrote ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ in which many people argue that it appears Wilde subverts the typical Victorian gender role. Gender roles are cultural and personal, they determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. Masculinity and Femininity refer to the dominant sex role pattern in the vast majority of both traditional and modern societies: that of male assertiveness and female nurturance.It is very clear and evident that Wilde distinctively does subvert from these gender roles and in the process satirizes these Victorian values. Upon reading the text, many people have concluded that even though it is clear that Wilde does subvert from the normal typical gender roles in the Victorian era ultimately he conforms to them in line with the structure of a well-made play. We are introduced to the characters and exposed to their behaviors, through this we see the subversion from society’s norms creating the disorder and confusion that aids the comedy within the play. However, by the end of the play there is harmony and peace; Gwendolen and Cecily end up getting married to Jack and Algernon exaggerating many of the conventions of the well-made play, such as the missing papers conceit (the hero, as an infant, was confused with the manuscript of a novel) and a final revelation. It was thought in the Victorian era that if a woman did not marry and produce children she had failed her duties as a woman or was thought of as ‘abnormal’. Marriage significantly signified a woman’s maturity and respectability as we see Lady Bracknell desperately tries to find companions for both Gwendolen and Algernon. It appears throughout the text that the women in the play have the upper hand but conclusively the men in the book win this gender ‘battle’ as the women end up falling in love with them and getting married, which is