A Trivial Comedy for Serious People Oscar Wilde mocked his audience while he entertained them. Perhaps his most loved and well-known work‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ satirises the manners and affections of the upper-class Victorian society. Satire is a literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness‚ usually with the intent of changing or correcting the subject of the satirical attack. The play focuses on the elite‚ while making fun of the ludicrousness and extremity
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The Importance of Being Victorian: Oscar Wilde “The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either‚ and modern literature a complete impossibility” (Wilde 14). As a brilliant writer of the 1800’s‚ Oscar Wilde devoted the majority of his works towards unveiling the harsh truths of the Victorian society. Leading a life of deception himself‚ he chose to showcase his distastes for the social injustice he saw around him with unrestrained humor. Being the first
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二、结题报告 |Realistic Concern in The Importance of Being Earnest | | | |外国语言文学院 张源 | |指导教师 张琼
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WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 4 ANALYSIS OF HUMOR IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST The Importance of Being Earnest is replete with two elements: pun and paradox. These two are played up immensely to present a very humorous approach to cultural criticism. In essence‚ it is a satirical comedy on the aristocratic class during the Victorian Era. The text is full of epigrams that expose the characters’ views on lying‚ marriage‚ reputation‚ society‚ gender‚ romance and love. Additionally‚ the play keeps
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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest While some critics contend that The Importance of Being Earnest is completely fanciful and has no relation to the real world‚ others maintain that Oscar Wilde’s "trivial comedy for serious people" does make significant comments about social class and the institution of marriage. These observations include the prevalent utilization of deceit in everyday affairs. Indeed the characters and plot of the play appear to be entirely irreverent‚ thus
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Is The Importance of Being Earnest A Realistic Fiction? Realistic fiction is stories about imaginary people and/or events that can actually happen (Cullinan‚ 1989). The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde may seem realistic but‚ in fact‚ it is not. Fictional characters of the Victorian Period and various occasions of ridicule represent nothing but sarcastically mirror the reality of the Victorian society. The characters look humane and world view seems to be based on the Victorian society
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The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that trivializes many things: the Victorian society‚ the nature of marriage and especially the concept of human identity. While identity is typically considered to be something concrete‚ the characters within the play are constantly in flux. This is especially evident in Jack‚ whose forms his identities as he goes through life. He transforms from a nameless baby in a handbag‚ to Jack the thriving member of the countryside bourgeois‚ then further on to become
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The Importance of being earnest Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Nature of Marriage Marriage is of paramount importance in The Importance of Being Earnest‚ both as a primary force motivating the plot and as a subject for philosophical speculation and debate. The question of the nature of marriage appears for the first time in the opening dialogue between Algernon and his butler‚ Lane‚ and from this point on the subject never disappears
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Another of Wilde’s plays‚ and perhaps his most famous‚ The Importance of Being Earnest‚ is a comedy‚ and so it is easy for the audience to become entranced by the humor of the show without examining the underlying symbolism and satire that makes it so funny. The play is‚ at its core‚ about the mischief that can ensure when names are given too much importance. The name Ernest‚ in particular‚ is coveted by the two main male characters‚ Jack and Algernon‚ but also by the two main female characters‚
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provokes the question whether if it is better to be or not to be. The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that uses satirical comedy to analyze aspects of society. Jack‚ Algernon‚ Cecily‚ Gwendolen‚ and Lady Bracknell are all over dramatized representations of the shallow‚ pretentious British upper class. Characters trade smart remarks‚ but they seem oblivious to the humor and absurdity of their statements. In The Importance of Being Earnest‚ the satire of an upper-class Victorian society can also be
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