The Importance of Being Earnest essays

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4 Pages 1954 Words
Section 1: Social, Political and Philosophical Context The Victorian era was one of great change and importance. The industrialisation of England during this time forever changed how and where people lived. The shift from rural to urban work accelerated with the rise of factories and the advancement of technology. The lower classes were overworked and suffered from horrible workplace conditions....
The Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 823 Words
Oscar Wilde once said, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Lies are an easy way out but as a result, lead to harder problems. The truth for some people is never simple and is fabricated. Truth gets passed down through people and over time it fades. There is always another side to truth. In the play, The Importance...
The Importance of Being Earnest
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3 Pages 1414 Words
At the heels of the satirical Victorian morality delineated through Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, a judiciously executed perception directed at society is apparent. To study a text 120 years on, what’s the point? At the time Oscar Wilde’s satirical view and the way which he composed his judgments on the Victorian society was thought to be quite...
The Importance of Being Earnest
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3 Pages 1458 Words
Some people tend to assume things like “Will she like me for be the person or will she not like me cause I’m portraying this person she wants in life?” Being yourself is a true factor of being who you supposed to be. Don’t change who you are for someone who wants something else besides what they get. This also...
HonestyThe Importance of Being Earnest
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7 Pages 3095 Words
Oscar Wilde's Critique of Victorian Society Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and essayist who was remembered for his witty epigrams, his imprisonment and early death. During the peak of his fame, Wilde had an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and was imprisoned for 2 years. In the 19th century, people were “emotionally frigid about sexual matters”, however there...
ReputationSocial ClassThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1598 Words
An Argumentative Analysis of the Themes within “The Importance of Being Earnest” Wilde's 'The Importance Of Being Earnest' investigates different themes of adoration and marriage, particularly in Act 1, where marriage in Victorian culture is generally negated as an 'extremely charming state,' rather utilizing different comedic devices, for example, plays on words, ironic statements and reversals to ridicule its ethicalness...
Literary CriticismStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 782 Words
Contrastingly, although duality in The Picture of Dorian Gray is portrayed by dividing one’s self into two, in The Importance of Being Earnest, there are several instances of characters taking on dual identities. Jack Worthing is an especially interesting case of this dual identity because, in the end, he becomes the person he has been portraying all along. This causes...
Literary CriticismStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1811 Words
In both Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, webs of deceit are spun through various characters misrepresenting the truth. Gender is frequently used as a tool to advance the characters' ability to deceive, or in some cases, hinder it. Both authors use these two key themes to develop their contrasting storylines, one being a...
Critical ThinkingStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1566 Words
Wilde views honesty as a crucial, underrated societal value and in turn, shows the hypocrisy of those who display contradicting actions in this play. An exemplary quote is that from Cecily stating, “ “I don’t [believe him.] But that does not affect the wonderful beauty of his answer”. In this scene Algernon defends himself and even though Cecily does not...
Critical ThinkingStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 655 Words
Thesis statement: Wilde tries to prove that idealism in and of itself is useless, and can be based on utter nonsense. This can be supported by how Victorians are often portrayed as having the outward forms of virtue, but ignoring the basis of virtue. At the beginning of Act II, Cecily wishes not to receive the education Miss Prism offered...
Critical ThinkingStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1489 Words
The importance of Being earnest by Oscar Wilde is a play that portrays some of the experiences he was facing before his imprisonment. Specifically, through the characters Jack and Algernon who were some of the main characters in the story. Jack Worthing, also known as Earnest John Worthing, is differently expressed within the story. He and Algernon are into ‘bunburying’...
Critical ThinkingStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 883 Words
Reviewed double_ok
Authors use many devices when they want to express what they mean. Literary or rhetorical devices give the purpose of conveying the meaning of the text, to persuade, or evoke emotion and help tie back to the central message of the text. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, AJD’s “Marriage - How Has it Changed Over Time,” and Marie...
ExpectationsMarriageThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1057 Words
Reviewed double_ok
Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest, creates a trivial comedy which emphasizes the absurdity within Victorian society during the 19th century. The playwright uses characters Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Cecily Cardew, Gwendolen Fairfax and Lady Bracknell to develop a sense of humor and comments on the absurd nature of Victorian morals and values. Wilde has used the techniques of...
SymbolismThe Importance of Being Earnest
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3 Pages 1173 Words
Call Me by Your Name, a film directed by Luca Guadagnino and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde follows two contrastingly different works without a common theme. Nevertheless, both authors utilise irony in their chosen genres about love in order to criticise the expectations and hypocrisy present within each society. To further aid these criticisms,...
The Importance of Being Earnest
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3 Pages 1513 Words
Shakespeare in his Othello, and Wilde in his The Importance of Being Earnest, are about realising personality through creative strategies to exploit the hypocrisy of society. Oscar Wilde’s play was first performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London. It is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations...
The Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 1032 Words
Famous author and playwright Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a brilliant comedic play written in 1895. The play is a comedy of manners and takes place in London and the estate in Hertfordshire. The main protagonist of the play is Jack Worthing, a leading character in the play. Jack Worthing’s conflict in the play is living a...
Oscar WildeSatireThe Importance of Being Earnest
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2 Pages 804 Words
Wilde succeeds in criticizing the Victorian era by using satire to show the reality of the society of the time. Throughout the movie, we can clearly see the characteristics of the Victorian period. For example, the desire and pressure of marriage for young women of the time and always focused on the financial side. The characters are also part of...
SatireThe Importance of Being Earnest
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3 Pages 2275 Words
There is no one kind of humor: Numerous types of humor surface in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and The Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Graham Chapman. Looking at the texts The Importance of Being Earnest and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it is evident that humor is demonstrated differently between both plays. Both...
SatireStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 713 Words
I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak at this year’s Literature Festival. Today, I am going to reflect on Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play, The Importance of Being Earnest, and the 2002 movie adaptation. The play is a satirical comedy about Victorian society and Victorian attitudes to marriage and class. My values, culture, believes, and experiences lead...
Movie ReviewStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 977 Words
Oscar Wilde has a tremendous reputation and impact in a satirical context all around the world. He covers his criticism in the text with humor and wit. The Importance of Being Earnest is one of his well-known plays and in that play, we can seize the criticism of the nature of marriage, the constraints of morality, and the distortion of...
GenderStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 517 Words
Living by ideals breeds hypocrisy. This was evident in the Victorian era: the era of contradiction. The societal morality during this time placed a great value on sexual restraint, low tolerance of crime, and a strict social code of conduct. One was expected to live life earnestly. This obsession with the pursuit of earnestness made people, specifically the upper class,...
Literary CriticismStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 772 Words
Have you ever thought of what It would’ve been like to exist in an earlier era? A society riddled with inequality; where individuals were expected to have certain qualities, and if not, considered unworthy. In The Importance of Being Earnest, written by the famous Oscar Wilde, he creates a perfect example of an era that was turned upside down with...
Literary CriticismStateThe Importance of Being Earnest
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1 Page 481 Words
It must be said that the power of hypocrisy in human nature is powerful. This kind of power promotes human progress and evolution. The desire for power, the yearning for money, and the pursuit of women are all brought by the power of hypocrisy. Whenever people have these desires, people will use this force to strengthen themselves and disguise themselves,...
Human NatureHypocrisyThe Importance of Being Earnest
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