The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde :-

Oscar Wilde,  full  name was Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, he was born in October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland and died November 30, 1900,in Paris, France, Irish  wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray , and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment .

• How he became famous :-

Oscar Wilde came from a prominent family. While studying at Oxford in the 1870s, he gained notice as a scholar, poseur, wit, and poet and for his devotion to the Aesthetic movement , which held that art should exist for its beauty alone. Wilde later established himself in London’s social and artistic circles.

• How he die ?:- 

After his release from prison in 1897, Oscar Wilde lived in France in straitened circumstances. In 1900 at the age of 46, he died of  meningitis following an acute ear infection.

videos of online session:-

Introducation:-

In this play, he satirizes and mocks the Victorian society particularly the institution of marriage, morality and show off. He exposes the hollowness, hypocrisy and pretends nature of Victorian people.The subtitle of the play “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People” though seems to be unrelating to the main title yet it splendidly articulates the purpose of his play. It reveals the hypocrisy, absurdity, and triviality of the upper class of Victorian society.This class considered itself to be very important in Britain. Thus Wilde calls them “serious”. The word “Trivial” means “unserious” or “lacking importance”.  Thus in this sense, Wilde probably wants to say that the play has nothing to do with the serious people. It is just mocking their ways of life.

The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” :-

A trivial comedy for serious people; this is what Oscar Wilde subtitled his comedy The Importance Of Being Earnest. This subtitle can be interpreted in many different ways, as it forces the reader to question what we understand from the play itself, and how characters are portrayed throughout. I understand this in two different ways: one of which that Oscar Wilde was stating that this play is in fact for serious people, going to be trivial. The second way this could be interpreted is that he meant the subtitle in a very witty and sarcastic way.

Triviality affects what it is done to the audience; in this case to purely entertain them. Similarly to when each and every one of us turns on our TV, probably more than we actually should. Why? Because it simply wastes our time away when we believe that we have nothing better to do with our lives. And even though we probably do, it is belittled against the fact that we are a world of want and desire. Oscar Wilde, being the kind of writer that he was, could have wrote this extremely amusing play just to distract people from their lives and to let his audience enjoy what was put in front of them. One element that could have made this so much more effective is by the use of satire embedded within. Satire was not only used for the purpose of amusement, but also to make people aware of issues that were occurring every day for normal people of that time period. So if triviality is what he wished to put forward, then this subtitle would be taken quite literally.

Comedy of Manners:-

The Importance of Being Earnest is an excellent example of a Comedy of Manners as it mocks the behaviours of Victorian aristocracy, it explores the social conduct of upper-middle class society. The plot revolves around lust between characters, the play features verbal wit and Algernon acts as an unscrupulous character - these are all main features of a Comedy of Manners.
One traditional convention Wilde uses in the first Act of The Importance of Being Earnest is by exploring the social conduct of the Victorian upper-middle class society. He does this with Lady Bracknell's character as she behaves as though she behaves as a male role in choosing who Gwendolyn should marry; "Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement ¦ And now I have a few questions to put to you Mr Worthing. While I am making these inquiries, you, Gwendolyn, will wait for me below in the carriage.  This implies that Lady Bracknell will choose who Gwendolyn marries as it was seen as women were too feeble and foolish to chose their husbands for themselves. Lady Bracknell will not let Gwendolyn marry without her approval, she asks Jack a series of questions which gives Jack the opportunity to gain Lady Bracknell's approval of him. " ¦ Should his health permit him Suggests that males are the weaker gender. The fact that she has taken on the fathers duty to approve his daughters marriage shows that Lady Bracknell is a strong willed woman and doesn't need a male to tell her what to do, she is very free willed and very independent who enjoys being the person in control. Lady Bracknell seems to be the sort of woman who trusts her own judgment and will do whatever she believes is the right thing, she will not listen to anyone but herself. This goes against the common behaviour of society as normally, the male is in charge and in control .

Victorian traditions and social customs:-

Although he was born in Ireland, Oscar Wilde moved to England during his studies and became known there for his extravagance and decadence. Like many others, he noted the differences in the high moral standards that people displayed in social contexts, and the less proper behavior that took place when people were outside of the public eye. Perhaps due to the fact that he himself had to put on an act in public (since his sexual orientation was illegal at the time), Wilde came to see social interaction as a farce and wrote several social satires to highlight the strange perspectives and behaviors of the aristocracy.

Satire in the Novel:-

Satire, in the time and context of the novel The Importance of Being Earnest, refers to a comedic style in which the behaviors and beliefs of a particular social class are made fun of. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde pokes fun at the upper class by showing them to be fickle, dishonest and snobbish. Let's look at how he does this by considering the various aspects of the Victorian life that he ridicules.

In the Victorian era, people were very focused on how one behaved in public. Both Algernon and Jack make up false identities in order to get away with some of their less than ideal behaviors. Calling cards and formal invites formed a part of everyday social life in those times, and we find mention of these in the play. Algernon even goes as far as to state that Jack's 'carelessness' in not sending him a dinner invitation when he wants to avoid dinner at Lady Bracknell's, is foolish and annoying.

The British at this time considered themselves vastly superior to the French (which is why several novels at the time had villainous French characters). The play pokes fun at the idea of French promiscuity when Jack refers to 'corrupt' French Dramas.

Homosexual desire:-

Like oppressed minorities throughout the centuries, gay Victorians used a coded language to communicate privately with one another, a code designed to be undetectable by members of mainstream society.
On its surface, the plot of Wilde’s masterpiece seems irreproachable: Two bachelor pals, Jack and Algernon, pose as men named “Ernest” to woo the women of their dreams. But beneath its scrubbed and squeaky surface, Wilde’s play is permeated with barely concealed allusions to gay acquaintances, practices and locales. To help theater lovers crack the cipher, Ritsch and production dramaturge Lindsey Barr compiled a cheat sheet of the coded language below.
his sentence depicts a lot of the marital problems of the upper-class society in the Victorian age and Wilde was no exception to it.After getting married and having children, he lost interest in his wife and began a homosexual affair with Lord Alfred Douglas in the following years.As the plot develops, both bachelors reveal that they have created their altered egos as their beloveds have put on the condition that their respective lovers will have the name as Earnest.
Thus in the play, he mocks the institution of marriage which was considered to be sacred in Christianity. For him, this institution is quite hollow. The concept of Bunburyism that meant the practice of a double life also refers to the concept of homosexuality in the play.

conclusion:-

Though the plot of the play is not thought-provoking yet it contains hidden meanings. Through the mode way comedy, Wilde brings to light the ills of the Victorian era and mocks it. Hence, it is a trivial comedy for serious people  with hypocrisy for status and fame.

THANK YOU

DILIP BARAD

WORDS:-1571