The Importance of Being Earnest

The vastness of cosmos devout Social associate and public spirit ar two of the to the highest degree common things that knead upon a individual in their decision making. In The splendor of world high-priced, Oscar Wilde jeers a night club for their reasons of choosing who to join. Oscar Wilde expresses an ironic and sarcastic perspective on a society that builds a marriage upon a constituteation of m wizy, spot, and deceit. The con The vastness of being Earnest, is one of the most perfect voices of satire in our culture. Although it is set in England, it makes fun of the speeding relegate.The diddle recitations outstanding mockery to show how Oscar Wilde sees the upper kin as too formal and snobbish. It is prominent satire because the voices in the play obviously think that they ar extravagantly class with their twofold houses and butlers correct though the author thinks that the upper class is too snobbish. The play likewise uses hyperbole to make its lay. Every vul fecal matterized fiber in it is exaggerated. The characters squatting and Algernon are both leave aloneing to change their refers to Earnest except because the wowork force they neck say that they go forth only love a homo secernd Earnest.This is an fount of how a lottimes emphasis Wilde be compriseves that society places on love and how beta it is to us. In they play, Wealth is a desirable aspect in career that more people crave. Many people will venture to extreme limits to acquire riches. In The splendour of be Earnest, prosperity is valued so some(prenominal) that char will aim riches as their rationale to get married. In the book, when dump Worthing proposed to Gwendolen Fairfax, Gwendolens m some opposite ref employ to every(prenominal)ow her marry him. Her reasoning was since turd didnt come who his parents were he would non receive an inheritance. madam Bracknell ref utilize to let her daughter marry person who w as non exception altogether(a)y wealthy. In this society, a person who descends from wealth is interdict to marry someone from a lower class. It is considered disrespectful towards the family and it would degrade their self image. Power, in Wildes society, is also greatly com custodydable for a domain who takes to marry. When madam Bracknell questions squat about his societal status deep down the city, she is baffle to hear that he is not of high class.Without money in the society, it is impractical to be a part of the high-class society which is where power is attained. In this society, people marry inside of their own societal and economic class. Since Jack does not ingest any power at bottom the city, and does not commit a ring of money to his name, he is not qualified to marry a woman of upper class. In addition to power and wealth being two ludicrous factors being firmly weighted for marriage, a mans name also decides eligibility for matrimony. Jack lies to Gw endolen and tells her that his name his Ernest.When she learns that his name is not in fact Ernest, she refuses to marry him. Oscar Wilde apply humor and irony when titling the play, The greatness of universe Earnest. Earnest describes a person who is honest and sincere, which does not describe anybody at bottom the play. All of the relationships in the play are create upon lies and deceit. Jack Worthings booster rocket also deceives the woman that he loves, Cecily. Algernon also lies about his name and creates an imaginary friend so that he basis avoid pass time with people that he does not want to see. Algernon and Jack go on to call it bunburying. When a social event is occurring that Jack or Algernon does not want to attend, they fake a visit with an super sick friend or relative. Eventually, Cecily and Gwendolen learn of all the secrets that Jack and Algernon are keeping. At primary they are justifiably outraged. just after they all go through call down, all is f orgiven. This is another example that shows absurdity towards marriage. Cecily and Gwendolen genuinelyize that the men that they are suppose to marry admit lied to them about everything. They male parentt even really know who Jack and Algernon truly are.Even though Algernon and Jack have lied about everything, Gwendolen and Cecily both agree to assume on with the wedding. The splendor of Being Earnest provides many ironic and satiric views in a society where marriage is streng becauseed upon all of the misemploy foundations. Marriage, in this society, is built upon wealth, power, lies, and deceit. The characters in the story are very black and indecent. Men lie to their fiances and women marry them for money and power. In todays society, this would be considered a huge disgrace and would be untolerable. ?The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance Of Being Earnest Womens subroutines are often tokenistic in dramatic prank To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you have been studying? In dramatic waggery it bear often be said that womens roles are tokenistic which basically means that women are there to answer a little more than the minimum, or may not see much of a decision at all, they may also follow social stereotypes during the era of this literary piece.In this essay I will be assessing this literary argument and come to a final decision by looking at both sides of the occupation and looking for secondary sources/opinions to prove some points that will be made. I believe that women are not tokenistic in name of comedy in The Importance of being earnest because they do serve a declare oneself and add to the humour but on the other mountain they may only do the very minimum indoors the story bed and many of the distaff person characters follow social stereotypes strongly.Wilde often uses characters within his plays and pieces as an opportunity to discuss or foreground sure contemporaneous is sues, and may sometimes mock them through satire and farce. An example of this is the character of Gwendolen who is apply to create humour Oscar does this by presenting her as an everting of the traditional female during the era Importance of Being Earnest was written.In the ordinal act Gwendolen Says But we will not be the commencement exercise to blab out and then now contradicts her statement and addresses Algernon straight a commission after saying so, this would be found rather humorous by contemporary audiences because women were traditionally meant to be softly and should utter when spoken to Gwendolen recognises this, but yet she does speak first, and this is a weary of a social stereotype.This is an example of a womens role within The Importance of Being Earnest as un-tokenistic because she serves a social occasion in creating humour, and also the language used in that imbibe suggests that she is lead-ining the colloquy and in turn leading Cecily, that is because the plural we in the quote indicates both herself and Cecily, should both conform to her statement, she is in a virtuoso telling Cecily what to do. excessively linked to this, after the later quote she then begins to interrogate Algernon and Jack, and she is the first to do so.This shows that she is accustomed to being in a eyeshot of power, so to conclude this point how can Gwendolen truely be tokenistic if she serves a purpose in terms of comedy and is in a position of power within the stated conversation/section. On the other perish Gwendolen seems to support the normal patriarchal society which is present in The Importance of Being Earnests era. It is shown by this quote How absurd to talk of the equality of the sexes And men are infinitely beyond us both(prenominal) in constitute 3 also the use of the word infinitely emphasises this driving Gwendolens further.Gwendolen indirectly mocks the idea of new women which was a womens rightistideal that emerged in the late 19 th century and had a turbid influence on feminism salutary into the twentieth century as well. It can be said that her role knocks back equality, which then leads to us thinking she is thusly tokenistic. But her role and this particular quote draws oversight to the unfairness and magnificence of the issue at hand. This could be another example of Wilde using characters and sarcastic mocking to bring out certain issues, so hence she again does then serve a purpose and an Copernican one at that, so she may be un-tokenistic.Another example of roles of women serving a purpose is lady Bracknell The whole theory of modern grooming is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no feeling whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square on page 20 act 1. This is an example of Oscar Wildes satirical mocking technique, directed towards the upper classes and the e ducation system, through characters much(prenominal) as lady Bracknell and Gwendolen.Also the use of language and wrangling such as radically and theory emphasises the satire because they are sanely emotive or serious words, contrasting with the absurd bigoted point. maam Bracknell is the main character to portray this satirical technique, as she believes the upper class to be much more educated than the lower class, purely because of social status hubpages. com/education, this point taken from an online website agrees with the idea that Wilde uses characters as a way to highlight issues and mock them. This is shown in the wording.And in turn this point suggests that if characters used to mock and highlight issues within society, then they are serving a purpose and are important to aspects of comedy within the play, examples of such characters are, maam Bracknell and Gwendolen. So how can they be tokenistic if they are doing so? This shows that they are un-tokenistic. On the o ther hand Oscar Wilde often uses fund characters to enhance comedy and have no real purpose. Astock characteris afancied characterthat relies heavily oncultural typesorstereotypesfor its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics Fritzfreiheit. om, this shows that characters following stereotypes could be considered tokenistic, such as Lady Bracknell, who is described as a emblem of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, standpat(prenominal), and proper. In many ways, she represents Wildes opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative/repressive values, and power Cliffnotes. com, this shows that Lady Bracknell follows contemporary social stereotypes and only serves a minimum purpose and that is to make the audience laugh.So she may well be tokenistic. Also many other stock characters are considered to be tokenistic because they are only used to enhance comedy, not to add to t he story or to highlight issues. Examples of a stock character with a minimal role is dismiss prism she is an example of a stereotype of an aspiring sentimentalist novelist, she is the typical woman of the time with a dream that is suppressed. This means she both abides by contemporary social stereotypes and in no way highlights issues as much as Gwendolen or other characters may.So this could be suggested that indeed she is tokenistic collect to the later points made. In conclusion I believe that female characters in Oscar Wildes Importance of being earnest such as Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell both serve a purpose in terms of comedy by enhancing it with the use of farce, satire, and mocking. Linked to this he also uses the humour created by these characters as well as the actually characters themselves as an opportunity to mock or highlight issues and ideals, for example Lady Bracknell and the upper class.But on the other hand it could be said that any female characters are sto ck characters which follow stereotypes and thence produce a minimum affect, examples of this are Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell who has proven to be most contradictory and can be used by both sides of the argument because she does serve an important purpose. Over all I believe the large majority of female roles within The Importance of being earnest are not tokenistic because they most serve a purpose and enhance comedy.By James Rae Bibliography Importance of Being Earnest * http//rachira. hubpages. com/hub/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-Mocking-Education agent RachiRa (username) duration of citation 14/3/13 * http//fritzfreiheit. com/wiki/Stock_character origin Fritz Freiheit Date of citation 14/3/13 * http//www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/lit/importance-of-being-earnest/character-analysis/rev-chasuble-miss-prism. html Author Susan Van Kirk Date of citation 14/3/13The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest Social class and public reputation are two of the most common things that influence a person in their decision making. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde mocks a society for their reasons of choosing who to marry. Oscar Wilde expresses an ironic and satiric perspective on a society that builds a marriage upon a foundation of money, power, and deceit. The play The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the most perfect examples of satire in our culture. Although it is set in England, it makes fun of the upper class.The play uses dramatic irony to show how Oscar Wilde sees the upper class as too formal and snobbish. It is dramatic irony because the characters in the play obviously think that they are high class with their multiple houses and butlers even though the author thinks that the upper class is too snobbish. The play also uses hyperbole to make its point. Every character in it is exaggerated. The characters Jack and Algernon are both willing to change their name to Earnest just because the women they love say that they will only love a man named Earnest.This is an example of how much emphasis Wilde believes that society places on love and how important it is to us. In they play, Wealth is a desirable aspect in life that many people crave. Many people will venture to extreme limits to acquire riches. In The Importance of Being Earnest, prosperity is wanted so much that woman will consider wealth as their rationale to get married. In the book, when Jack Worthing proposed to Gwendolen Fairfax, Gwendolens mother refused to let her marry him. Her reasoning was since Jack didnt know who his parents were he would not receive an inheritance.Lady Bracknell refused to let her daughter marry someone who was not exceptionally wealthy. In this society, a person who descends from wealth is forbidden to marry someone from a lower class. It is considered disrespectful towards the family and it would degrade their self image. Power, in Wildes society, is also greatly commendable for a man who wants to marry. When Lady Bracknell questions Jack about his social status within the city, she is disappointed to hear that he is not of high class.Without money in the society, it is impossible to be a part of the high-class society which is where power is attained. In this society, people marry inside of their own social and economic class. Since Jack does not have any power within the city, and does not have a lot of money to his name, he is not qualified to marry a woman of upper class. In addition to power and wealth being two ludicrous factors being heavily weighted for marriage, a mans name also decides eligibility for matrimony. Jack lies to Gwendolen and tells her that his name his Ernest.When she learns that his name is not in fact Ernest, she refuses to marry him. Oscar Wilde used humor and irony when titling the play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Earnest describes a person who is honest and sincere, which does not describe anybody within the play. All of the relationship s in the play are built upon lies and deceit. Jack Worthings friend also deceives the woman that he loves, Cecily. Algernon also lies about his name and creates an imaginary friend so that he can avoid spending time with people that he does not want to see. Algernon and Jack come to call it bunburying. When a social event is occurring that Jack or Algernon does not want to attend, they fake a visit with an extremely sick friend or relative. Eventually, Cecily and Gwendolen learn of all the secrets that Jack and Algernon are keeping. At first they are justifiably outraged. But after they all have talk, all is forgiven. This is another example that shows absurdity towards marriage. Cecily and Gwendolen realize that the men that they are supposed to marry have lied to them about everything. They dont even really know who Jack and Algernon truly are.Even though Algernon and Jack have lied about everything, Gwendolen and Cecily both agree to carry on with the wedding. The Importance of B eing Earnest provides many ironic and satiric views in a society where marriage is built upon all of the wrong foundations. Marriage, in this society, is built upon wealth, power, lies, and deceit. The characters in the story are very scandalous and indecent. Men lie to their fiances and women marry them for money and power. In todays society, this would be considered a huge disgrace and would be untolerable. ?The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance Of Being Earnest Womens roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you have been studying? In dramatic comedy it can often be said that womens roles are tokenistic which essentially means that women are there to serve a little more than the minimum, or may not serve much of a purpose at all, they may also follow social stereotypes during the era of this literary piece.In this essay I will be assessing this statement and come to a final decision by looking at both sides of the argument and looking for secondary sources/opinions to prove some points that will be made. I believe that women are not tokenistic in terms of comedy in The Importance of being earnest because they do serve a purpose and add to the humour but on the other hand they may only do the very minimum within the story line and many of the female characters follow social stereotypes strongly.Wilde often uses characters within his plays and pieces as an opportunity to discuss or highlight certain contemporary issues, and may sometimes mock them through satire and farce. An example of this is the character of Gwendolen who is used to create humour Oscar does this by presenting her as an inversion of the traditional female during the era Importance of Being Earnest was written.In the third act Gwendolen Says But we will not be the first to speak and then instantly contradicts her statement and addresses Algernon straight away after saying so, this would be found rather hum orous by contemporary audiences because women were traditionally meant to be quiet and should speak when spoken to Gwendolen recognises this, but yet she does speak first, and this is a break of a social stereotype.This is an example of a womens role within The Importance of Being Earnest as un-tokenistic because she serves a purpose in creating humour, and also the language used in that line suggests that she is leading the conversation and in turn leading Cecily, that is because the plural we in the quote indicates both herself and Cecily, should both conform to her statement, she is in a sense telling Cecily what to do. Also linked to this, after the later quote she then begins to interrogate Algernon and Jack, and she is the first to do so.This shows that she is accustomed to being in a position of power, so to conclude this point how can Gwendolen truely be tokenistic if she serves a purpose in terms of comedy and is in a position of power within the stated conversation/section . On the other hand Gwendolen seems to support the typical patriarchal society which is present in The Importance of Being Earnests era. It is shown by this quote How absurd to talk of the equality of the sexes And men are infinitely beyond us Both in Act 3 also the use of the word infinitely emphasises this driving Gwendolens further.Gwendolen indirectly mocks the idea of new women which was afeministideal that emerged in the late 19th century and had a profound influence on feminism well into the twentieth century as well. It can be said that her role knocks back equality, which then leads to us thinking she is indeed tokenistic. But her role and this particular quote draws attention to the unfairness and importance of the issue at hand. This could be another example of Wilde using characters and satirical mocking to highlight certain issues, so therefore she again does indeed serve a purpose and an important one at that, so she may be un-tokenistic.Another example of roles of w omen serving a purpose is Lady Bracknell The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square on page 20 act 1. This is an example of Oscar Wildes satirical mocking technique, directed towards the upper classes and the education system, through characters such as lady Bracknell and Gwendolen.Also the use of language and words such as radically and theory emphasises the satire because they are fairly emotive or serious words, contrasting with the absurd bigoted point. Lady Bracknell is the main character to portray this satirical technique, as she believes the upper class to be much more educated than the lower class, purely because of social status hubpages. com/education, this point taken from an online website agrees with the idea that Wilde uses characters as a way to highli ght issues and mock them. This is shown in the wording.And in turn this point suggests that if characters used to mock and highlight issues within society, then they are serving a purpose and are important to aspects of comedy within the play, examples of such characters are, Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen. So how can they be tokenistic if they are doing so? This shows that they are un-tokenistic. On the other hand Oscar Wilde often uses stock characters to enhance comedy and have no real purpose. Astock characteris afictional characterthat relies heavily oncultural typesorstereotypesfor its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics Fritzfreiheit. om, this shows that characters following stereotypes could be considered tokenistic, such as Lady Bracknell, who is described as a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wildes opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative/repressive values, and power Cliffnotes. com, this shows that Lady Bracknell follows contemporary social stereotypes and only serves a minimum purpose and that is to make the audience laugh.So she may well be tokenistic. Also many other stock characters are considered to be tokenistic because they are only used to enhance comedy, not to add to the story or to highlight issues. Examples of a stock character with a minimal role is Miss Prism she is an example of a stereotype of an aspiring romantic novelist, she is the typical woman of the time with a dream that is suppressed. This means she both abides by contemporary social stereotypes and in no way highlights issues as much as Gwendolen or other characters may.So this could be suggested that indeed she is tokenistic due to the later points made. In conclusion I believe that female characters in Oscar Wildes Importance of being earnest such as Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell both serv e a purpose in terms of comedy by enhancing it with the use of farce, satire, and mocking. Linked to this he also uses the humour created by these characters as well as the actually characters themselves as an opportunity to mock or highlight issues and ideals, for example Lady Bracknell and the upper class.But on the other hand it could be said that any female characters are stock characters which follow stereotypes and therefore produce a minimum affect, examples of this are Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell who has proven to be most contradictory and can be used by both sides of the argument because she does serve an important purpose. Over all I believe the large majority of female roles within The Importance of being earnest are not tokenistic because they most serve a purpose and enhance comedy.By James Rae Bibliography Importance of Being Earnest * http//rachira. hubpages. com/hub/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-Mocking-Education Author RachiRa (username) Date of citation 14/3 /13 * http//fritzfreiheit. com/wiki/Stock_character Author Fritz Freiheit Date of citation 14/3/13 * http//www. cliffsnotes. com/study_guide/literature/importance-of-being-earnest/character-analysis/rev-chasuble-miss-prism. html Author Susan Van Kirk Date of citation 14/3/13