How do Victorian attitudes to marriage and respectability underpin the comic elements of the importance of being Earnest? Essay

Marriage is loveless, wealth and background takes priority e actuallyplace most things, Algernon supports this with a quote (once over again hes the rebel) Marriage is the end of freedom, Cecily wants to disunite free, in truth curious charr who looks at beau monde differently. takes a longing to Algernon because of this. Quote below Secret lives of the boys, humour in the peter goat god similar qualities quoteA man who marries withtaboo knowing Bunbury an excuse for pleasure has a very tedious time of it. I hope you rich person non been leading a double life, pretending to be skanky and be re totallyy good all the time. You wont be able to disappear to London quite so frequently as your offensive custom was. I think some preliminary doubt on my part would non be out of place.In the importance of organism god-fearing written by Oscar wilde, he gives us twain characters laborer and Algernon these dickens characters live double lives to lounge rough out of situati ons that they do not desire to be in, In straightlaced society men and woman would have to uphold thither respect and duties at all time. The two men create Bunburying which allows them to misbehave without upsetting there piers and letting go of their high moral standards of the upper class. jacks creates Ernest his sick brother to get out of situations that he doesnt want to be in. Its ironic for pitch as he creating a false image of himself in that plurality would see Jack as farthest more moral and amenable then he actually is.Algernon however uses bunbury to escape to the country lieu in peace, while playing it off that he is doing work for little Christian charities, it was common for the upper class to do this in Victorian times as their moral duty however Oscar Wilde specifically gives these two men these alter egos to represent Victorian hypocrisy , From the very arising the humour of both characters is shown through this light and would be humours to the contempor ary auditory sense as its true. People of that time error would of bigged themselves up in introductory of their peers and did things just for the sake of it.The comedic effect is how Oscar Wilde portrays this. The Victorian society above all valued duty and respect. Both men lead double lives simply as long as things are done properly and they fudge sure that there appearance is respectable then society at the time would turn a blind eye to whatever was red ink on. Wilde in the play asks if it is unfeignedly a concern that appearance is that all-important(a) and isnt just a trivial matter. Gwendolyn is a character that prise her values so much that she says In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing. as long as it looks good to Gwendolyn and here peers that its fine.She says that the sincerity of matter just isnt important at all. in that locations humour in just how bizarre of a chit chat that actually is from Gwendolyn to a modern earshot n ow that seems so absured that psyche could be so obsessed by how other people suppose her role that she would look so far past the importance of say question or matter. Marriage is a stable for Victorian society and the author Oscar Wilde represents it in a different pure true standardised manor of what it would have been at the time period. Lady Bracknell is a important figure honour and respectability in the play, although every character we graceful has some kind of foolish humour to them, Lady Bracknell is very witty and quick with her lines just like Algernon who coincidentally is her nephew.She is brutal with her lines, for instance when Jack has proposed she goes on to say I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place. this line may not appear extremely comical but to some classes at the time it would, Jack is meant to be a upper class gentlemen who is reckon by many, however the sense of hearing knows that he was born in a train station and l ives a parallel life to get out of his daily responabilites. Its the background humour of society that Oscar Wilde creates which makes the whole conversation very clever but at the same time humours. Gwendolen is what seems to be a traditional woman of the time period should look and act, although Gwendolen isnt like this she is very naturally curious.This is properly due to the fact that she has never had the knock to be free like Jack and Algernon. She says to Algernon I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. its from this line she is curious in him, she hasnt seen what its like outside the boundary of her life and delivers a very ironic and humours line to Algernon. Gwendolen also desires to marry a man named Earnest she quickly falls in love with jack who she thinks is of course Earnest, she really doesnt judicial decision if he doesnt possess the qualitys of someone actually called Earnest which means a seriou sness which again is ironic for Jack.Furthermore Jack eventually becomes Earnest and Ernest and becomes a image of Victorian Hypocrisy. Oscar Wilde uses humours situations like this in his play that arent telling the auditory modality to burst out laughing but to underpin the humour, the author is exhausting to break the mould of society and gently publiciseing the audience and peoples mind sets to look at how funny and at the same time how prostitute the world they lived in was.He is using the humour of some situations to abstraction flaws. The true comedy in this play comes from how it is written and how the author takes blows at how society is working at the present moment, he never creates a conflict between the characters without humour so he can push his message across to the contemporary audience. The whole play is based around Marriage and responsibilities, from the very start to the end they are never far apart in conversation.In fact the whole play is a debate on whe ther or not marriage is just rail line or pleasure Although I feel as if Oscar Wilde intended this message, he is constantly poking fun and using humour as a cover to take jabs at how society works and is meant to be viewed. the audience watches the whole journey of these two men which is where the comedy comes from, their views and opinions to the modern mean solar day traditional Victorian at the time would seem bizarre to an audience member and create laughter.