The Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde - 1243 Words

Biography An exuberant nonconformist and controversial playwright, eminent author Oscar Wilde produced critically acclaimed literary works that defined the essence of late Victorian England. Posthumously recognized for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and satiric comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde initially acquired criticism for his immoral and unconventional style of writing. Additionally, to his dismay, strife followed Wilde in his personal life as he was notoriously tried and incarcerated on allegations of â€Å"gross indecency† (homosexuality). Emotionally depleted post-imprisonment and stricken with poverty, Wilde was diagnosed with meningitis and died soon thereafter at the ripe age of 46. Born October 16, 1854 to†¦show more content†¦Issued in 1891, The Picture of Dorian Gray originally accrued censure for its blatant lack of morality; regardless, Wilde’s exclusive novel is revered by contemporary critics who have deemed it a sensational classic. In that same year, Wilde assembled a cluster of essays nomenclatured Intentions promoting the theories of aestheticism. However, with the prevalent success of his first play, Lady Windermeres Fan, Wilde sought playwriting as his fundamental literary style. Producing several clever satiric comedies that maintained dark and profound nuances, Wilde’s most impressive work included An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance, and The Importance of Being Earnest. During the peak of his literary achievement, Wilde began a forbidden romance with Lord Alfred Douglass whose father, the Marquis of Queensberry, caught wind of the affair and composed a letter addressed to â€Å"Oscar Wilde: Posing Sodomite†. T horoughly infuriated at the derisive note, Wilde sued Queensberry for libel. In court, the prosecution exposed the presence of homoerotic texts within Wilde’s work as well as love letters directed towards Douglass.Thus, Wilde was convicted on charges of homosexuality and was condemned to two years in prison. Surfacing from penitentiary in 1897, Wilde was emotionally drained, mentally unstable, and physically expended. Exiled, Wilde spent his last few years in France writing minimally, the only commendable wasShow MoreRelatedThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde707 Words   |  3 PagesWebsters dictionary defines earnest as â€Å"characterized by or proceeding from an intense and serious state of mind. Which can be considered a pun since thought this play we see the characters being more apathetic. The Importance of Being Earnest is the story of Jack Worthing is the main character and the protagonist of this play. He is a well of business man who lives in the countr y and is very well respected there. But Jack has a secret he lives another in the city of London where he claims to goRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1750 Words   |  7 PagesHidden Symbols in The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde takes place in 1895 and exposes the hypocritical social expectations of the end of the Victorian era. During the Victorian period, marriage was about protecting your resources and keeping socially unacceptable impulses under control. The play undeniable reveals and focuses satire around differences between the behaviors of the upper class and that of the lower class. Oscar Wilde uses comedic symbolismRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde913 Words   |  4 Pagesmake them known. This concept has come to be the brick and mortar of the wry play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The significance of the notion of being earnest is contradicted in the play, through Wilde’s clever use of words, characters digression of societal normalcy, and triviality of Victorian concepts. Cynical character Algernon asserts that women of Victorian society reinforce the importance of orderly money as a type of social contract. On page 3, it is quickly established theRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde975 Words   |  4 PagesThe Importance of Being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde about a man named Jack who lies about his identity and ends up creating huge confusion about who he really is. The biggest notion that appears throughout the play is about character. There are many instances where the characters of the play lie about their identities and pretend to be people they are not. Oscar Wilde does this throughout the play in order to explain how one’s identity can be made up. One is not born with an identity;Read MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde773 Words   |  4 PagesIn the play by Oscar Wilde â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest†, Wilde takes a comedic stance on a melodrama, portraying the duplicity of Victorian traditions and social values as the modernism of the twentieth century begins to emerge. The idea of the play revolves around its title of the characters discovering the importance of being earnest to their individual preferences. The author uses the traditional efforts of finding a marriage partner to illustrate the conflicting pressure of Victorian valuesRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1293 Words   |  6 Pagescarrying yourself, many of which was not the must enjoyable of ways and lacked some fun that many need in their life. This forced many to split their Public life from the Private one. Written in the Victorian Era, the works of The importance of being earnest by Oscar Wilde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson ,and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley displays how the characters need to keep be kept their Private lives separate from their Public lives in order to fit into their strict VictorianRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1318 Words   |  6 PagesSocial Status in Persuasion and The Importance of Being Earnest Social status refers to a person s position or importance within a society. I have done some research and have acquired information over the way social status is addressed in both the writings of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. In the novel Persuasion we can see how the characters go beyond their means to uphold their title and social value. In the play The Importance of Being Earnest we can see how the social rank and wealth of a personRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1364 Words   |  6 PagesIn order to fully understand the meaning of â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest† and its importance in its time, one must look at Oscar Wilde’s background in relation to the Victorian time period. Biography.com states that Wilde had a very social life, growing up among influential Victorians and intellectuals of the time. As he grew older and became a successful writer, he began engaging in homosexual affairs which was a crime during the 19th century. He e ventually started a relationship with AlfredRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1382 Words   |  6 Pagesappeared to be strict. The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, a nineteenth century author who was one of the most acclaimed playwrights of his day, is a play set in the Victorian time period that demonstrates how trivial telling the truth was. Different characters throughout Wilde’s play establish their dishonestly through hiding who they really are and pretending to be someone whom they are not. In an essay titled â€Å"From ‘Oscar Wilde’s Game of Being Earnest,’† Tirthankar Bose describesRead MoreThe Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde1300 Words   |  5 PagesThe play, The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde was written in the Victorian Age of England. During this time morality was connected with sexual restraint and strict codes of conduct in public. This play hilariously critiques Victorian moral and social values while the characters in the play try to figure out the meaning of â€Å"earnestness†. Wilde uses humor and irony to publicly ridicule the self-aggrandizing attitude of the Victorian upper classes, as well as to expose their duplicity and