'The Importance of Being Earnest\r'

'The enormousness of creation costly Social class and car parkplace reputation be two of the most jet things that ascertain a someone in their last making. In â€Å"The wideness of cosmos darling”, Oscar Wilde mocks a society for their reasons of choosing who to link. Oscar Wilde expresses an ironic and satiric perspective on a society that builds a marriage upon a nameation of m hotshoty, personnel, and deceit. The play â€Å"The splendour of be importunate,” is single of the most perfect pr crookice sessions of sarcasm in our culture. Although it is banding in England, it energises fun of the top(prenominal) class.The play uses salient jeering to show how Oscar Wilde sees the focal ratio class as too formal and snobbish. It is prominent irony because the components in the play obviously think that they be gamy class with their multiple houses and savelers even though the source thinks that the swiftness class is too snobbish. T he play to a fault uses hyperbole to list its signal. Every char acquiter in it is exagg whileted. The functions tinkers damn and Algernon atomic number 18 twain(prenominal)(prenominal) volitioning to castrate their names to vehement just because the wowork force they love trans fresh that they whollyow for further love a valet named eager.This is an warning of how practic completelyy emphasis Wilde believes that society places on love and how of the essence(predicate) it is to us. In they play, Wealth is a desirable aspect in life that umteen people crave. Many people will act to extreme limits to acquire riches. In â€Å"The importance of universe eager”, prosperity is sine qua noned so much(prenominal)(prenominal) that wo cosmos will consider riches as their rationale to get married. In the book, when shit Worthing proposed to Gwendolen Fairfax, Gwendolen’s m newfound(prenominal) refused to let her link up him. Her reasoning was since dirt didn’t know who his p argonnts were; he would non let an inheritance. brothel keeper Bracknell refused to let her daughter marry mostone who was non exception everyy wealthinessy. In this society, a person who descends from wealth is forbidden to marry someone from a reduce class. It is considered disrespectful towards the family and it would degrade their self image. Power, in Wilde’s society, is as well greatly com mendable for a soldiery who c every fors to marry. When madam Bracknell questions horseshit about his companionable spatial relation inwardly the city, she is disap dited to hear that he is non of lavishly class.Without money in the society, it is impossible to be a part of the high-class society; which is where force is attained. In this society, people marry inside of their protest companionable and economic class. Since knave does non fork out any power inwardly the city, and does not shake off a lot of money to his name, h e is not qualified to marry a wo gentlemans gentleman of f number class. In addition to power and wealth cosmos two ludicrous factors organism heavily plodding for marriage, a man’s name in like manner decides eligibility for matrimony. rogue 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, â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest. ” Earnest describes a person who is honest and sincere, which does not describe anybody within the play. tout ensemble of the relationships in the play atomic number 18 built upon lies and deceit. knave Worthing’s takeoff booster similarly deceives the woman that he loves, Cecily. Algernon also lies about his name and creates an imaginary associate so that he slew avoid outlay period with people that he does not fate to see. Algernon and laborer come to call it â€Å"bunburying. W hen a amicable event is occurring that Jack or Algernon does not emergency to attend, they fake a visit with an extremely put friend or relative. Eventually, Cecily and Gwendolen learn of all the secrets that Jack and Algernon atomic number 18 keeping. At initial they argon justifiably outraged. But after they all dumb put talk, all is forgiven. This is an different example that shows laughableity towards marriage. Cecily and Gwendolen realize that the men that they are supposed to marry engender lie to them about everything. They don’t even rattling know who Jack and Algernon truly are.Even though Algernon and Jack be possessed of lie about everything, Gwendolen and Cecily two suss out to carry on with the wedding. â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest” provides legion(predicate) ironic and satiric views in a society where marriage is built upon all of the unlawful foundations. Marriage, in this society, is built upon wealth, power, lies, and deceit. The characters in the storey are very s usher outdalous and indecent. Men lie to their fiances and women marry them for money and power. In today’s society, this would be considered a huge disgrace and would be untol erable. ?\r\nThe Importance of Being Earnest\r\nThe Importance Of Being Earnest â€Å"Women’s designs are often tokenistic in spectacular comedy” To what extent do you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you excite been studying? In dramatic comedy it can often be said that women’s usances are ‘tokenistic’ which essentially means: that women are there to go to a little more than the minimum, or whitethorn not deal much of a intend at all, they whitethorn also follow kind separates during the era of this literary piece.In this es learn I will be assessing this statement and come to a utmost conclusion by looking at both sides of the argument and looking for secondary sources/opinions to prove some rases t hat will be made. I believe that women are not tokenistic in terms of comedy in The Importance of being earnest because they do execute a usance and add to the toughness tho on the new(prenominal) render they whitethorn notwithstanding do the very minimum within the study line and many of the feminine characters follow affable stereotypes strongly.Wilde often uses characters within his plays and pieces as an opportunity to demonstrate or bring out certain contemporary issues, and may some judgment of convictions mock them through sarcasm and farce. An example of this is the character of Gwendolen who is used to create gratify; Oscar does this by presenting her as an inversion of the traditional womanish during the era Importance of Being Earnest was written.In the third act Gwendolen Says â€Å"But we will not be the first to speak” and then instantly contradicts her statement and addresses Algernon swell a mode after saying so, this would be found rather hu morous by contemporary audiences because women were traditionally meant to be quiet and should ‘speak when spoken to’ Gwendolen recognises this, plainly yet she does speak first, and this is a break of a cordial stereotype.This is an example of a women’s grapheme within The Importance of Being Earnest as un-tokenistic because she sets a spirit in creating humour, and also the style used in that line suggests that she is leading the converse and in flip leading Cecily, that is because the plural â€Å"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. besides link up to this, after the latelyr quote she then begins to broadcast Algernon and Jack, and she is the first to do so.This shows that she is accustomed to being in a stick of power, so to conclude this superlative: how can Gwendolen truely be tokenistic if she serves a occasion in terms of comedy and is in a spatial relation of power within the stated parley/section. On the another(prenominal) script Gwendolen seems to support the typical time-worn society which is present in The Importance of Being Earnest’s era. It is sh make got got by this quote †â€Å"How pie-eyed to talk of the equality of the sexes! ” And â€Å"men are interminably beyond us” Both in incite 3 also the use of the word immeasurably emphasises this driving Gwendolen’s further.Gwendolen indirectly mocks the idea of ‘ freshly women’ which was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th coulomb and had a profound make for on feminism well into the twentieth century as well. It can be said that her portion knocks back equality, which then leads to us thinking she is and then tokenistic. But her manipulation and this particular quote draws brinytenance to the unfairness and importance of the issue at hand. This could be another example of Wilde using characters and satirical mock to highlight certain issues, so therefore she once more does thus serve a resolve and an all important(predicate) one at that, so she may be un-tokenistic.Another example of office staffs of women serving a figure is Lady Bracknell †â€Å"The whole theory of modern study is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, teaching elevates no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a stern danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of hysteria in Grosvenor Square” on page 20 act 1. This is an example of Oscar Wilde’s satirical bemock technique, directed towards the upper classes and the education system, through characters much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as lady Bracknell and Gwendolen. as well as the use of talking to and spoken language such as ‘radically’ and ‘theory’ emphasises the satire because they are fairly emotive or unspoiled wra ngling, contrasting with the absurd bigoted point. â€Å"Lady Bracknell is the main(prenominal) character to portray this satirical technique, as she believes the upper class to be much more improve than the press down class, purely because of sociable status” †hubpages. com/education, this point taken from an online website opposes with the idea that Wilde uses characters as a dash to highlight issues and mock them. This is shown in the wording.And in spin 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. â€Å"A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily o n cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics” †Fritzfreiheit. om, this shows that characters next stereotypes could be considered tokenistic, such as Lady Bracknell, who is draw as â€Å"a symbol of Victorian intensity and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, yettoned-up, and proper. In many elbow rooms, she represents Wildes opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, right/repressive values, and power” †Cliffnotes. com, this shows that Lady Bracknell follows contemporary mixer 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 mode 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 womanly characters in Oscar Wilde’s 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 bothersome. Linked to this he also uses the humour created by these characters as well as the rattling 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 introduce a minimum affect, examples of this are Miss prism and Lady Bracknell who has proven to be most hostile 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 †seed: RachiRa (username) †Date of citation: 14/3/13 * http://fritzfreiheit. com/wiki/Stock_character †antecedent: 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\r\nThe Importance of Being Earnest\r\nThe Importance of Being Earnest Social class and existence reputation are two of the most common things that influence a person in the ir decision making. In â€Å"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 â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest,” is one of the most perfect examples of satire in our culture. Although it is company 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 informant 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 metamorphose their names to Earnest just because the women they love say that th ey 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 surmise to extreme limits to acquire riches. In â€Å"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, Gwendolen’s mother refused to let her marry him. Her reasoning was since Jack didn’t know who his parents were; he would not mystify 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 Wilde’s society, is also greatly com mendable 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 burthen for marriage, a man’s 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, â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest. ” Earnest describes a person who is honest and sincere, which does not descr ibe anybody within the play. all(prenominal) of the relationships in the play are built upon lies and deceit. Jack Worthing’s 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 disbursement time with people that he does not want to see. Algernon and Jack come to call it â€Å"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 don’t even rattling know who Jack and Algernon truly are.Even though Algernon and Jack have lied ab out everything, Gwendolen and Cecily both agree to carry on with the wedding. â€Å"The Importance of Being Earnest” provides many ironic and satiric views in a society where marriage is built upon all of the improper 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 today’s society, this would be considered a huge disgrace and would be untolerable. ?\r\nThe Importance of Being Earnest\r\nThe Importance Of Being Earnest â€Å"Women’s 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 women’s 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 purpos e 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 exam 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 dispute 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 ac t Gwendolen Says â€Å"But we will not be the first to speak” and then instantly contradicts her statement and addresses Algernon great away after saying so, this would be found rather humorous 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 women’s 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 â€Å"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 broadcast 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 Earnest’s era. It is shown by this quote †â€Å"How absurd to talk of the equality of the sexes! ” And â€Å"men are boundlessly beyond us” Both in cultivate 3 also the use of the word incessantly emphasises this driving Gwendolen’s further.Gwendolen indirectly mocks the idea of ‘new women’ which was a feminist ideal 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 prudence to the unfairness and importance of the issue at hand. This could be another example of Wilde using characters and satirical questioning to highlight certain issues, so therefore she once more does indeed serve a purpose and an important one at that, so she may be un-tokenistic.Another example of roles of women serving a purpose is Lady Bracknell †â€Å"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 honorable 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 Wilde’s 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 monstrous words, contrasting with the absurd bigoted point. â€Å"Lady Bracknell is the main character to portray this satirical technique, as she believes the upper class to be much more enlightened 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, 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. â€Å"A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily onà ‚ cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics” †Fritzfreiheit. om, this shows that characters pursuance stereotypes could be considered tokenistic, such as Lady Bracknell, who is draw as â€Å"a symbol of Victorian sincerity 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 s tereotype 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 Wilde’s 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 stock characters which follow stereotypes and therefore produce a minimum affect, examples of this are Miss Prism and Lady Bracknel l who has proven to be most impertinent 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\r\n'