The Importance of Being Earnest
...e Victorian aristocracy, juxtaposed with Gwendolen and Cecily’s determination to fulfil their ideal romance of marrying someone with the name Ernest. Wilde alters well-known epigrams such as “in married life, three is company and two is none,” and “divorce is heaven” wittily capturing the monotony of monogamy by playing it against the conventional ‘two is company, three’s a crowd,’ and ‘marriage is heaven.’ By presenting these two views of romance to the audience, they are positioned to recognise the ridiculousness of reasons for marriage, including that based on wealth because it is something one born into an upper class cannot control, as a baby cannot decide on his own name. With the use of language parallelled with that of Comedies of Manners Wilde satirises the superficial organization of marriage A prominent issue Wilde has satirised in The Importance of Being Earnest is the superficial importance of wealth over integrity within Victorian society. In the third act of the play Lady Bracknell is placed in a situation where she has been informed that her nephew Algernon, is to be married to the young, unknown Cecily Cardew. Lady Bracknell’s initial scepticisms are based on her assumption that young Cecily comes from an unsatisfactory background. Language is an important tool in conveying Lady Bracknell’s attitude toward Cecily with the use of stage directions such as [Lady Bracknell bows coldly to Cecily] and “[grimly]: I have known strange errors in that publication”. Though after inquiring about the girl’s fortune she exclaims “…A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her…” Lady Bracknell’s change of heart is made very obvious and while finding it humorous, the audience is also positioned to see the fault and criticise it. Oscar Wilde, in most of his plays, satirises the dry, boring lives of the upper classes, concerned so much with manners and customs that their Earnestly was almost inhuman. This is no different in The Importance of Being Earnest as Wilde combines elements of both farce and comedy of manners. In Act 2 Part 2 and Act 3, Wilde relies less on epigrams and paradoxes but alternatively utilizes the techniques of repetition and echoing of dialogue a...