of Being Earnest”, Wilde brings put a factor in this book that is not really Victorian Times was the way the gender roles are played out. From Lady Bracknell’s actions and tone to the way her daughter, Gwendolen, acts towards a man that has no significant value to her family only her heart. Also with the way that Jack acts towards Algy and they way they socialize and talk about everything from being imposters of fake people the the rudeness of Lady Bracknell, Algy’s aunt. Gender was very reason why…
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State University Christian Flatt The Importance of Being Earnest is a comic play written and enacted for the first time by Oscar Wilde in 1985. The play is greatly influenced by the patriarchal society of the time that valued men more than women. Almost the entire play is focused around the social roles and how men and women interact. Oscar Wilde presents the women in the play in a paradoxical away, making them powerless by society’s norms but strong in their character and influence…
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Shakespeare and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde are two plays that, to an extent, challenge the gender norms of their times. The gender norms are challenged by both playwrights through the use of heightened language, manners and etiquette and inversions of expectations. Despite Much Ado About Nothing being a Renaissance play and The Importance of Being Earnest being a Victorian play, both use a similar genre to expose and question the gender norms of their time. Both plays are comedies;…
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Beautiful Bodies and Sincere Souls In his Victorian narrative The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde utilizes syntax to portray the connection between the body and the soul. Wilde employs simple sentences to portray how society cares more about one’s physical appearance than one’s spiritual self. Wilde expresses Dorian Gray’s thoughts on the continuously changing portrait by writing, “For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able to follow his mind into its secret places……
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“linguistic perfection”1 with meticulous theatricality, Oscar Wilde constructs ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ to be a scintillating satire which exposes the moral decadence of Victorian England between a vacuous quartet of pseudo males infatuated with pretentious women concluding in an absurd denouement. Embellished with nonsensical witticisms and ironic similes, I bulk against Shaw’s opinion of the morality play acting as a farce as Wilde undermines and parodies every aspect of Victorianism. Whilst…
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“An Essay for The Importance of Being Earnest,” written by Arnold Schmidt, discusses being earnest in Victorian English society in Oscar Wilde’s famous play. Schmidt first explains the pun and paradox of the title and the actual definition of the word “earnest.” While it has multiple meanings, it is essentially synonymous with being eager and sincere. He explains how the trait of earnestness was and was not found in Victorian society and in The Importance of Being Earnest. From the Agricultural…
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How are the female characters in The Importance of Being Earnest presented and in what ways do they conform to the Victorian ideal of passive women. Victorian England made a clear division between gender roles of men and women. The life of a conventional Victorian woman was focused on marriage and family in which her upbringing was based on this. Young girls were brought up to perfectly innocent and sexually ignorant. The typical Victorian woman was seen to be weak and passive, she was taught to…
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To most, Disney movies are synonymous with magical storytelling and inspiring, loving characters. They are also known for having some deeper meanings that pertain to real life issues. Feminism, gender roles and mental health are just a few of the topics covered in Disney classics. But in the 2016 Oscar winning film Zootopia, some of the issues that are addressed hit close to home in America; racial profiling and stereotypes, the war on drugs in communities and the nature vs nurture debate. Zootopia…
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whereas Jack appears comparatively effeminate, creating part of the play’s social satire. Wilde uses this satire to attack the Victorian society and its moral values. The comedic view on this situation is not only the way Lady Bracknell overpowers Jack, but also the way Jack treats this role reversal as totally natural, as if women in Victorian society would actually act in that way. Another way that Wilde presents women less favourable than men is through deception. The character of Lord Bracknell…
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love… And the sea covered the young Fisherman with its waves” (Wilde 15). The mermaid does nothing to physically harm the fisherman, yet her very existence is still dangerous enough to destroy him. This dangerous power imbued in the mermaid conflicts with another gender role associated with the character, which portrays women as helpless and inferior. The discrepancy between the two concepts of the female sex does not disparage the gender roles presented by the mermaid, but rather strengthens it by…
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