Oscar Wilde was highly intellectual and talented in writing plays and poetry. It was interesting to find out he was imprisoned for some of his works containing inappropriate topics like homosexuality. His life turned upside down after his prison term ended, "emerged a broken and penniless man. He spent the remainder of his life in exile outside Britain. He was never again allowed to see his young sons, and their surname was changed to protect them from scandal" and "the man who had lavished champagne on his friends was reduced to scrounging drinks from strangers who pitied him" (830).
The title speaks for itself, The Importance of Being Earnest. This comedy of this love circle that Algernon and Jack had created with the false brother and friend "Ernest" fills the play with dramatic irony. To be earnest in society, Wilde thinks there needs to be morality present. "But you don't really mean to say that you couldn't love me if my name wasn't Ernest?" seems to put a turn on things when she speaks highly of the name and he tries to compare it to his real name Jack (855). When he includes "A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is" reminds me of Carlyle's writing in Know Thy Work when he speaks to be a man a man must have work.
Keeping the identity of Jack and Bunbury a secret make it harder to get the truth out. If you start off wrong it's hard to get back to the right beginning.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Linh,
OK focus on Wilde's play (after some initial comments on his life that do not clearly seem relevant to the play). I am not convinced, though, that Wilde is all that interested in morality in society so much as he points out the hypocrisy in it.
Yeah, I agree with Dr. Glance. Wilde seemed less than concerned with morality, given his nature at the time. I think making a mockery of society is what Wilde was more interested in, and it cost him everything.
I don't know Daniel, I kind of think that we need to have more morals in life and reading this comedy kind of points that out.
I beleive that his play is supposed to call out the hypocrites of his time. He is more upset at the lack of true morality than just morals displayed to the public. Thank you for the history at the beginning of the post!
Post a Comment