THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance Of Being Earnest, is an example of his use of “dandyism.” Throughout the play he uses humorous depictions of class tensions and delights in the play’s characters’ confused sense of values.
Lady Bracknell is perhaps the choice character to use to make a mockery of materialistic, middle-class society. She is a highfalutin Victorian lady who stresses good breeding above all other matters. When she is informed that Jack has asked Gwendolen to marry him, she quickly dismisses Gwendolen and with pencil and notebook in hand begins to interrogate Jack, not first without giving him notice that his name did not appear on her list of eligible young men. She appeared to be at least satisfied with his answers to her line of questioning until she asked about his parents. When he tells her that he lost both of his parents, she replies, “Both? To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune – to lose both seems like carelessness.” Then she goes o...