Absurdity and Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest Essay -- Impor

Absurdity and Satire in The Importance of Being EarnestIn Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, much is made of societal expectations, protocols, as come up as the inversions of these expectations. A character, Jack Worthing, adopts an alter ego when going into townsfolk to avoid keeping up with the serious and mor entirelyy upright conduct that is expected of him as guardian to his eighteen-year-old ward, Cecily. Another character, Algernon Moncrieff, makes up an invalid booster shot Bunbury whose grave health conditions provide him with the excuse to escape to the country as and when he pleases. Both Jack and Algernon are respect by cardinal young ladies who err geniusously believe the mens names to be Ernest, and who love the men for this very reason. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the dainty society are satirized in a comedy where the characters treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious t hings of life with devout and studied triviality (Wilde back cover), in the words of the author himself. symbolize 1 JACK. Nervously. Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl . . . I have ever met since . . . I met you.GWENDOLEN. Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I very much wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have eternally had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from extraneous to you. JACK looks at her in amazement. We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an period of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the peasant pulpits, I am told and my ideal has always been to love some one of the nam... ... play is to ridicule the vicious and the foolish and to expose the reigning Follies in such a manner, that men shall laugh themselves out of them before they touch they are touchd (qtd Rose 81). Indeed, it is precisely through the use of such ridiculousness that The Importance of Being Earnest successfully pokes fun at the consultation without them getting offended, since the sting of the criticism is cushioned by the detachment that the viewing audience feel from such ludicrousness in the play. Works CitedAbrams, M. H. A Glossary of literary Terms. 7th ed. Boston Heinle & Heinle.Montgomery, Martin et. al. Irony. Ways of Reading. Advanced Reading Skills for Students of English Literature. capital of the United Kingdom Routledge, 2000.Rose, Margaret. Parody Ancient, Modern, and Post-Modern. Cambridge CUP, 1993.Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. London Penguin, 1994.