Victorian Era

1. A SATIRE ON THE VICTORIAN ERA
IN, THE IMPORTANT OF BEING
EARNEST
NAME :- ADITI VALA
PAPER NO. :- 104 THE LITERATURE OF VICTORIAN PERIOD
MA SEM :- 1
BATCH :- 2020-2020
TOPIC. :- A SATIRE ON THE VICTORIAN ERA IN , THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
ROLL NO :- 1
ENROLLMENT NO :- 3069206420200018
SUBMITTED TO :- SMT S.B.GARDI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,
MKBU

2. ASatireOnTheVictorianEraIn,The Importance
OfBeingEarnest
Writtenby- OscarWilde

3. CONTEN
T
~*~*~*~
• Oscar Wilde
• Victorian Era
• A Satire On The Victorian Era
• Conclusion
• Reference

4. OSCAR WILDE
~*~*~*~*~*~
• Born: 16 October 1854, Westland Row, Dublin,
Ireland
• Died: 30 November 1900, Paris, France
• He wrote several serious play , 4 comedies and
1 novel.
• He wrote only one novel , that’s name is ,” The
Picture of Dorian Gray.
• Popular literally figure in late Victorian
England.
• Very Witty & funny
• Often condemned for homosexuality.
• Believed in the value of , “ Art for Art ‘s Sake “

5. VICTORIAN
ERA
~*~*~*~*~*~
• Victorian literature is the body of
poetry , fiction , essays and
letters produced during the reign of
Queen Victoria.
• Victorian Era was the period of
Queen Victoria’.
• During the 19 th century the novel
, become the leading form of
literature in English.

6. A SATIRE ON THE VICTORIAN
ERA
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
• “The Importance of Being Earnest “
,Wilde satirized the Victorian
age.
• By making a mockery of the
Victorian ideals, Wilde threw a
satirical spotlight on the Victorian
age as a whole.
• The Victorian society fell in a
passionate love with the idea of
earnestness.

7. • The Victorian society was outwardly
flowery.
• ls of earnestness that it was ready to
pay any price for it.
• The late nineteenth century British
people gradually became hypocritical
in their fashionable and faddish
struggle to obtain the ideals of
earnestness.
• The upper middle class haughty and
arrogance nature is critiqued by Wilde.

8. • In the play, two characters are shown
putting the virtue of earnestness on the
pedestal.
• Particularly, the upper middle classes
were encumbered by the folly of
rushing for the hollow ideals of
earnestness.
• Both Jack and Algernon represent the
upper middle class.
• Their lives were full of vices and
follies.
• Oscar Wilde has attacked the Victorian
age for its attachment to loveless life.

9. • This love devoid of emotional depth is
satirized by Wilde in the play.
• The Victorian morality is slightly hinted
at by Wilde in a satirical manner.
• Life in Victorian society was full of
hustle and bustle. People were anxious.
• The deeply hidden anxiety made
Victorian people absent-minded.
• Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule the
cultural norms of marriage love and
mind-set which were very rigid during
the Victorian Age.

10. CONCLUSION
~*~*~*~*~
• The Importance of Being Earnest strongly focuses on those of
the upper class society and the vanity of the aristocrats who
place emphasis on trivial matters concerning marriage.
• Through farce and exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the
foolish and trivial matters that the upper class society looks
upon as being important.
• As said earlier, a satiric piece usually has a didactic side to it.

11. REFERENCE
~*~*~*~
• David, Parker. “Oscar Wilde’s Great Farce: The Importance of Being
Earnest.” Modern Language Quarterly 35 (1974): 173-86. MLA
International Bibliography. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.
• Christopher, Nassaar. “Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.”
Explicator 60.2 (Winter 2002): 78-80. MLA International
Bibliography. Web. 4 Apr. 2011.
• “The Importance of Being Earnest.”
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