In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes many aspects of Victorian society, including religion, politics, and gender roles.
In part due to the rise of new religious movements, Victorians were quite preoccupied with moral improvement. In Act 1, Part 1, Algernon makes a broad statement about the moral character of the working class:
Algernon: Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
This statement is highly hypocritical—Algernon, despite his aristocratic upbringing, is a dishonest and wasteful individual.
Wilde also satirizes religion as a whole through his depictions of baptism. In the Anglican Church, baptism, or christening, is a holy sacrament, but Miss Prism regards it as an unfortunate chore that Dr. Chasuble must perform, while Jack and Algernon arrange to be baptized to appease the frivolous ideals of their lovers. In Act 3, Part 1, Lady Bracknell outright dismisses baptism as a reckless extravagance:
Lady Bracknell: Algernon, I forbid you to be baptised. I will not hear of such excesses. Lord Bracknell would be highly displeased if he learned that that was the way in which you wasted your time and money.
[...]
Jack: I don't think that, as things are now, [christening] would be of much practical value to either of us, Dr. Chasuble.
Chasuble: I am grieved to hear such sentiments from you, Mr. Worthing. They savour of the heretical views of the Anabaptists, views that I have completely refuted in four of my unpublished sermons.
This passage also highlights Dr. Chasuble, who proudly admits earlier in the play to preaching the same sermon for every occasion, as an ineffectual artifact of the Church of England. He has strong opinions on other religious movements (like the Anabaptists, who did not regard baptism as a sacrament and rejected infant baptism), but he has never published them.
The Importance of Being Earnest also treats Victorian politics as a rather trivial matter. In Act 1, Part 2, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about his political affiliation:
Lady Bracknell: What are your politics?
Jack: Well, I'm afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.
Lady Bracknell: Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a faction that broke away from the main Liberal Party in 1886 and established an alliance with the Conservative Party to oppose Irish Home Rule. Oscar Wilde's mother was a prominent Irish Nationalist, and he himself was a strong believer in the cause. In this passage, he satirizes what he views as a betrayal of Liberal values—being a Liberal Unionist, he claims, is the same as having no politics at all. Lady Bracknell even considers Liberal Unionists to be essentially the same as Tories, at least during dinner party discussions of politics.
Finally, The Importance of Being Earnest lampoons the Victorian notion that men and women should occupy "separate spheres" in society. In Act 2, Part 2, Gwendolen states her belief that men are more suited to domestic life:
Gwendolen: The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties, he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?
The play features a notable absence of patriarchs—General Moncrieff and Thomas Cardew are both deceased, while Lord Bracknell is mentioned only in passing. As a result, it is female characters like Lady Bracknell who command the social sphere.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes many aspects of Victorian society, including religion, politics, and gender roles.
In part due to the rise of new religious movements, Victorians were quite preoccupied with moral improvement. In Act 1, Part 1, Algernon makes a broad statement about the moral character of the working class:
Algernon: Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
This statement is highly hypocritical—Algernon, despite his aristocratic upbringing, is a dishonest and wasteful individual.
Wilde also satirizes religion as a whole through his depictions of baptism. In the Anglican Church, baptism, or christening, is a holy sacrament, but Miss Prism regards it as an unfortunate chore that Dr. Chasuble must perform, while Jack and Algernon arrange to be baptized to appease the frivolous ideals of their lovers. In Act 3, Part 1, Lady Bracknell outright dismisses baptism as a reckless extravagance:
Lady Bracknell: Algernon, I forbid you to be baptised. I will not hear of such excesses. Lord Bracknell would be highly displeased if he learned that that was the way in which you wasted your time and money.
[...]
Jack: I don't think that, as things are now, [christening] would be of much practical value to either of us, Dr. Chasuble.
Chasuble: I am grieved to hear such sentiments from you, Mr. Worthing. They savour of the heretical views of the Anabaptists, views that I have completely refuted in four of my unpublished sermons.
This passage also highlights Dr. Chasuble, who proudly admits earlier in the play to preaching the same sermon for every occasion, as an ineffectual artifact of the Church of England. He has strong opinions on other religious movements (like the Anabaptists, who did not regard baptism as a sacrament and rejected infant baptism), but he has never published them.
The Importance of Being Earnest also treats Victorian politics as a rather trivial matter. In Act 1, Part 2, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about his political affiliation:
Lady Bracknell: What are your politics?
Jack: Well, I'm afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.
Lady Bracknell: Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a faction that broke away from the main Liberal Party in 1886 and established an alliance with the Conservative Party to oppose Irish Home Rule. Oscar Wilde's mother was a prominent Irish Nationalist, and he himself was a strong believer in the cause. In this passage, he satirizes what he views as a betrayal of Liberal values—being a Liberal Unionist, he claims, is the same as having no politics at all. Lady Bracknell even considers Liberal Unionists to be essentially the same as Tories, at least during dinner party discussions of politics.
Finally, The Importance of Being Earnest lampoons the Victorian notion that men and women should occupy "separate spheres" in society. In Act 2, Part 2, Gwendolen states her belief that men are more suited to domestic life:
Gwendolen: The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties, he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?
The play features a notable absence of patriarchs—General Moncrieff and Thomas Cardew are both deceased, while Lord Bracknell is mentioned only in passing. As a result, it is female characters like Lady Bracknell who command the social sphere.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes many aspects of Victorian society, including religion, politics, and gender roles.
In part due to the rise of new religious movements, Victorians were quite preoccupied with moral improvement. In Act 1, Part 1, Algernon makes a broad statement about the moral character of the working class:
Algernon: Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
This statement is highly hypocritical—Algernon, despite his aristocratic upbringing, is a dishonest and wasteful individual.
Wilde also satirizes religion as a whole through his depictions of baptism. In the Anglican Church, baptism, or christening, is a holy sacrament, but Miss Prism regards it as an unfortunate chore that Dr. Chasuble must perform, while Jack and Algernon arrange to be baptized to appease the frivolous ideals of their lovers. In Act 3, Part 1, Lady Bracknell outright dismisses baptism as a reckless extravagance:
Lady Bracknell: Algernon, I forbid you to be baptised. I will not hear of such excesses. Lord Bracknell would be highly displeased if he learned that that was the way in which you wasted your time and money.
[...]
Jack: I don't think that, as things are now, [christening] would be of much practical value to either of us, Dr. Chasuble.
Chasuble: I am grieved to hear such sentiments from you, Mr. Worthing. They savour of the heretical views of the Anabaptists, views that I have completely refuted in four of my unpublished sermons.
This passage also highlights Dr. Chasuble, who proudly admits earlier in the play to preaching the same sermon for every occasion, as an ineffectual artifact of the Church of England. He has strong opinions on other religious movements (like the Anabaptists, who did not regard baptism as a sacrament and rejected infant baptism), but he has never published them.
The Importance of Being Earnest also treats Victorian politics as a rather trivial matter. In Act 1, Part 2, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about his political affiliation:
Lady Bracknell: What are your politics?
Jack: Well, I'm afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.
Lady Bracknell: Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a faction that broke away from the main Liberal Party in 1886 and established an alliance with the Conservative Party to oppose Irish Home Rule. Oscar Wilde's mother was a prominent Irish Nationalist, and he himself was a strong believer in the cause. In this passage, he satirizes what he views as a betrayal of Liberal values—being a Liberal Unionist, he claims, is the same as having no politics at all. Lady Bracknell even considers Liberal Unionists to be essentially the same as Tories, at least during dinner party discussions of politics.
Finally, The Importance of Being Earnest lampoons the Victorian notion that men and women should occupy "separate spheres" in society. In Act 2, Part 2, Gwendolen states her belief that men are more suited to domestic life:
Gwendolen: The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties, he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?
The play features a notable absence of patriarchs—General Moncrieff and Thomas Cardew are both deceased, while Lord Bracknell is mentioned only in passing. As a result, it is female characters like Lady Bracknell who command the social sphere.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes many aspects of Victorian society, including religion, politics, and gender roles.
In part due to the rise of new religious movements, Victorians were quite preoccupied with moral improvement. In Act 1, Part 1, Algernon makes a broad statement about the moral character of the working class:
Algernon: Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
This statement is highly hypocritical—Algernon, despite his aristocratic upbringing, is a dishonest and wasteful individual.
Wilde also satirizes religion as a whole through his depictions of baptism. In the Anglican Church, baptism, or christening, is a holy sacrament, but Miss Prism regards it as an unfortunate chore that Dr. Chasuble must perform, while Jack and Algernon arrange to be baptized to appease the frivolous ideals of their lovers. In Act 3, Part 1, Lady Bracknell outright dismisses baptism as a reckless extravagance:
Lady Bracknell: Algernon, I forbid you to be baptised. I will not hear of such excesses. Lord Bracknell would be highly displeased if he learned that that was the way in which you wasted your time and money.
[...]
Jack: I don't think that, as things are now, [christening] would be of much practical value to either of us, Dr. Chasuble.
Chasuble: I am grieved to hear such sentiments from you, Mr. Worthing. They savour of the heretical views of the Anabaptists, views that I have completely refuted in four of my unpublished sermons.
This passage also highlights Dr. Chasuble, who proudly admits earlier in the play to preaching the same sermon for every occasion, as an ineffectual artifact of the Church of England. He has strong opinions on other religious movements (like the Anabaptists, who did not regard baptism as a sacrament and rejected infant baptism), but he has never published them.
The Importance of Being Earnest also treats Victorian politics as a rather trivial matter. In Act 1, Part 2, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about his political affiliation:
Lady Bracknell: What are your politics?
Jack: Well, I'm afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.
Lady Bracknell: Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the evening, at any rate.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a faction that broke away from the main Liberal Party in 1886 and established an alliance with the Conservative Party to oppose Irish Home Rule. Oscar Wilde's mother was a prominent Irish Nationalist, and he himself was a strong believer in the cause. In this passage, he satirizes what he views as a betrayal of Liberal values—being a Liberal Unionist, he claims, is the same as having no politics at all. Lady Bracknell even considers Liberal Unionists to be essentially the same as Tories, at least during dinner party discussions of politics.
Finally, The Importance of Being Earnest lampoons the Victorian notion that men and women should occupy "separate spheres" in society. In Act 2, Part 2, Gwendolen states her belief that men are more suited to domestic life:
Gwendolen: The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties, he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?
The play features a notable absence of patriarchs—General Moncrieff and Thomas Cardew are both deceased, while Lord Bracknell is mentioned only in passing. As a result, it is female characters like Lady Bracknell who command the social sphere.
