23. Write an essay where you explain how Oscar Wilde uses symbolism and irony to make his

play a satire. Think about what message he is trying to convey about Victorian sensibilities and

how he uses food as a symbol and irony in the title and throughout the play to get this message

across. (Victorian sensibilities focused on: marriage, the upper vs. lower class, traditional

literature, obsession with manners, aesthetics, leisure, and pleasure) Include an introduction

paragraph that ends in a thesis, 2 body paragraphs and a conclusion paragraph.

The importance of being earnest by Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule the cultural norms of marriage love and mind-set which were very rigid during the Victorian Age. Because it uses satire to ridicule these instituitions, it shows the deviance from the social order by making ridiculous the ideas of standards, morals and manners. By trying to correct the flaws of the characters in this play, this piece also serves as a great form of critiscim. "The play really owes something to the restoration comic tradition."

Wilde was a master at the art of turning the English language around to fit his sarcastic themes and in this play he accomplished that to a high level. The title of this piece is even a play-on-word "Earnest" which can mean two different things. It can mean the obvious and be the actual characters name, but it also can mean a sense of seriousness and he then conveys that seriousness into reality for the characters. The two main characters in the play, Jack and Algernon, made every effort to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play. They start their relationship based on the lies in the hope of marrying the girls that they love. There is irony in the play when they both call themselves "Earnest", a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a 'scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack,