how does it reflect on society?
The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love
The Importance of Being Earnest
The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular.
theme of the importance of being earnest by oscar wilde Triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. is it a play? Yes
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The Importance of Being Earnest [SEP] As a satire of society
The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular. In Victorian times "earnestness" was considered to be the over-riding societal value, originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes, it spread to the upper ones too throughout the century. The play's very title, with its mocking paradox (serious people are so because they do "not" see trivial comedies), introduces the theme, it continues in the drawing room discussion, "Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them," says Algernon in Act 1; allusions are quick and from multiple angles.