When you become engaged to someone, I or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the act. Lady Bracknell states that “Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone.

She is horrified and holds the position that it is not up to Gwendolen to make plans for her marriage and certainly not with a man of a lower class ranking. The values of Victorian society are evident in Lady Bracknell’s reaction to Gwendolen’s engagement. Wilde uses satire to depict the nature of the society that was mainly based on patriarchy system where men dominated by holding positions of power.

In this sense, Wilde has satirized marriage by showing how the people in courtship, or seeking to approve the courtship, considers it as a mere social adventure as opposed to loving union. She does not give attention as to whether Jack cared genuinely cared for her. In the process of seeking to establish the suitability of Jack to marry Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell, focuses on asking about his income, politics, and his land ownership status. It is due to this reason that Jack and Algernon change their name to Earnest. On her part, Cecily stated that “You must not laugh at me darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Earnest” (Wilde 288).

There is something that name that inspires absolute confidence” (Wilde, 263. Gwendolen indicated that “I am told my ideal has always been to love someone of the name Earnest. To these ladies, nothing else matters, other than having the man with the name Earnest. However, to these girls, the only prerequisite that matters for them to engage in marriage is the name Earnest. He provides a satirical view on marriage by using the girls, Gwendolen and Cecily, who are in courtship with Jack and Algernon, respectively. In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde uses satire to speak about the various social institutions, among them, the marriage. In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde uses satire to bring out the issue of courtship or gendered power. As a satirical comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest makes ridicule of various deviations from the social norms and on those who appear to violate the standards of the norm.

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is an example of satirical comedy where Oscar Wilde utilized satire for ridiculing various aspects in the society such as marriage and love.

The importance of being earnest story