... sincere and studied triviality." Oscar Wilde1 While it is possible to declare Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of being Earnest" as pure nonsense with the only aim to entertain, a closer look reveals its sobriety. Oscar Wilde wrote a comedy of manners, mistaken identity and social conventions.2 The story is set in the English society of the 1890's, the society against whose aristocracy, artificiality and clinging to social standards this play is aimed at ... realizing that they are laughing at their own values and conventions. Words: 1557 Bibliography M. H. Abrams A Glossary of Litera...

• Word Count: 1589
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... humour masks its social satire. There is much verbal wit in The Importance of Being Earnest - Algernon to servant, 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' (Act 1, page 2) In the final act of The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack Worthing says of Miss Prism (who he mistakenly believes to be his long-lost and ... 1, Scene 1, page 6). Though The School for Scandal focuses on the elite (work being an anathema to the world of Society), much like Wilde's The Importanc...

• Word Count: 1627
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School