... Jack's alter ego in the town and his "greedy wicked brother who live in town" when he is in the country. The plays and mostly revolves around this theme of deception to oneself and to others. Running throughout the entire play is the double meaning behind the word earnest, which functions both as a their name and in the grammar sense. This is shown as the men in the story trying to make ... themselves believe they are earnest and others believe they are "Ernest." I believe Wilde like to touch upon the topic of being someone else. For ... sleeve, so to speak, who are rewarded with love,...

• Word Count: 1280
• Approx Pages: 5

Wilde's genre of choice for The Importance of Being Earnest is the Victorian melodrama, or "sentimental comedy," derived from the French variety of "well-made play". In the Victorian era, wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants. In The Importance of Being Earnest, however, this is not always the case, as gender role reversal is a common theme throughout the play, which ... naturally leads to comedy, as during the Victorian Era in the Aristocratic part of society, gender roles were very firmly set, so ...

• Word Count: 2043
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate