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Oscar Wilde


             In this day and age marriages are filled with an unprecedented amount of romance. Previously marriage was something to better one's social standing or to improve one's political connections. Never before have so many people chosen to marry because of the ridiculous notion of love. In the Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde shows a surprisingly late 20th century view of marriage. Marriage, as the couples in the book would have it, should be based entirely on love.
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             First one must understand what the social norm of the day was concerning marriage. This play premiered in 1895. Although it is true that marriage was slowly becoming more as it is today it still had a Middle Age feel to it. The reason for getting married is the main theory this paper deals with. In the early 20th century men and women got married for a variety of reasons. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia's marriage to Wickam was regarded as a scandal because they ran off to Scotland and eloped without telling anyone. Lydia's reason to marry is because she thinks it will be fun. People in the book treated it as something of unspeakable shame. However it is a marriage precisely like this one that is not only accepted but commonplace nowadays. Las Vegas is a place streaming with Lydias and Wickams. The reason that this marriage took place was very uncommon in those days. Another marriage was that of Lizzy to Darcy. This was also met with a good deal of resistance. People felt that because of their different social classes it was not fit that they should be wed. Alas, the loved each other and so it was. And that was their reason. Love. Another uncommon reason in the early 1900's but almost the only reason in the late. This is where Earnest comes in.
             There are two marriages in this play. Each shall be dealt with separately. First, Algernon and Cecily. They, of course, decide to marry be cause they love each other. These two, in fact, fall in love and become engaged before the even meet.


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