Oscar Wilde 2

Oscar Wilde's Magnum Opus, "The Importance of Being Earnest," is a perfect example of social satire. Wilde's play focuses on wealthy and pompous Londoners and the relationships between them while criticizing, in my opinion, arrogance of wealthy Victorian lives. The incredibly rigid class distinctions between the wealthy aristocracy and the lower classes is shown in the statement by Algernon: "If the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?" (Wilde 849). This line shows two aspects of the mind set of the wealthy Victorian the statement belongs to, one being that the aristocracy, according to Wilde, are more like irresponsible children while the lower classes have to be mature and adult like and that the aristocracy have great contempt for the lower classes and that the aristocracy fails to perceive of them as anything but useless. Perhaps I am reading too much into a single statement, but this is merely my interpretation of context. The importance of being Earnest is a play and as such I am of the opinion that it seen and heard, rather than read like a book. When it comes to inventive and humorously witty dialog, there are none who surpass the creativity of Wilde. As such, the I believe the wittiness and the comedy of the satire has a tendency to distract viewers or readers of the underlying issues Wilde is attempting to point out. I believe Wilde was attempting to show the inadequacy, pompousness, and foolishness of the wealthy who controlled Victorian culture and that, much like in Ibsen's own writings, the relationships people have between each other should be founded on much more than the simple whims and meaningless aspects which were deemed by popularity to be supremely important.