Satire and Irony
The Importance of Being Earnest is an Oscar Wilde’s outstanding comedy. The name of the comedy is a pun – the word Earnest is consonant with the name Ernest, which has the semantic meaning of a serious, noble, and honest, which represents the two heroes of the play. At the same time, they are not any earnest people, and the work belongs to a group of high-profile comedies written by Wilde for the sake of philistine tastes. The action and characters in them faded into the background before the development of dialogue. The main event of the play is the matchmaking of two egoists Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, to two girls. The plot is filled with farcical and melodramatic elements – for example, both heroes, in order to please their chosen ones, impersonate a certain Ernest but find themselves exposed. In the final, it turns out that John and Algernon are siblings, moreover, one of them is actually called Ernest. The given analysis paper will primarily focus on the author’s approach to marriage and the overall style, where he uses satire and irony in order to express his attitude towards marriage.
Humor and Satire
Humor is the most life-affirming and complex form of the comic in terms of its shades. It expresses serious with a grin; in the insignificant and even insignificant, the important and the deep are always visible. Humorous laughter only emphasizes the imperfection of the reflected life phenomenon. Satire is the most merciless ridicule of the imperfection of the world and human vices kind of comic. It leaves no hope for the correction of criticized life phenomena (Ezell 29). It is characterized by emphasized bias, a deliberate sharpening of life problems, a bold violation of the proportions in the depicted phenomena. The most characteristic feature of humor – sympathy for the fact that he ridicules – is a complete denial of the essence of satire. Therefore, the author’s attitude towards marriage is manifested in the fact that he uses satire as a way of delivering the message.
Irony and Paradox
Wilde uses the technique of paradox when addressing the themes of love and marriage, for example, creating a mismatch between the decency of the utterance and the immoral attitude to his subject. Evidently, most witty remarks in his plays are paradoxes, which creates the impression of the absurdity of what is happening in them. A characteristic type of Wilde paradox is the introduction of an unexpected contradiction into a traditionally acceptable context or the playing out of famous expressions. For example, Algernon, in the play, states: “Divorces are made in heaven” (Wilde 8). Almost all of Wilde’s heroes, in one way or another, contradict themselves in their statements and actions, as a result of which it becomes impossible to take them seriously, the heroes seem superficial. Turning to the topic of marriage, Oscar Wilde uses irony to demonstrate the differences between the current state of things and how things could or should have worked out. The author uses this as an ironic characterization of the characters.
Wilde’s plays are filled with ironic situations, and the plot of the play is completely based on them. Algernon Moncrief and Jack Worthing are deceiving their lovers, one – inventing a nonexistent relative, the other – posing as Ernest. At the end of the play, it turns out that they have been telling the truth, the whole truth, all their lives (Wilde 59). Oscar Wilde often uses dramatic irony or ironic situations, giving the reader knowledge that is inaccessible to the heroes of their works. The omniscient narrator technique helps the author inspire the reader with his point of view regarding a particular heroine, especially when it comes to issues of love and marriage.
Caricature
The caricature of secondary characters is another one of the common features of their works. Such characters are the most inconspicuous, and they are not able to capture the course of events and are surprised at the obvious incidents. In the works of Oscar Wilde, the image of certain social strata prevails, whose representatives are typified and ridiculed. Oscar Wilde basically directs his satire to a higher aristocracy, and satire is largely attached to the scene. Home lunches, picnics, meetings over tea – in such an environment, the heroes of Oscar Wilde follow social conventions and, at the same time, demonstrate their true nature.
It is important to note that the ending of the work is as ambiguous as the work itself. Oscar Wilde’s happy endings are often the result of fraud, and the latter casts doubt on their positive assessment. The similarity of methods in creating Oscar Wilde’s marriage satire does not overshadow the differences in the writers’ attitude to marriage as such. Oscar Wilde is more radical in criticizing marriage since he is inclined to completely deny some social structures. His characters are not able to become an organic part of society even after marriage.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is critical to understand the fact that Oscar Wilde uses satire as a way of expressing his views on marriage. There are major differences between simple humor and satire, where the latter is intended to be confrontational to the norms. In addition, the author uses irony to further illustrate the overall paradoxical nature of the characters. The caricature is another important aspect of the work, where aristocratic elites are represented in most typical fashion.
Works Cited
Ezell, Silas K. Humor and Satire on Contemporary Television: Animation and the American Joke. Routledge, 2016.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Dover Publications, 1990.