Oscar Wilde Constanly Mocks Victorian Society Essay

Act threesome offers intellectual resolution to the jobs of identity and unification that campaign much of the humor in the earlier acts. Wilde continues to mock the fond customs and poses of the soft class. He relentlessly attacks their values, views on labor union and respectability, sexual berths, and concern for stability in the social structure. Wilde attacks social behavior with the law of continuation of speeches by his characters that atomic number 18 the opposite of their actions. term Cecily and Gwendolen agree to keep a honour silence, Gwendolen actu e realy states that they will not be the first ones to speak to the men.In the actually next line she says, Mr. Worthing, I rich somebody something very dispelicular to ask you. Wilde calculates to be expression that people speak as if they redeem strong opinions, alone their actions do not support their words. If actions authentically do speak louder than words, Wilde has made his point Society, literal ly, speaks volumes, exclusively the words ar meaningless. Wilde continues his criticism of edicts valuing style over mall when Gwendolen says, In matters of grave importance, style, not serious-mindedness is the vital thing. doll Bracknell discusses Algernons marri geezerhood assets in the same light. She says, Algernon is an extremely, I may closely say an ostentatiously, eligible younker military personnel. He has nothing, tho he looks perpetuallyything. What more sewer one desire?Indeed, in a society where looks are everything and contentedness is discounted, Algernon is the perfect husband. What else do aristocrats value? They seem to esteem the surfaceance of respectability. Respectability heart and soul children are natural within the place setting of spousal relationship. Wilde once again mocks the hypocrisy of the aristocrats who appear to value monogamy but shit not to notice affairs. mariners speech to Miss optical prism, whom he believes to be his m n ew(prenominal), is humorous in some(prenominal) its angry defense of marriage and also its vexatious of the loudly touted religious reformers virtues of repentance and forgiveness.He says to Miss Prism, widowed I do not disown that is a serious blow. M different, I forgive you. His words are all the more humorous when Miss Prism indignantly denies cosmos his m some other. It was not at all unusual for aristocrats to go through children born out of wedlock, but society moody its head, pretended not to spang closely those children, and did not condemn their breeds. The gulf among the upper class and its servants is explored in the scenes with Merriman and Prism. When wench Bracknell unexpectedly shows up at jack ups, Merriman coughs discretely to warn the couples of her arrival. One can only(prenominal) imagine his humorous thoughts as he watches the wealthy tiptoe around for each one other and argue active what should be important.When bird Bracknell hears the desc ription of Prism and recognizes her as their former nanny, she calls for Miss Prism by shouting Prism without victimisation a title in front of her predict. Imperiously, noblewoman Bracknell divides the servant from the lady of the manor. Wildes auditory sense would recognize this behavior on the part of the servants and the upper class. The stuffy class distinctions delineate the society in which they lived. In an age of social registers, Lady Bracknell laments that notwithstanding the salute Guides have errors. In the next breath, she discusses bribing Gwendolens maid to find out what is disaster in her daughters life-time.In Act III she also reveals that her juicy brothers family entrusted their most cherished possession jack to a adult female who is more evoke in her cup of tea and manuscript than in what happens to the baby in her charge. Wilde seems to be questioning the values of a society that believes in social registers, hires other people to neglectfully w atch its children, and uses transplant to keep track of the children who are not missing. The death of Bunbury gives Wilde the opportunity to speak of blue(a) fears and have some continued swordplay with the upper classs deprivation of compassion about death.The 1885 Trafalgar shape riots brought on ruling-class fears of insurrection, anarchism and socialism. Wilde humorously touches on these fears when he allows Algernon to explain the explosion of Bunbury. Lady Bracknell, fearing the worst, exclaims, Was he the victim of a revolutionary appal? I was not aware that Mr. Bunbury was interested in social legislation. If so, he is healthy punished for his morbidity. Evidently, to Lady Bracknells acquaintances, laws that nurse the welfare of those less fortunate are strictly morbid subjects. In fact, this attitude seems to contradict the upper-class concern for reform.However, in reality, Wilde is confirming the upper-class definition of social reform conforming to the status qu o. In Act III Wilde makes a gab on the value of be lesbian with a veiled reference to Lady Lancing. When Lady Bracknell asserts that Cecily needs to have a more sophisticated hairstyle, she recommends a exhaustively experienced cut maid who can make a great negociate of vary in a very short time. She explains that such a change happened to an acquaintance of hers, Lady Lancing, and that after three months her own husband did not k straight her. maw uses the opportunity to make a pun on the word know, using it in an aside a point out only the audience can hear. pitch interprets know to mean they no time-consuming had sex, insinuating Lady Lancings preference for the French maid. He says, And after six months zip knew her, indicating that the homosexual experience made a new woman of her. Although homosexuality would have been seen as immoral to Wildes audience, Jack indicates that existence homosexual superpower be a good thing almost as a social description directl y to the audience. It seems a double life is necessary after one is married, whether it be bunburying or the homosexual life Wilde was experiencing in an increasingly public way.Wilde continues his assault on family life in Act III by mentioning its strange qualities in some(prenominal) conversations. It appears rather strange, for example, that Lady Bracknell cannot even pull in ones horns the Christian name of her brother-in-law, Algys father. Algernons father died before Algernon was one, so noncitizen yet is Algernons comment, We were never even on speaking terms. He gives that as the reason he cannot remember his fathers name. Further assaulting family life, Wilde has Lady Bracknell mark Lord Moncrieff as eccentric but excuses his behavior because it was the result of the Indian climate, and marriage, and indigestions, and other things of that attractive. Marriage is lumped to compressher with things such as indigestion.In explaining Lord Moncrieffs marriage, Lady Bracknel l says that he was essentially a man of peace, except in his national life. Her description invites suspicion that the local constabulary might have visited because of domestic disturbances. Family life and domestic walking on air do not get high marks in Wildes estimation. When Miss Prism humorously resolves the problem of Jacks lineage, Wilde takes his hero of unbeknown(predicate) origins and paints him as the aristocrat who will now be assimilated into his rightful place in the social structure.Through the sad melodrama of Jacks handbag parentage, Wilde exaggerates the twee clich of the short foundling who makes good. As soon as Jack is known to be a member of the established aristocracy, a Moncrieff in fact, he is seen as an appropriate person for Gwendolen to marry. They will, according to Wilde, live happily ever after in wedded bliss and continue the aristocratic blindness to anything that truly matters. The tag line of the play, spoken by Jack, is a familiar convention in Victorian farces. In discovering that he has been notification the truth all along his name is Ernest, and he has a brother Jack makes fun of the Victorian virtues of sincerity and satinpod and asks Gwendolen to forgive him for speaking nothing but the truth.He now realizes the importance of being the person he is supposed to be. Wilde is saying perhaps that a new kind of earnestness exists, one that is different from the virtues extolled by the Victorians. Maybe it is possible to be direct and understand what should be taken sternly in life rather than being deceptive, hypocritical, and superficial. Some readers believe, however, that the ending shows Jack derisorily redefining Victorian earnestness as however the opposite a life of lies, delight and beauty. Critics debate the interpretation of the last line. A curious stage direction occurs in Act III, revealing the concern Wilde had for the present of his play to compliment his ideas.As his couples rise together and m ove apart, he emphasizes the stage dancing of the pairs. He has them speak in unanimity, both the women together and the men together. It matters not who they are they are interchange subject. Marriage is simply an psychiatric hospital that is a gesture, like a christening. The unison speaking is very stylistic, not meant to be realistic at all. It reveals Wildes attitude that what is important in Victorian marriage name really should not be as important as other considerations.In the end, Wilde leaves his audience thinking about the trivial social conventions they deem important. Their Victorian virtues perhaps need redefining. Institutions such as marriage, religion, family values and money should perhaps have new interpretations. The character of people, rather than their names and family fortunes, should weigh most heavily when considering their worth. Wilde was able to use humor to skewer these attitudes and urge his audience about the importance of being earnest.