BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature
Guides
Criticism & Essays Criticism &
Essays
Questions & Answers Questions &
Answers
Lesson Plans Lesson
Plans
My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help


The Importance of Being Earnest Study Guide

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
by Oscar Wilde
About 41 pages (12,316 words)
The Importance of Being Earnest Summary

Bookmark and Share Know this work well? Help others and get FREE products!

Themes

Morals and Morality

Much of The Importance of Being Earnesfs comedy stems from the ways various characters flaunt the moral strictures of the day, without ever behaving beyond the pale of acceptable society. The use of the social lie is pervasive, sometimes carried to great lengths as when Algernon goes "Bunburying" or Jack invents his rakish brother Earnest so that he may escape to the city. Another example is Miss Prism's sudden headache when the opportunity to go walking (and possibly indulge in some form of sexual activity) with Canon Chasuble presents itself.

Love and Passion

One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Wilde carries parody of romantic love.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 504 words. This study guide contains 12,316 words (approx. 41 pages at 300 words per page).

Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The Importance of Being Earnest Access Pass.

Ask any question on The Importance of Being Earnest and get it answered FAST!
Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward
discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products!
Learn more about BookRags Q&A
Copyrights
The Importance of Being Earnest from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.



Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags


About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy