How Does Wilde Use The Conventions Of Comedy

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To what extent does Wilde use the conventions of comedy to offer a powerful critique of Victorian society? In my opinion, in his famous play 'The Importance of Being Earnest', Wilde uses the conventions of comedy to a great extent in order to offer a critique of Victorian society. It is not a secret that people enjoy laughing, laugh allows people to be more open to hear and perceive new ideas and different views. Thus, Wilde uses the genre of comedy to approach the audience more easily and to explore and judge conventions of society. During the play, Wilde criticizes several elements of Victorian society; the aristocratic upper class, marriage and the genders role within it. Each element is being analyzed in its turn, sharply, intelligently and with a lot of great humor. Despite being a member of it, Wilde does not seem to be very fond of…show more content…
He portrays the aristocrats as liars, shallow and arrogant people. A class that does nothing but work to keep the status quo, its position in society and its wealth. The characters which belong to the upper class lie relentlessly. For instance, Algernon invents about a sick friend "Bunbury", who he has to visit, in order to avoid the social events that he finds boring, especially the events his aunt, Lady Bracknell, often hosts. Jack, Algernon's good friend, invents fictional young wicked brother "Earnest", in order to visit London when he feels the countryside become too boring for him. Everybody lies to everybody. Lying is a convention in the upper class to the effect that it is not even clear if people believe in the lies or are merely 'playing the social game '. When Algernon suggests Jack to tell the truth about Earnest to his love, Gwendolen, his answers that "the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl". Thus, answer reveals the real essence of the upper class view of the truth, it is not better than the lie, and
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