In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray we see certain themes and similarities that reflect Wilde’s ideas about society and aspects of it. Oscar Wilde chose to focusThe Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray on satirizing the life of the aristocracy, marriage, the nature of evil, and theproblems of women by using underlying themes and implementing aconvoluting style in the stories. The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, allows areader to see the ridiculousness of the aristocracy; particularly the Englishone. His characters are typical Victorian snobs; they are arrogant, overlyproper, formal, and concerned with money. Lady Bracknell especiallyembodies the stereotype of the Victorian English aristocrat. An example ofthis is seen when she forbids her daughter to marry to Ernest(Jack) , whomshe does not think is suitable because of his ambiguous background. Awoman who is foolish enough to stop her daughter from marrying her lovebecause she does not approve of his background is too superficial. LadyBracknell constantly behaves in such an incorrect manner throughout thenovel. She speaks of how good she is and how her family is this and that andnever seems to respect anyone who she does not think is of her stature orworth. According to Bracknell “Never speak disrespectfully of society”because “only people who can’t get into it do that.”(Pg 98, Act III) Wilde’sdistaste of aristocracy can be seen directly in this play.Even the characters who are supposed to be good natured are utterlyridiculous in the way they behave as a result of being in the elite class. Gwendolen, the daughter of Lady Bracknell and the woman who is in lovewith Jack, agrees with Cecily that even though Algernon lied about beingnamed Ernest his response to why he did it was good because it was stylishand it did not matte...
