Wearing the Mask of Earnestness: Exploring the Artificial Life in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

Abstract

This paper attempts to present how reality and fiction are intersected in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest to challenge, if not subvert, social obligations, as well as perception of identity in the Victorian society. In so doing, the paper critically attempts to touch upon the concepts of duality and appearance as they possess the utmost importance for the Victorian sense of morality. The paper also strives to show how Wilde undermines the basis of the truthful representation of gender identity as opposed to the Victorian perception of the term. In the play, as the paper argues, Wilde hints the idea that there is a difference if we can call it a duality of identity between the appearance and what is hidden beneath. In the case of the fictional characters, they wear fake identities or imagine a view of identity to suit the expectations of the public, challenging the perception of stable autonomous identity that the Victorian believed. However, the inner and outer worlds of the characters are quite different inside and outside so that they also vacillate in-between these identities. The paper concludes that as Wilde hints, it is not possible to define a person fully when they display various identities at the same as in the modern sense.

Keywords

• Duality,
• Apperance
• Gender
• identity
• the Victorian Society

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