The Importance of being Earnest Essay

In his play, “The important of being Ernest” Oscar Wilde uses irony, hyperbole and understatement to show a cynical and humorous outlook on the Victorian society. The first act gives this play a foundation to let the proceeding acts build on to finish the punch line at the end of the play.            

            In the first act Wilde implies this cynical theme by using both the verbal and dramatic irony of the character Ernest throughout the entire play, whether it be Jack or Algernon using this name. In this act Wilde also uses the emotions of the female characters to show an exaggeration of the joy and feelings that they’ve shown towards each other. This was shown in the quote “You’re quite perfect, Mrs. Fairfax,” that Jack exclaims towards his love interest, Gwendolyn. Even though this is exaggerated Wilde also put some understatements in this act as well. This is shown in the quote “I am a little anxious for Bunbury, that is all,“ this quote gives an understatement that he is not very anxious at all to see his “brother” Bunbury, but in fact he is happy just not to get out of this town and away from his aunt.

            The second act possesses these figurative elements as well, though the irony carries over from act to act. This is because of the lie that both Algernon and Jack continue to up hold. The Hyperbole within the second act is given by Cecily when chatting with Algernon about all of the letters that “he” wrote to her. An understatement that Wilde puts into this act is the understatement of how much Cecily loves Ernest.

            The third Act is the concluding act and holds the ironic punch-line that Jack is actually named Ernest. This gives the play a good cohesive ending that gives the reader or audience a good life.

            The play as a whole uses all of this language to show how the Victorian Society specifically how picky and conceded they can be when a name is just on the line. Even though the girls found out that their lovers had different names than Ernest they had not accepted them until the end. Thus proving how superficial people of this time period could be.