Illustration of Jack Worthing in a top hat and formal attire, and a concerned expression on his face

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

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How is The Importance of Being Earnest a melodrama?

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"The Importance of Being Earnest" is a melodrama due to its exaggerated characters and plot, satirizing Victorian society. Characters like Lady Bracknell and Algernon embody Victorian stereotypes, emphasizing social status and leisure. The play's convoluted plot, including Jack and Algernon's double lives and the coincidental resolution, follows melodramatic conventions. Wilde's use of melodrama highlights societal absurdities while providing humor, making it a critical yet entertaining examination of Victorian norms.

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The literary definition of melodrama includes exaggerated emotions and characters that are so stereotypical that they border on comical.

As the other post states, many of the characters represent Victorian-era archetypes. Gwendolen is the dignified young lady while Lady Bracknell is the stodgy, snooty noblewoman whose expectations for behavior are impossible for others to always meet. Cecily is the precocious, innocent girl who is obsessed with romance.

Each of these examples and more are typical of a melodrama. In addition, the ridiculous, intertwined plotlines of the story closely follow the pattern of a melodrama. Both Jack/Ernest and Algernon/Bunbury lead double lives, which they use to woo their romantic interests—both of whom are impossibly oblivious to the intricate lies the men tell them. The tidy resolution at the end of the play that relies on coincidence (Jack’s actual birth name is Ernest, after all) is also typical of a melodrama.

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Wilde’s use of the tenets of melodrama make this play an enjoyable, often humorous examination of Victorian social norms.

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The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a melodrama because the characters and events are exaggerated. The exaggeration, as well as being satirical and critical of Victorian society, is also very humorous.

In Victorian society, people were interested in social status, fashion, and leisure activities. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are extremely dedicated to their pursuit of fashion and leisure activities and place exaggerated emphasis on social status.

Algernon is an example of a melodramatic character, because he works so hard to have an enjoyable life and maintain his status in society that he has created a fake sick friend to pretend to be visiting when he is actually out for dinner. Algernon's fake friend is called Bunbury, and when Algernon wants to go out to the club, he tells his aunt he is visiting his friend Bunbury. Algernon even has a name for this practice of lying to cover up a slightly unsavoury activity: he calls it "Bunburying." Most likely, Victorian men lied to cover up their secret activities, but they were probably not as forthright with it as Algernon and his Bunburying.

Algernon's aunt, Lady Bracknell, is another melodramatic, exaggerated character. She is extremely critical of everything. When Jack falls in love with Gwendolen and wants to marry her, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen's mother, has a list of questions he must answer.

Of course it was common in Victorian times for parents to select their daughters' husbands very carefully, but Lady Bracknell's criteria are very exaggerated and critical of some aspects of Victorian society. For example, she wants her daughter to marry a man who has enough money that he does not feel the need to work. When she asks Jack if he smokes, it is because "A man should always have an occupation of some kind." Smoking as an occupation indicates that the man is very rich. He can afford to do nothing all day but sit around smoking expensive cigars.

When they discuss Jack's property, Lady Bracknell is not pleased to hear that his house in the city is number 49, because that places it on "the unfashionable side" of the street. Lady Bracknell is so concerned with fashion that she insists Jack's house be on the correct side of the street.

Lady Bracknell is also so concerned with aristocracy, or family background, that when she learns that Jack was found in a handbag in Victoria Station (Brighton line), she advises Jack "to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible," because being found in a handbag, according to Lady Bracknell, shows that he has no respect for family life. Victorians were certainly concerned with aristocracy and family lines, but the character of Lady Bracknell points out the absurdity of this preoccupation by advising Jack to "acquire some relations."

I hope this helps. Of course, you can find out more details on eNotes's study guide for The Importance of Being Earnest, here.

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Is The Importance of Being Earnest a sentimental comedy?

I really appreciate your question because sentimental comedy is a term I was not familiar with.  I happened upon an essay by Oliver Goldsmith (British playwright of Restoration Comedy fame) from 1773, in which he details the distinguishing elements of sentimental comedy:

[V]irtues of private life are exhibited, rather than vices exposed, and the distress rather than the faults of mankind make our interest in the piece.  In these plays almost all the characters are good, and exceedingly generous; they are lavish enough of their 'tin' money on the stage, and, though they want humor, have abundance of sentiment and feeling. If they happen to have faults or foibles, the spectator is taught not only to pardon, but to applaud them, in consideration of the goodness of their hearts; so that folly, instead of being ridiculed, is commended, and the comedy aims at touching our passions without the power of being truly pathetic.

I have included a link to the essay by Goldsmith, in which he goes on to compare the sentimental comedy with what he calls "laughing" or truly humorous comedies.

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