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In The Importance of Being Earnest, how does Wilde mock religion and education?
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Oscar Wilde mocks religion and education in "The Importance of Being Earnest" through absurdity and satire. Lady Bracknell trivializes education, praising "natural ignorance" and criticizing modern education as ineffective. Miss Prism, a governess, embodies educational incompetence and hypocrisy. For religion, Dr. Chasuble's adaptable sermons and his trivial handling of christenings highlight religious superficiality. His romantic entanglement with Miss Prism further mocks religious seriousness. Wilde uses these characters to critique societal norms and values.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes society's most important institutions by trivializing them. Education and religion are spoofed in the play.
Lady Bracknell's interview with Jack is a good example of how education is mocked. She states that a man who wants to marry should know either nothing or everything. This statement in itself is absurd. She then asks Jack which extreme applies to him, and he admits he knows nothing. She is happy with that answer and goes on to sing the praises of "natural ignorance," calling it a "delicate exotic flower" that shouldn't be touched. With such views, she certainly has no grounds on which to pass judgment on the educational system, but that doesn't stop her. She continues:
The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would...
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prove a serious danger to the upper classes.
Another character Wilde uses to make fun of education is Miss Prism, Cecily's governess. The woman is supremely inept since she lost Jack when he was a child by placing him in a handbag and her three-volume novel in the baby carriage. She displays hypocrisy when she commands Cecily to put away her diary, focus on dry subjects like German grammar and Political Economy (skipping the "somewhat too sensational" chapter on the "Fall of the Rupee"), and be attentive when she herself was so focused on her sensational novel that she misplaced a baby.
Dr. Chasuble is the character whom Wilde primarily uses to satirize religion. When he first appears, he makes an awkward remark about hanging on Miss Prism's lips, after which he makes an allusion "drawn from the Pagan authors" rather than quoting the Bible. When Jack returns to announce the untimely "death" of his brother, Ernest, Dr. Chasuble offers to adapt his Sunday sermon to acknowledge Jack's loss. He describes how he has been able to adapt this particular sermon multiple ways, which is a jab at how ministers preach the same thing too often.
The matter of the christenings is another way Wilde mocks religion. Although a christening should be a serious religious occasion, it is treated flippantly. Miss Prism acts as a foil to Dr. Chasuble in moral matters. The audience can depend on her to say something uncharitable, such as when she says, "As a man sows, so shall he reap" upon hearing of Ernest's death. That Dr. Chasuble is in love with her and embraces her at the end is another jab at religion. Even the reverend lets his romantic infatuation blind him to his loved one's faults.