Student Question
How do "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Importance of Being Earnest" use humor for social commentary differently due to their formats?
Quick answer:
Comparing Pride and Prejudice and The Importance of Being Earnest is a fruitful exercise. Both are comedies, and both use humor, especially irony, to reinforce their themes. Contrasting them, Wilde's play tends to remain at the surface level, while Austen's novel has a more complex and nuanced understanding of its characters. Wilde mostly wants to make his audience laugh, while Austen wants them to both laugh and think.
While nearly a century separates these two great works of English literature, both use humor extensively, and both offer up a gentle satire of English culture and manners. One of the main devices both writers use is irony. In Austen, it's evident from the very first line of the novel, an oft quoted line that contains many layers. There is irony in Wilde too, as even the title contains a play on the word earnest. Both authors are also interested in surfaces, appearances, and first impressions, which was the original title of Pride and Prejudice. Austen's two main characters, Elizabeth and Darcy, initially misread each other and operate on those assumptions until they realize how much they value each other. Wickham, by contrast, is superficially charming, but he turns out to be cad, running away with Elizabeth's gullible young sister Lydia. In Earnest , the character Jack is...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
leading a double life, assuming the character of "Ernest" when he is in the city.
Austen and Wilde both gently satirize the conventions of the society that they are writing about. Both see people obeying arbitrary rules, sometimes going to absurd lengths to appear what they consider "respectable." Elizabeth and her sisters aren't terribly well off, which is what initially turns Darcy off, while Jack has to invent a character so he can maintain a conventional front.
The differences between the two authors is a matter of degree. Wilde, famously, denied his art had any point and adopted an archly witty dandy persona, which informed much of his work. He subtitled Earnest "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," which makes it harder to take seriously. His satire, even if he sees society as ridiculous in certain aspects, is glib and superficial, which seems to be intentional. Austen's humor is not laugh out loud funny, but she goes deeper into her characters. Her comedy goes to the nature of what it means to be a woman of little means in a very masculine, very money-driven society. Since Wilde's work is a play, it is often reinterpreted when it is performed, which is frequent as it remains popular.