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VARENDRA UNIVERSITY
Promise of Quality and Perfection

ENGL: 102

Assignment on Final Examination Drama

Submitted By, Submitted To,

S. M. Ishmam Alam
Name: Md. Shariful Islam
ID : 201011145 Lecturer

Section: D Department of English

Semester : 3rd Varendra University, Rajshahi

Batch : 23rd
Course Title: Introduction of Literature: Drama
Course Code : ENGL- 102
Department Of English
Varendra University, Rajshahi.
 The Hypocrisy of Victorian Age

Through this play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde conveys the mentality of the upper
class society of the Victorian age, through selfishness, ignorance and laziness. Moreover, the
thinking of the upper class and lower class people of the Victorian era has presented the
differences between humanity through satire of different characters and humor. Through all
these, the author has shown his hatred towards the socialism and humanity and hypocrisy of
the Victorian age.
Among the notable characters we see in this play by Oscar Wilde are Jack, who claims to be
Ernest, Algernon, who later reveals himself as Ernest, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, cecily, or Miss
Prism. They are each very careful to evaluate their own interests and preferences.
Each of them is hiding their identity or lying for their own sake. Everyone seems to be wearing
masks. There is a lot of difference between their real character and appearance. They are
making and changing any decision at any time for their own interests. Jack, in his country,
always says that he has a brother named Ernest in town who he worries a lot because he has a
bad character, but he doesn't have a brother, even when he comes to town and introduces
himself as Ernest. Thus he carries double identity. He does not hesitate to kill his own imaginary
brother in the end for his own sake. He even goes home wearing a black dress to convince his
family members.
Algernon, on the other hand, whenever he has a responsibility or duty on his shoulders, he has
a friend named Bunbury in the village and on his pretext he wants to skip all those
responsibilities. Knowing that Sicily calls Jack as uncle, Although Algernon goes to their home to
propose Sicily because Sicily is a young beautiful girl and they have a lot of wealth.
We see that, even though both Algernon and Jack are considered as upper class men, both have
a very hard time paying back creditors. Algernon does not pay because he is obviously an over-
spending dandy. Jack is too, but his overspending is done as his ego.
Miss Prism thinks and always says that she is very sincere and wise but she herself loses Jack at
the station for her stupidity. Lady Bracknell, on the other hand, refuses to hand over her
daughter to Jack when she finds out that Jack has no lineage, even though she refuses to marry
Cecily to her sister's son. But when she finds out that Cecily is the daughter of a famous rich
man and Jack is the son of her own sister, she agrees.
In this way, hypocrisy is manifested in each of the characters, and through these characters and
events Wilde expresses his resentment towards the humanity of the Victorian people and their
social values.