Topic > Ernest as a modernist in The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde is different from other modern playwrights, and that difference makes him distinctive as a modern writer. Not only the themes of his plays, but also his life shows his modernity, and he benefited from the modern flow in the British theater world in the 1800s. In one of his most famous plays, "The Importance of Being Earnest", he addresses the theme of modernity. Oscar Wilde satirizes his time through the characters' constant reference to modern life. The characteristics of modern society boil down to complexity, and the existence of Ernest and Bunbury reflects the response of individuals to such a society. Oscar Wilde's ultimate goal through this play is to suggest a solution for the new era. Wilde had used external masks to reveal further truths. Oscar Wilde expands the meaning of being serious to become a modernist, indicating the importance of abandoning one's mask and finding one's true self. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” The show begins with Jack, Mrs. Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen visiting the house of Algernon who lives in London. Jack lives under the name "Ernest" in London and his real name "Jack" in his hometown. Gwendolen dreams of falling in love with a man whose name is "Ernest" and actually falls in love with him. Algernon also acts as if his name is "Ernest", but Cecily, Jack's ward, falls in love with Algernon because of the name "Ernest". In this way, Jack, Gwendolen, Cecily and Algernon fall in love through the name "Ernest". At this time, Gwendolen's mother, Mrs. Bracknell, tries to find out whether Jack is suitable for Gwendolen. He soon discovers that Jack is an orphan found in a warehouse in a train station. As a result, he does not accept the marriage between Jack and Gwendolen because Jack's background does not fit with his aristocratic background. However, in Act III, Bracknell discovers that Jack is Moncrieff's son. Moncrieff is Bracknell's poor sister. In other words, Jack is Algernon's brother and Bracknell's nephew. Additionally, Jack is shown to be a true "Ernest" by the fact that he was christened with his father's name. Gwendolen was happy to marry the name she had dreamed of. All problems are solved. This play closes the curtain with Algernon and Cecily, Jack and Gwendolen embracing. What are modern literary works? There are several characteristics of modern literary pieces. The first is "Individualism", as mentioned above. In modern literature, writers have emphasized how individuals have adapted to rapidly changing society. In modern literature, individuals are emphasized more than society. Modern writers have presented society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. One of the best-known writers like Ernest Hemingway, who had written "The Old Man and the Sea", is known for vivid characters who arranged their circumstances at gratuitous value. The second is "Experimentation". Modern writers had refused to follow an old form of writing. In this era, we can find that there are many poems that broke the rule of traditional rhymes and mixed image writings. Authors James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, along with poets TS Eliot and Ezra Pound, are well known for their experimental modernist works. The third is "Absurdity". Many writers had died as a result of the First World War. At the same time, global capitalism was affecting society at all levels. Because of the wars, many people had lost their humanity. Modernist authors depicted this absurdity in their works. Thefourth is "symbolism". Modernist writers imbued objects, people, places, and events with significant meanings. Their particular use of symbols was an innovation. Using these symbols, they let readers imagine the writing. James Joyce's Ulysses is the best example of this. The last is "formalism", many of the writers saw literature more as a craft than as creativity. The belief in literature as a craft drove the modernists' desire for creativity and originality. The poet EE Cummings abandoned all structure and spread his words across the page. Ibsen and Strindberg were people who marked a watershed moment in dramatic history that began the era of modern drama. Ibsen developed realism in structure, changing the dominant frame of the well-crafted play structure. Strindberg contributed to the modernization of dramatic form by borrowing flexibly from realism. However, Oscar Wilde was an exception in terms of modern playwrights, at least when the standard of modernity in drama revolves around the influence of Ibsen and Strindberg. First of all because it represented the spirit of aestheticism whose creed is "art for art's sake", a perspective opposite to that of Ibsen and Strindberg. When other writers wrote only about tragic works, Wilde limited himself to comedy in most of his works, often showing a negative reaction to the general seriousness. Wilde's works are classified differently from realism works influenced by other writers in that Wilde exaggeratedly used the well-made theatrical form. Furthermore, he attempted to maintain thematic distance from Ibsen by showing his critical view on some of Ibsen's works. Modernity is the main theme in Wilde's writing. Experiencing an inevitable transformation as an individual and author at the hands of a rapidly changing society, Oscar Wilde's work is one of the most sensitive examples of modernization. In “The Importance of Being Ernest,” he had created characters who shared a clear recognition of life in the modern world. Thus he not only addressed the characteristics of modern times, but indirectly presented potential solutions for the new era based on his diagnosis of the problems that can also be adopted in the present time. In my opinion Oscar Wilde is an extremely difficult person to classify. His life fits neatly into the Victorian era, which was between 1837 and 1901. However, many scholars classify him as a modern writer rather than a Victorian era writer because the late Victorian era can be called "the first of the 'moderns'" in English literature. I think it is because of his experimental and aesthetic approach to art that he may have created the need for a new movement. Furthermore, his plays succeeded Ibsen's appearance in the theatrical world, which naturally places him in the category of modern playwrights. Furthermore, Wilde consciously refused to enter Ibsen's orbit and persisted instead in the conventional form of a well-made work or nonsense. His adherence to Victorian conventions in theatre, however, did not mean that he had failed to keep abreast of the movement into modern times. He used the traditional way but expressed it in an exaggerated way that contained subversive elements. Oscar Wilde's conventional works had become more like parodies in terms of form. In short, modernity in Oscar Wilde's writings is discovered more in the divergent point than in the convergent one in the context of modern writers. Although his works often appear in books of literary criticism, few authors comment on why he is classified as a modern writer, except/.