The Double Life in The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde’s play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in …showed first 75 words of 1343 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1343 total…is not a hypocrisy. They mock the laws and the customs of the society in which they live. The characters challenge society’s values, free themselves from their rigid norms and at the end of the play they manage to regain their balance and become earnest. Bibliography: The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, Penguin Group, London:1994 Wilde:Comedies, ed. by William Tydeman, The Macmillan Press Ltd, London:1982 Revising Wilde, Sos Eltis, Clarendon Press, Oxford:1996