Connections

//The Importance of Being Earnest// shares common themes of satire and public commentary, with pieces such as __Jane Eyre,__ and __The Hard Times.__ These novels although having a plot and a main story also had underlying themes as does, //The Importance of Being Earnest.// The theme they share is the underlying puns and social commentary made by each author. These books were sold to the very people they criticized, and the play was also performed for the very people it criticized. We can observe similarities between Miss Joe, from __Great Expectations__ and Lady Bracknell. Both women of Victorian time periods, who are both domineering and frigid. They value societal class and monetary assets above all else. __How to Read Literature Like a Proffesor__ eating together is either a sign of communion or a sign of other motives such as sex, or battles. In two specific scenes of //The Importance of Being Earnest// eating is either used as an insult or a sexual allusion. In the beginning John and Algernon are talking about Gwendolen, and John pero furtively grabs the bread and butter and begins to it, and Algernon makes a comment “you behave as if you were married to her already”, meaning to the way he is so eloquently and passionately eating the buttered bread. Also towards the end of the play Gwendolen makes a comment on how she does not take sugar with her tea and how she does not like tea cake, and Cecily gives her just that. This makes Gwendolen furious and sets her over the edge to commence insulting each other once again.

The play was performed recently at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London. Play dates went from January 31st to February 11th of this year.