On Satire: 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde

By the end of 1895 Oscar Wilde’s life was in ruins as he sat in Reading Gaol facing public disgrace, bankruptcy and, two years later, exile. Just ten months earlier the premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest at St James’s Theatre in London had been greeted rapturously by both the audience and critics. In this episode Colin and Clare consider what Wilde was trying do with his comedy, written on the cusp of this dark future. The ‘strange mixture of romance and finance’ Wilde observed in the letters of his lover, Alfred Douglas, could equally be applied to Earnest, and the satire of Jane Austen before it, but is it right to think of Wilde’s play as satirical? His characters are presented in an ethical vacuum, stripped of any good or bad qualities, but ultimately seem to demonstrate the impossibility of living a purely aesthetic life free from conventional morality.
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Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell are both fellows of All Souls College, Oxford.
Other episodes in the 'On Satire' series:
What is satire? • On Satire: What is sat...
John Donne's Satires: • On Satire: John Donne'...
Ben Jonson's 'Volpone': • On Satire: Ben Jonson'...
The Earl of Rochester: • On Satire: The Earl of...
John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera': • On Satire: John Gay's ...
'The Dunciad' by Alexander Pope: • On Satire: 'The Duncia...
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: • On Satire: 'The Life a...
Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ • 'Interest' and reading...
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This is an extract from the episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: apple.co/3pJoFPq
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadingsyt

[@speedracer2841]

I have just finished reading Michael Sturgis biography of Oscar Wilde, Oscar a Life, and I was shocked at the amount of derision and mépris that Wilde had to suffer, and at how he was capable to write such a comedy while having to deal with the ire of the Marquess of Queenberry. All the love to Oscar Wilde.

[@She_not_u]

If I may since you guys analyse book can I ask how can I perfect my writing for a beginner? 😭😭