Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar WildeMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Importance of Being Earnest
So this was my first Oscar Wilde read ever. Barely 70 pages long, filled with snarky yet penetrating social criticism, Wilde knew how to comically caricature a general behavioral fault so we could see ourselves, laugh and hopefully reconsider our ways. I’m not sure I’ll bother to go out of my way to read a lot more Wilde, though.
He plays with the social class’ self-awareness a fair bit. They try so hard to be dishonest, sometimes it backfires and they are found out. They know having a reputation for bad behavior is partly a help in their social ambitions, as long as they don’t cross a certain line. To stay in the socialite circles often calls for disingenuous hypocrisy, and Wilde calls us to sincerity.
Mean what you say.
Be earnest.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment