『진지함의 중요성』에 나타난 오스카 와일드의 결혼에 대한 풍자

Abstract

Victorian society asked that people should uphold the strict moral rules and monolithic convention of Puritanism. Marriage of the Victorian era is the most representative “Victorian value” fusing morals, values and ideology of the age. Wilde indirectly criticizes and mocks Victorian marriage using rebellious daughters, adulterous gentlemen and seemingly stiff old ladies in a comedy that questions everything through a bombardment of irony, wit and paradox. In his plays, marriage seems nothing more than a business contract. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde sets up Lady Bracknell as an example of the upper class women and describes the marriage as a contract by consent. His satire on Lady Bracknell is a criticism of the marital standards of the upper classes. Victorian people did not truly concern themselves with love, but with financial and social status as the condition for marriage. Wilde shows that characters treat their marriage lightly revealing the paradox of valueless value. To criticize earnestness of the Victorian era, Wilde paradoxically expresses the value of earnsetness through Dr. Chausable and Miss Prism ‘s secret love affair. Young male characters, Jack and Algernon take delight in their double lives putting on masks and engaging in the act of bunburying. This emphasizes the adultery of the upper class men and shows the duplicity of marriage in the Victorian era. Similarly and paradoxically Gwendolen and Cecily's seizing of power from Jack and Algernon is a comment on sexual discrimination of the time. Though Wilde concludes this play with the marriages of the main characters it is only superficially a tale of happy ever after. As indicated above, Wilde's drama with his own dramatic style and excellent artistry continue to echo down the centuries and are studied and reinterpreted by scholars.