Did they just get away with that?!

Immorality was rampant among the upper class during 19th century English society. This depravity ranged from marital affairs to corrupt business dealings. Although these acts were not confined to the upper class, these select members of the culture were able to get away with much more than normal people. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the ability of the upper class to seemingly get away with hypocritical and immoral actions is satirically shown. First of all, he shows the spoiled nature of these characters. Algernon and Jack are so used to getting their own way that they do not take into consideration the feelings of others. Algernon eats all of his aunt’s cucumber sandwiches even though he promised to have then made especially for her. Both Algernon and Jack lie to the women that they supposedly love,(even though Algernon had only known Cecily for five minutes before he declared his love), about something as petty as their names just to win their favor. Even after they had time to think over their fallacy, they still strived to pull the wool over the ladies’ eyes by being christened under the name of Earnest. Cecily and Gwendolyn also act in a likewise manner. In the span of a conversation, the two upper class ladies go from being “great friends” to poisoning one’s tea with four cubes of sugar all because they lay claim on the same fiancée (38). Above all, the whole idea of Bunburying is immoral. Jack and Algernon make the people closest to them believe that they are full of compassion for “Earnest” and “Bunbury” when really they made up these people to satisfy their own selfishness. I believe that Wilde intentionally shows us these examples of upper class immorality to show the ridiculous extremes that the rich and fashionable people of this time would go through to satisfy their own wants.