Gender Roles In The Importance Of Being Ernest

Has one tried to act in a different manner than they usually act and thus portray that they are flipping their gender roles? In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde does such a task by portraying the character’s to represent something other than themselves. Furthermore, the author, Oscar Wilde is mocking and making fun of gender roles in The Importance of Being Earnest, by critiquing the period of the Victorian era and how these roles were portrayed during this time that the play was written in. One such figure that Wilde uses is Lady Bracknell, making her an authority figure throughout the play by the tasks she does, thus portraying the flipping of her gender roles. Lady Bracknell interviews Jack in the play to see if eligible to …show more content…
Lady Bracknell presumably does not want Jack and Gwendolen to have an ongoing relationship with each other so she puts words into Jacks mouths to have it the way she wants it. Lady Bracknell says, "Her unhappy father is, I am glad to say, under the impression that she is attending a more than usually lengthy lecture by the University Extension Scheme on the Influence of a permanent income on Thought. I do not propose to undeceive him. Indeed I have never undeceived him on any question. I would consider it wrong" (Wilde 1459). Lady Bracknell is abusing her authority as a mother, and is taking on a powerful role in this case, by deceiving Lord Bracknell, she is trying to make herself seem the more innocent person in this case, but in fact, she is the person who is making this information up about her father saying that he is unhappy, just so the relationship between Gwendolen and Jack do not continue and progress. We are observing Lady Bracknell “protecting” Lord Bracknell from knowing the absolute truth about this