Victorian Research

As I read the play, The Importance of Being Earnest I notice many similarites between the play and my research on the vitorian era. Woman in the Victorian Era had one goal in life and that was marriage to a man with a good social class. Cecily and Gwendolen are following that victorian stereotype because they are both looking for marriages. Cecily is having such a hard time finding a marriage that she makes one up in her diary. Gwedolen, on the other had is having a hard time finding someone because her the man she marries has to live up to her mothers expectations. The fact that Gwedolen's mother is taking the duty of finding her daughter a husband was also common in the Victorian Era. Most marriages in the higher classes were not out of love, but out of the social class and the amount of money the man has. In Gwendolen's place she is not aloud to marry "Ernest" because he was found in a leather bag as a baby, and that does not live up to Lady Bracknell's standards.

It is also stereotypical for higher class people to be snobby in the Victorian Era. Algeron is a great example in the book of someone of such a high class that he is rude. He is so rich that he thinks he can just rip up his bills and nothing will happen to him. He also thinks that he can say what ever he wants to say and do whatever he wants to do. He often comments Jack's outfits and does whatever he wants by going to Jack's house without his permission. Those are only two bits of information that I have learned and compared to the Victorian Era. There are many more examples in the book.