Hyperbole is one of the techniques Oscar Wilde uses most often in The Importance of Being Earnest. Hyperbole—exaggeration for effect—enables Wilde to satirize the ridiculous ideas and behaviors of the Victorian British upper class. There are many examples throughout, but I will list a few, one from each act of the play, and explain their effects.
In the play's first act, Jack visits Algernon at his house in London. It turns out Jack left his cigarette case at the house last time he visited. When Algernon reveals he has the case, Jack exclaims,
I wish to goodness you had let me know. I have been writing frantic letters to Scotland Yard about it. I was very nearly offering a large reward.
Here, Jack tells Algernon he has consulted the police to investigate his missing cigarette case. This is an obvious overreaction on Jack's part, which is made even more ridiculous when we find out he just carelessly left it behind at his friend's house.
In act 2, Algernon meets Cecily for the first time at Jack's country home. Only minutes after meeting her, Algernon is kicked out by Jack. When Algernon has to part from Cecily, he rhapsodizes:
Cecily, ever since I first looked upon your wonderful and incomparable beauty, I have dared to love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.
This is exaggerated because they have just met, of course, and the adverbs Algernon uses to describe his love for a woman he just met are completely over-the-top. Algernon values style over substance, so talking in this way can substitute for true emotion or deep feeling. Cecily is equally superficial, so she is easily impressed by Algernon's rhetoric.
In act 3, when the men are about to be christened (to change their names to Ernest), Cecily asks Algernon, "To please me you are ready to face this fearful ordeal?" Calling baptism a "fearful ordeal" is a clear exaggeration. The process is simple and does not entail any physical danger. It is also hyperbolic that Cecily is so impressed by Algernon's "willingness" to go through with this "ordeal."
Hyperbole is one of the tools Wilde uses to satirize the upper class's frivolity and superficiality in The Importance of Being Earnest. His exaggerations allow the reader to see he is poking fun at the ridiculous priorities of the most privileged members of his society.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Can you list the examples of hyperbole in the importance of being earnest.
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