The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw are both satirical works intended to criticize society Victorian and War respectively. Although both plays were written by Irish authors who were familiar with London and both were first performed in London in 1890, The Importance of Being Earnest is set and focused on London while Arms and the Man is focused on Eastern Europe . Oscar Wilde had to hide his homosexuality from the judgment of Victorian society, leading him to mock this society in The Importance of Being Earnest. For his part, George Bernard Shaw lived through many wars and, although he was not a true pacifist, he only believed in truly necessary wars. The profound influence that the authors' respective life struggles had on their work translates directly into the satire present in both works. This satire is achieved through the actions of the characters, especially those of Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest and Raina Petkoff in Arms and the Man. The general idea that appearances are deceiving is present in both works and is advanced through the actions of these two characters. Cecily worries about the deceptive appearance of the man she “loves” while Raina worries about the appearance and imaginative idea she has of war. The satire in both The Importance of Being Earnest and Arms and the Man is directed towards the false appearances associated with Victorian society, namely the romanticized false perception of war and the superficiality of the institution of marriage. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In The Importance of Being Earnest, each of the characters follows all the stereotypical behaviors of people living in Victorian England. Cecily is particularly satirical about these behaviors. Victorian society consisted of a rigid class structure and rigid social rules for proper behavior, especially for women. Victorian English society also placed great emphasis on one's reputation in society and what the outward appearance of one's life and status meant. Cecily, Jack's ward, believes he has a brother named Ernest who lives in town. She becomes infatuated with him, or rather, with the idea of ​​him. When Cecily finally meets "Ernest", who is actually Jack's friend Algernon, pretending to be Ernest, the two immediately fall in love. Cecily makes it very clear to Algernon that she cannot love a man whose name is not Ernest, an insight into Wilde's satire of Victorian society. She says, "You don't have to laugh at me, darling, but it was always a little girl's dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest." Algernon replies, "But seriously, Cecily, if I were called Algy, couldn't you love me?" Cecily then provides a clear example of the satire of appearances in Victorian society by saying, “I might respect you Ernest, I might admire your character, but I fear I should not be able to give you my undivided attention” (Wilde 33). He basically says that he couldn't even love the same person if his name was different. This focus on outward appearances and the somewhat superficial parts of a person was a very important element of Victorian society. As Eric Bentley says, “As the title confesses, it is about seriousness, that is, Victorian solemnity, the kind of false seriousness that implies moralism, hypocrisy and lack of irony. Wilde proclaims that seriousness is less praiseworthy than the ironic attitude toward life, which is considered superficial” (Bentley 173). For people of the Victorian era theappearances were worth more than what could actually be found beneath them. This is also seen in the character of Lady Bracknell, especially when the truth about Jack's past is discovered, as well as when she discovers Cecily's assets and changes her mind about marrying Cecilia and Algernon. Cecily's desire to marry only one Ernest, despite true love, follows the same trend of superficial importance. In Arms and the Man, false appearances and satire are oriented in a different direction. The characters are still very concerned with outward social reputation; for example, the engagement between Sergius, a military leader, and Louka, one of Petkoff's servants, was frowned upon during this time period, but more deceptive appearances are shown in the discussion of the war. In this play there was a great deal of emphasis on war, particularly winning wars, just as the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest emphasized class structure and social reputation. In Arms and the Man, war is heavily romanticized. To romanticize something is to think about it in an “idealized or unrealistic way, or to make something seem better or more attractive than it actually is.” According to Louis Crompton, “The satire of Arms and the Man, however, is not directed primarily against nationalism, but against poetic visions of love and war. Specifically, the play deals with the disillusionment of Raina and Sergio” (Crompton 17). This sense of revelation is first seen through Raina's conversation with her mother, Catherine, about what her boyfriend? Sergio did on the battlefield. Raina says ecstatically, “Tell me. Tell me. How it was! Oh, mother, mother, mother!" His mother replies: “You cannot imagine how splendid it is. A cavalry charge: think of it! He defied our Russian commanders – he acted without orders – he led a charge on his own responsibility – the 'he led himself – he was the first man to sweep away their weapons…' (Shaw 2). First of all, challenging one's commanders is generally viewed negatively orders in the army that they shouldn't have been thrilled about Sergio ignoring his commanders. They didn't know that Sergio had actually led a suicide mission because they were so infatuated with the idea that he was a hero. The two pretentious women have no idea what is really war and they believe that it is a beautiful and easy thing. They live in the comfort of their luxurious home and have only fantasized about the courage and bravery involved in the war. Later in the play, without knowing that Raina was engaged to Sergio, the Captain Bluntschli candidly describes the same cavalry charge by saying, "And there was Don Quixote thriving like a drum major, thinking he had done the cleverest thing ever known, while he should be court-martialed for it. Of all the fools ever let loose on a battlefield, that man must be the maddest. He and his regiment simply committed suicide – only the gun missed fire, that's all” (Shaw 12). This is the first time Raina is exposed to a truly educated perspective on the war and she has a hard time accepting it. Such an inability to fully accept another point of view is shown immediately after hearing Bluntschli's account of Sergio's accusation, when she is described as "deeply hurt, but steadfastly true to her ideals" (Shaw 10). David Satran summarizes the contrast between these two soldiers by saying, “Together the two men offer Raina contrasting conceptions of what it means to be a soldier, and through them Shaw aims to make the show challenge the audience's ingrained beliefs” (Satran 15 ). His character works likea satire of the general population at the time, as Shaw can see that the population is mostly unaware of what war truly is. Satran's interpretation of Shaw's intentions regarding the public's view of the war ties into Shaw's satire: he was trying to get the audience to step back and think about more personal views of the war. If audience members thought that Raina and her mother were acting ridiculously about the war, they could compare it directly to their beliefs about the war and see if they were acting the same way as the Petkoff women. The population at the time had only been exposed to soft propaganda and somewhat falsified news to keep support for the wars strong and prevent people from asking questions about what was really happening. Raina, as well as the general population in Shaw's time, believed in these false appearances which led to a distortion of the reality of war. In addition to serving as a satire of the general population of Victorian England, Cecily's character pokes fun at true love and the institution. of marriage at that time. She loved a man she had never met because of the idea of ​​love. When Cecily and “Ernest” (Algernon) meet for the first time, she tells him: “And obviously a man who is talked about a lot is always very attractive. After all, one feels that there must be something in him. I dare say it was foolish of me, but I have fallen in love with you, Ernest” (Wilde 32). His interest was initially piqued through gossip, further debunking the Victorian ideal of reputation and showing how his character focused on the surface even regarding something as serious as marriage and "true love". Marriage and love were more often political arrangements or, as previously mentioned, reputational arrangements in Victorian England, as people needed to stay in their social class or advance. This principle is shown when Lady Bracknell discusses the terms of Cecily and Algernon's marriage. At first she is strongly against it, as she thinks Cecily is "not good enough" for Algernon. This does not mean that his character or his heart were not good enough, but that his social status was not right for Algernon. Lady Bracknell agrees to bless the union after discovering Cecily's fortune. Authoritatively, he tells Algernon, “There are distinct social possibilities in Miss Cardew's profile…. Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do so” (Wilde 47). These types of agreements are discussed in the work of Camille Paglia, an expert on sexuality in English literature. She claims: “…[the characters] have no real sexual feelings. The interactions of the work are governed by the formalities of social life, which emerge with a dance-like ritualism” (Paglia 29). Usually, when two people want to get married or are engaged, they experience some sort of sexual feelings, feelings that are absent in The Importance of Being Earnest, further supporting the idea that the marriage between these two characters was based on nothing else. of what it would mean for their social reputation. This satirical view of marriage could also be linked to Oscar Wilde's personal life, as he was married to a woman but was truly homosexual, a socially and legally unacceptable status at the time. In his play, he makes marriage seem ridiculous for reasons other than true love, which probably happened to him since he was not allowed to marry as his heart truly desired. What lay underneath didn't matter to Victorian Englishmen as long as everyone else.