Identity Performance in The Importance of Being Eariest: A Subversive Reading

Oscar Wilde is known for his society comedies. His playThe Importance of Being Earnest, is a farcical play ridiculing the values and representation of the Victorian period and subverting the deployment of language and identity. The play sets a good example for deconstructive analyses because Wilde, disappointed with the pretentious and superimposed moral codes of the century, portrayed his sense of disenchantment, ambiguity, and hypocrisy in his play. Therefore, the play turns out to be a harsh critique of the moral collapse behind the apparently glorious period and decent lives and the (self-)deceptive complacency of individuals. What Wilde creates is quite similar to the definition of burlesque; a burlesque effect thanks to his play with language and his farcical plot. This article intends to find out to what extent his play bears a deconstructivist and subversive approach to the face value and image of the Victorian era