BEING EARNEST IN NAME AND ACTIONS
The Importance of Being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde. First performed in London on the year 1895 ,the play is a ridiculous comedy in which the protagonists maintain a fake persona to escape the tiresome social obligations. The play set within the late Victorian London centers it’s themes on important social institutions such as marriage,and other Victorian ways satire. There are contradicting reviews with some praising the play while others critic the lack of social messages. The play is divided into three acts which use metaphors to refer to different scenes in the play.
Food in the book is used as a metaphor. The literary analysis of food and eating in the play is frequently used to refer to appetites and emotions that would seem impolite to air publicly.As seen in Act 1 where Algernon orders cucumber sandwiches and bread and butter for his guests. He goes ahead to eat the sandwiches before his guests arrive. Jack joins in to eat the bread and butter greedily that Algernon accusing him for behaving “as if you were married to her already.” In reference to the situation above eating is used to refer to gratification of the sexual appetite this is further reinforced by Algernon comment about marriage. The fact that the guest,Lady Bracknell, finds that there are no sandwiches to eat, Algernon creates a situation where they have to go out to order food. This excludes her from the world of love and lust as seen with young people.In Act 2