Collaborating on Your Group Essay - Relationships - Week 12

For my group's essay on the different relationships throughout the book, I'm focusing on the couple of Chausable and Miss Prism. Our thesis for our essay is about how Oscar Wilde uses the various different couples in the book, to satirize marriage and social relationships throughout the novel. I will begin my paragraph by talking about what stands out the most about Chausable and Miss Prism, their age. They're the oldest couple in the play, and consequently, they're very different from Algernon and Cecily, and Jack and Gwendolen.

My first CD is about how Chausable and Miss Prism are less flirtacious than the two other couples. This is a great example of how the older generations tend to be more conserved with eachother. My next CD is about how the couple speak in a slightly high diction. I use this point to show that Chausable and Miss Prism value language, and being very "politicaly correct" more than the other couples. My final point is that out of all the couples, Chausable and Miss Prism are the only ones that have jobs. The other two couples seem to be more foolish, and live a life luxory, while Chausable and Miss Prism seem to be wiser and have higher morals.

The Importance of Being Earnest/Victorian Research - Week 11

I feel that my research on the Victorian Era greatly influenced my understanding of the play "The Importance of Being Earnest". I learned that men and women had completely different roles in the social infrastructure of the time. Women were expected to stay quietly at home, while the men were away. Jack and his ward Cecicly are a great example of this. Cecicly stays at home in the country all the time, while Jack goes to and from the country and the city as he wishes.

Also, during the Victorian Era, women were often seen as being very foolish people. This is portrayed multiple times throughout the book, mainly through Gwendolen and Cecily's obsession with the name Earnest. On page 86, Gwendolen says, "We are both engaged to be married to your brother Earnest, so it is a matter of some importance to us to know where your brother Earnest is at present". Gwendolen and Cecily aren't truly in love with Jack and Algernon, they just liked the name Earnest.