The Importance of Being Earnest

“Jack: How can you sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make it out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless.
“Algernon: Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.”
Oscar Widle’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a farce that satirizes and greatly exaggerates the life of the aristocracy in the Victorian age. Wilde’s use of hyperbole gives the play a comedic air, an atmosphere of silliness and exaggeration. The passage above uses muffins in comparison to the blind following of miniscule details and meaningless things in life as to what is truly important, such as both men’s fiancées breaking off their engagement, if only for the silly matter of a name, or lack thereof.
The passage is a perfect example of Wilde’s message from play because of the utter ridiculousness of the situation, worrying more about butter getting onto your cuffs than of the situation of your future marriage. This passage is easily my favorite from the entire play because it nearly sums up the entire silly plot of Wilde’s play, manifesting the idea of ridiculing the aristocrats in one simple situation. This passage is one of the many instances of comedic relief from an entirely disregarded situation, such as a broken off engagement or the discovery of a man’s true parents and origins.
The work as a whole was just a silly farce. As it was meant to be, however, the play has a consistent storyline which gives the farce a more serious tone, making the situations more apparent to the readers which, in turn, makes readers care more about what has happened to the characters than even they seem to. The entire cast of characters has a contemptuous disregard of anything serious, and they seem to be wearing blinders, put on at birth and enforced by custom, to keep them from wanting anything that matters, to make sure they don’t stray away from the set course, laid out by those such as the opinionated, officious, and brainless Lady Bracknell.