With his statement and thus also with his drama, Wilde now proposes to treat these important things trivially. So, these topics were of extraordinary importance to them. Victorian aristocrats had clear moral concepts and followed strict traditional mores. Only by this short statement one can tell that Wilde’s philosophy opposed the Victorian convictions of morality and mores profoundly. The philosophical concept on which this statement was based is called aestheticism and was condemned by most of the Victorian aristocrats out of multiple reasons, which will be discussed later (Beckson 2). James’s GazetteWilde summarized the philosophy of his drama as follows: “That we should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality” (5). ![]() The reason for this is that the philosophy of the book was actually completely opposed to the moral and ethical ideas of Victorian society. For one could reasonably assume that Wilde’s drama would have caused great controversy. To a certain extent, this is rather surprising. When first performed, The Importance of Being Earnestby Oscar Wilde “was mostly considered as a light comedy and classified as entertainment for Victorian society” (Bastiat 2). Application of Wilde’s Aesthetic View on morality and manners in The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde’s View on Morality and Manners in the Context of His Aesthetic Convictions
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