Group Writing of the Importance of Being Earnest

Thesis Statement: Throughout the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde portrays the many aspects of marriage in the Victorian Era using satire because he wants to show that marriage wasn't all about romance, and was more of a business deal.


In my paragraph, I am writing about how Algernon changes his views of marriage throughout the book, so that by the end he completely contradicts everything he had previously said. The first concrete detail I used is on page 10 when Algernon says, "Well, in the first place, girls never marry the men they flirt with." I chose this because it is specifically referring to Jack and Gwendolen's relationship, but in a broader spectrum, Algernon is also saying in general he is disapproving of marriage. In the middle part of my paragraph the concrete detail I used is the beginning of Act 2. Algernon decides to go and meet Cecily, basically for the pursuit of pleasure, but then ends up proposing to her. This is a good example because it is starting to show Algernon's opinion transitioning from one view to another. The last point that I make in my paragraph is on page 90 at the very end of Act 3. This is when Algernon and Cecily shout and hold on to each other and Algernon acts as if he planned for that to happen all along. The fact that Algernon ends up marrying in the end of Act 3 is the most blatant example of the contradictions between his pursuit of pleasure and anti-marriage attitudes continuously shown before. My conclusion will end up bringing together the idea of Algernon's transitioning ideals and morals throughout the story. I am not exactly sure which paragraph mine will be preceding, so does anyone have an idea about which thought I could maybe include to create a smooth transition into the next paragraph?