OSCAR
WILDE’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST :
A
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY
CHAPTER I
INDRODUCTION
INDRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
A name becomes a fatal name, but more important than the name is the idea as shown in, the character and
action. The name is important, it can considerably
change e life of the character that bears that name, and also can place everyone in a
different place.
The people in the upper class are very proud of their name and their
class, so that usually insult people who come from another class through the
name but since the name means being serious it has an important part in the
upper class. This could be seen in England, at the late of the nineteenth century.
The society was influenced by Victorian values; there was a contrast between the
classes unrest with related move towards change and the affirmation of values
and standards. The age was characterized as optimism and a sense that
everything would continue to expand and improve. The differences between the
classes in the society, the middle and the upper class, when they considered
the name, it made some conflicts and impacts n the people's way of life an that
time, For example the name Jack is not agreeable to the upper class, but Earnest is very agreeable because there is something in that inspires that inspires absolute confidence but Jack
is the domesticity Mme for ohn that has only a little music in that name. The Importance of Being Earnest appeared
in the society as being described above. The principal name was the object of
the play.
The Importance of Being Earnest
is probably the most popular of Oscar Wilde’s play. It was his best and
most brilliant work, written in 1894 and produced on February 14,1895. Oscar Fingal
O’Flahertie Willa Wilde, an Irish
writer, was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. In the 1890,
Wilde began a short but brilliant career as dramatist with such a great success
beginning with his first comedy, Lady
Windermere's Fan produced on February 20, 1892. The other works of him
were Salome (1893), A Woman of No
Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), De Prafundis (1897) and his last product in 1898 was
his best poem The Ballad of Reading
Goal. Two years later on November 30, 1900 he died as a Roman Catholic
in Paris, France.
The Importance o,(Being Earnest can
be classified into a comedy. A comedy is a form of dramatic literature designed
to amuse and correct or instruct through ridicule. It generally ends happily. (Holman,
1978: 363).
The controversial attitude of Oscar Wilde does not only appear at the way
of dressing up and behavior, but also on the way of thinking. Oscar Wilde's idea was contrary with the
norm and value in the time. The
Victoria's society that was well known
because of its conservative attitude and revere the morality, such as
moral seriousness, earnest, eminent, propriety and virtue (Ambrams et.al. 1962:
643) only became the ridicules and criticism of the younger generation as Oscar
Wilde. The young generation thought that the value was conservative and
narrow-minded (Abrams, 1961: 641). In The
Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Oscar Wilde critics and also makes
the Victoria moral values as a joking and ridicules.
In The Importance of Being
earnest, Oscar Wilde makes
allusions to the moral value of mid-Victorian that full of pretending
tease, dishonesty and deceit. All of them are revealed by interesting
dialogues, smart, ridicules and, of course, funny and entertain. The researcher
is interested in analyzing the dramatization
by revealing the phenomenon
about the moral values in Victorian society as a sociological study.
B.
Research Problem
In The Importance of Being
Earnest, the social condition when Oscar Wilde wrote it was pictured
clearly. The principal of name had influenced the social manner especially in the upper class. Oscar Wilde wrote
how his society was through The
Importance of Being Earnest. Thus, the problem in this writing is how
Oscar Wilde's world view in the moral values behind the importance of being
Earnest in the mid of Victorian society.
C.
Research Objectives
The objectives of this writing are as
follows :
1.
To
find the structural elements of The
Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde
2.
To
identify the relation between the structure of The Importance of Being Earnest to the social condition of
England in the late of the nineteenth century
D. Research Benefit.
The benefits of this writing are as follow:
1.
The reader can understand 'The Importance of Being Earnest easily
2.
The
thesis motivates the reader, researcher, and others in analyzing plays
3. The thesis can give information about the importance of a name.
4. The reader knows Oscar Wilde's worldview,
which is reflected in The Importance
of Being Earnest.
E.
Research Method
1.
Type
of Research
This study
is to describe Oscar Wilde's worldview reflected in The Importance of Being Earnest, the type of this research is
descriptive qualitative research.
2.
Source
of Data
The writer
defines the source of the data into primary source and secondary source. The primary data
are the text of The Importance of Being
Earnest, consisting of dialogues, the scenario of the play. Secondary
data includes the material about Oscar Wilde, the theory of sociology and other
books that supporting the analysis.
3.
Data
Collecting Technique
The writer
uses document in which she relates what Oscar Wilde's wrote in The Importance
of Being Earnest to the book which is relevant in studying the sociological
study. Those books include "The Rout ledge History of Literature in
English", when the play was written, the book of the play An Introduction
to Drama, and the theoretical book of Sociological Study.
In
studying the Importance of Being
Earnest, the writer takes some step, they are:
a. Reading the drama repeatedly after
looking for material of criticism.
b. Taking notes of important in both
primary and secondary data.
c.
Classifying
the data, into some categories.
d. Selecting them by rejecting the
irrelevant information that doesn't support
the topic of the study.
4.
Data
Analyzing Technique
In
analyzing the data, the present writer uses two kinds of technique. First,
descriptive techniques i. e. the present writer has to make an interpretation
of the text. Second, is content analysis
i.e. the present the writer has to dig some information, stated
implicitly within text. The first way is to analyze the structural elements of
the drama, At the other way is to analyze the construction of the author worldview, by underlying and discovering the idea beneath the textual
context description and by crossing
the interpretation the present writer with Britain historical background of the
society in the late of nineteenth century.
F.
The Outline of the Paper
in order to present a vivid description about the study to the readers, the writer has divided her thesis into -five
chapters, namely: Chapter one is the introduction which consists of the
background of the study, the problem statement
the purpose of the study significant of study, the research methodology and
thesis organization. Chapter two emphasizes on the theoretical approach that
covers background of the theory of genetic structuralism by Lucien Goldman.
Chapter three deals with the Background of English
Society, The Background of Oscar Wilde. Chapter four is 'Me Structural Analysis
and Discussion of the play, Chapter five is the sociological analysis of The importance of Being Earnest. Chapter
six is the conclusion and suggestion.
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