Oscar wilde's play the importance of being earnest is a harsh critique of victorian society and encourages citizens to change their ways. evaluate whether this statement is true or false. use support from the lesson you’ve read, text from the play, and your own knowledge.

If you agree that The Importance of Being Earnest is a harsh critique of Victorian society, you might have included one or more of these points in your response:

Oscar Wilde openly challenged Victorian norms and beliefs, and his plays reflected unconventional views and individualism.
In general, Victorian authors often engaged in social commentary and sought to examine people's behaviors and attitudes. Reform was a favorite topic of the time.
It was not unusual for Victorian writers to offer motivation or suggestions for social change.
The play as a whole has the characteristics of a satire. Wilde uses wit and irony repeatedly to mock hypocrisy, shallowness, and the tendency to value outward appearances more than substance and material possessions more than love.
If you disagree that The Importance of Being Earnest is a harsh critique of Victorian society, you might have included one or more of these points in your response:

Oscar Wilde was a proponent of aestheticism, a movement based on the idea of "art for art's sake” (without other purposes).
Like other plays of the comedy of manners genre, The Importance of Being Earnest has a lighthearted tone. Wilde uses irony, sarcasm, and satire, but the effect of these devices in the play is amusing and entertaining, rather than thought-provoking. The play does not create a sense of bitterness or revulsion in the audience.
None of the characters in the play is repulsive enough to make the behavior Wilde satirizes seem strongly undesirable. The play seems to present hypocrisy and shallowness as natural, pervasive weaknesses rather than seriously harmful traits that society must struggle to overcome.
None of the characters in the play challenges or demonstrates a remedial alternative to the kind of behavior Wilde satirizes.
The play does not demonstrate any serious negative consequences of the traits that Wilde satirizes. On the contrary, its flawed stock characters attain their goals.
The play seems to mock the very notion of propriety rather than to suggest what is proper or improper.