Major Themes
Manners & Sincerity
Hypocrisy that society creates
Overly sincere, polite mannerisms while harboring conversely manipulative, cruel attitudes
Rapid flip flopping of truths and lies of earnestness and duplicity, shows how truly muddled the Victorian values of honesty and responsibility were
Dual identities
Critique of Marriage as a Social Tool
Romantic dreams hinge upon titles, not character (Lady Bracknell epitomizes the Victorian tendency to view marriage as a financial arrangement.
Idleness, leisure class, and aesthete
Empty, trivial lives of the aristocracy
Algernon: a hedonist who likes to eat, gamble, and gossip without consequence
Wilde: this is a play about characters who trivialize serious matters and solemnize trivial matters