Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest may be treated as a social document. Discuss.

The play The Importance of Being
Earnest by Oscar Wilde may be treated as a social document under the same
scope of many other comedies of manners of its
generation.

In other words, the widespread publication of
comedies of manners in the 19th century reflects a meta-cognitive preoccupation with the
behaviors of people of that time, under specific circumstances. The treatment that the
artists give these social dynamics, and the fact that such dynamics are being brought
forward to the public, are the reason which make these literary works worthy of being
studied as social documents.

Oscar Wilde wrote
The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as many other works, with
the purpose of entertaining. Cunning and brilliant as he was, he infused a common
practice among writers of the fin de siecle (the late 1800's) of satirizing the silly
behaviors of the upper classes, and the trivialities of
life.

This being said, Wilde took this chance to expose the
typical issues rising from the upper and middle classes, and blatantly laughed about
them.

Therefore, it is certainly possible to treat the play
as a social document because it shows real social situations taking place at the time of
publication. They include:

• The frivolity of the
  upper classes (aristocrats) for the preservation of their rank - Lady
  Bracknell


• The inability of some upper class men to
  produce an income comparable to that of the rising middle classes
  -Algernon


• The greed of the "up and coming Victorian"
  young generation- Jack and Algernon; Gwendolen and
  Cecily.


• The exaggeration of trivial situations - Cecily,
  Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell.


• The hypocrisy of society, as a
  whole- Algernon (pretending to be helping Bunbury), Jack (pretending to be helping
  Ernest), Lady Bracknell (using her social groups to find a husband for
  Gwendolen)

Conclusively, The
Importance of Being Earnest may certainly be treated as a social document.
One which, in tandem with similar works of its generation, aimed to explore the
behaviors and idiosyncrasies of the times, and mocked them to demonstrate the trivial
and hypocritical origin of their nature.