How does Oscar Wilde look down upon the country in The Importance of Being Earnest?

The theme of "country life versus city life" is a
resounding topic in Victorian comedies of manner, such as The Importance of
Being Earnest. A comedy of manner is a piece of written literature that
presents the main features of the diverse social classes, and overexaggerates them in
order to produce a joke.

The play The Importance
of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, illustrates the different lifestyles of two
types of dandies: London city man Algernon Montcrief, and country estate man Jack
Worthing. Both men's stories present their views on love, life, extravagance, and fun
under the scope of what society allows, and disallows. However, they are actually very
similar characters. It is later on that we see the argument between the
lifestyles.

Act 2, Scene 2 of the play presents a clearer
picture of the differences between the classes with an argument between the two main
female characters, Cecily (a country girl), and Gwendolen (a city
girl).

Since both women believe that they are engaged to
marry the same man, they begin a cat-fight of subtle insults based on their lifestyles.
Part of their argument goes, in part:

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Gwendolen. [Looking
round.] Quite a well-kept garden this is, Miss
Cardew.

Cecily. So glad you
like it, Miss
Fairfax.

Gwendolen. I had no
idea there were any flowers in the
country.

Cecily. Oh, flowers
are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in
London.

Gwendolen. Personally
I cannot understand how anybody manages to exist in the country, if anybody who is
anybody does. The country always bores me to
death.

Cecily. Ah! This is
what the newspapers call agricultural depression, is it not? I believe the aristocracy
are suffering very much from it just at present. It is almost an epidemic amongst them,
I have been told. May I offer you some tea, Miss
Fairfax?

The lifestyle
differences go all the way as to the eating habits of each
lady.

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Cecily. [Sweetly.]
Sugar?

Gwendolen.
[Superciliously.] No, thank you. Sugar is not fashionable any more.
[Cecily looks angrily at her, takes up the tongs and puts
four lumps of sugar into the
cup.]

Cecily. [Severely.] Cake
or bread and
butter?

Gwendolen. [In a bored
manner.] Bread and butter, please. Cake is rarely seen at the best houses
nowadays.

Cecily. [Cuts a very
large slice of cake, and puts it on the tray.] Hand that to Miss
Fairfax.

Gwendolen drinks the
tea and makes a grimace. Puts down cup at once, reaches out her hand to the bread and
butter, looks at it, and finds it is cake. Rises in
indignation.]

In basic terms,
Gwendolen implied that life is the country is common, coarse, boring, and colorless
despite of the natural resources available. In other words, as the aesthetic movement
ascertains, art imitates nature and artificiality does not take away from beauty. The
fashionable people live in London, the aristocrats live in London, and the city is the
bringer of sophistication. Therefore, she (before Cecily) would know what is the latest
even in terms of tea and cakes.

However, we find that
Cecily's good disposition does not leave her immune to the same female spite that drove
Gwendolen to make her sarcastic remarks. In other words, although the fashions may be
different, all ladies are the same.