This paper aims at analyzing the subversive aspects of The Importance of Being Earnest, the last play of Oscar Wilde. To show his subversive and radical ways of thinking, I first discuss "The Soul of Man under Socialism", one of his politica ...

This paper aims at analyzing the subversive aspects of The Importance of Being Earnest, the last play of Oscar Wilde. To show his subversive and radical ways of thinking, I first discuss "The Soul of Man under Socialism", one of his political essays. In this essay Wilde supported socialism, or anarchism, even though to declare himself an anarchist at that time was a very dangerous thing. Then I try to connect this essay with his best play, The Importance of Being Earnest.
My interpretation of The Importance of Being Earnest is that it embodies the ideal states of anarchism presented in his essay by ridiculing all the authorities represented by old generations like Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble. In the meantime, the young generations are against the authorities of the old generations. These are rebels who try to enjoy their own freedom by using wits, wiles and even deceptions in their constricted surroundings.
Furthermore, Wilde's drama shows the androgynous men and women by subverting the social norms of gender of that time. So the herdnes are new women of the fin de siecle: they know how to manipulate their male partners to make them their own lovers and they are honest in acknowledging their own sexual feelings toward their partners. In contrast, men are usually passive in their courting and they are willing to sacrifice themselves to satisfy their partners' desires.
Finally, this drama subverts heterosexual norm of that society by delicately and indirectly putting queer codes into the drama. This paper tries to unravel the queer codes used in this drama.
The conclusion shows how the reputation of this drama changed dramatically as its author got arrested on April 5th, 1895.

와일드의 마지막 드라마 <진지함의 중요성>(The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895)은 그의 정치적 급진주의를 제약 없이 펼쳐 보이는 작품이다. 이전의 사회극들에서 ‘잘 만들어진 극’(well-made play)의 형식을 빌어 빅토리아조 극의 형식에 혁신적 변화를 꾀했 ...

와일드의 마지막 드라마 <진지함의 중요성>(The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895)은 그의 정치적 급진주의를 제약 없이 펼쳐 보이는 작품이다. 이전의 사회극들에서 ‘잘 만들어진 극’(well-made play)의 형식을 빌어 빅토리아조 극의 형식에 혁신적 변화를 꾀했다면 이 극에서는 소극을 이용해 자신의 전복적 철학의 극적 표현을 시도한다.