Pre-Ap Summer Assignment

The Victorian Era was a time of great change, both good and bad. The novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens was set during this period, along with the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. There are many similarities as well differences in these two literary works. They describe the social, political, and economic circumstances of the time period, from the point of views of different genres.

In Hard Times, a father devotes his life to the ideals of rationalism, self-interest, and fact. He raises his two eldest children, Tom and Louisa according to this philosophy, never allowing them to think of anything but fact. This stunts Tom and Louisa's social development. It symbolizes the rise of factories and machines at that time, how people were turning into the very machines that they operate, and the need to rediscover their humanity. In The Importance of Being Earnest, the two main characters have created fake personas, effectively using them as an alibi to disappear for large amounts of time and do what they like. It explores the constraints of morality and the nature of marriage to much humorous results.

Both literary works criticized the whole Victorian idea of morality, which was a rigid set of rules telling people what they can and cannot do. They both also portrayed Victorian society as stiff and mechanical, more so in Hard Times but the character of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest is also a perfect example of the typical high classed, narrow-minded Victorian person. In both books, marriage is scrutinized. Everyone in Hard Times seems to be married to the wrong person, while the two main characters in The Importance of Being Earnest dispute whether marriage is business or pleasure.

As with comparisons, there are also many contrasts between Dickens' novel and Wilde's play. Wilde teaches us through The Importance of Being Earnest that true moral is irreverence, the opposite