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Acknowledgments During my writing, many people lend me a helpful hand. Just with their support and encouragement, this thesis finally comes to an end after several months’ research. I hereby would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the following people for their selfless dedication and construction to my thesis.37076
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My profound gratitude first goes to Associate Prof. , my supervisor, for her enlightening advice and patient instruction in the process of my writing. She offered me considerable and constructive advice, practical and profound suggestions on the completion of my paper. It is under her careful and patient guidance that I begin to get a clear idea of the thesis and fully frame it out. Without her support and help, the completion of the present thesis is impossible.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the teachers who have ever taught me throughout my college years. Thanks for their direct or indirect help during my study in the college. I am also grateful to my close roommates and classmates for their encouragement, support, comments and wise advice.
Last, I wish to devote this paper to my parents for their everlasting love and care that they have shown since I was just a little child.
Abstract
Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, poet and literary critic, had a great impact on modern English literature. He was a controversial and versatile writer. Throughout his short life, he published many works in various kinds of forms. Among these, his four social comedies are the most successful works. The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde’s last social comedy, is generally recognized as one of the best plays in the whole world. As an advocate of aestheticism, Wilde insisted that art had no relation with reality and life. However, it is easy to find that this play not only involves reality but also criticizes the Victorian moral ethics. Due to Wilde’s achievements in the field of aestheticism, most scholars and critics tend to study his works from the angles of aestheticism while fail to take into account morality and social issues in his works, so there is much room for further study on such aspects.
This thesis is intended to focus on the analysis of characters and dialogues in the play from the angle of family ethics with the aid of ethical literary criticism on the basis of previous research results. The thesis falls into six parts. The first part serves as an introduction. The second part aims at reviewing some ideas of family ethics. The third part exposes the unreasonable family ethics of the Victorian Era. The fourth part analyzes Wilde’s ideal family ethics. The fifth part probes into the cause of formation. The sixth part functions as a conclusion.
After doing a comprehensive research, it can be concluded that in The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde not only exposed and criticized the unreasonable family ethics of the upper class in the Victorian society but also expounded his own ideal family ethics in this play. And the formation of his ideal family ethics is influenced by his family and the Victorian society. Hence, a study of the theme of this play is of much social and realistic significance. Hopefully, the research result will also be helpful for young Chinese to build a right sense of family ethics.
Key Words: Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, family ethics, Victorian Era
摘要奥斯卡•王尔德是一位爱尔兰作家、诗人、文学评论家，他在现代英国文学史上具有重要的地位。他是一位充满争议却又多才多艺的作家，在其短暂的一生中，他发表了许多作品，涵盖了各种文学形式。其中最为成功的是他的社会喜剧。《认真的重要性》是王尔德的最后一部社会喜剧作品，堪称为世界戏剧宝库中的一颗明珠。虽然王尔德作为唯美主义的代表人物，坚持艺术与道德无关，艺术高于生活，但实际上这部戏剧既没有脱离现实，王尔德还通过这部作品批判了当时社会的道德观念。鉴于王尔德唯美主义大师的地位，学者都倾向于从唯美主义角度出发对他的作品进行研究，却忽略了其作品中反映出的道德因素和社会问题，所以在这一方面仍有很大的研究空间。