奥斯卡·王尔德以“认真的重要性”创作了一部最令人愉快和难忘的社会喜剧。该剧首次于1895年上演，讽刺了维多利亚时代英国僵硬而得体的习俗和制度。这些引语在这场诙谐的闹剧中用文字说明了王尔德的方式。

社会地位

在维多利亚时代，社会地位非常重要。你没有机会像在美国那样，通过努力工作和运气升到顶峰。如果你出生在一个较低的阶层——通常是社会上较穷、受教育程度较低的阶层——你将终生都是这个阶层的一员，正如这些尖刻的名言所说明的那样，你应该知道自己的位置。

• "Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?" - Act 1
• "My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn't a dentist. It produces a false impression..." - Act 1
• "Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square." - Act 1

结婚

维多利亚时代的婚姻是绝对不平等的。妇女在签订婚姻合同时失去了所有权利，被迫忍受丈夫的控制和虐待。妇女争取在婚姻制度中获得更多的控制权，但直到维多利亚时代结束后，她们才获得这些权利。

• "I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing." - Act 1
• "An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be." - Act 1
• "And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?" - Act 2

男人和女人的角色

和这个时代的其他事物一样，人们期望男人和女人的行为举止一本正经。但是，可以这么说，一个从下到下的高峰表明，男人和女人对他们角色的看法与表面上的大不相同。

• "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his." - Act 1
• "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain." - Act 1
• "London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years." - Act 3​​

认真的重要性

维多利亚时代的社会交往必然涉及到人们在公共场合的言行和真实想法之间的二分法。该剧的标题和许多引语都暗指王尔德的信念，即认真是重要的，维多利亚时代的社会缺乏诚实和诚实。

• "Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me so nervous." - Act 1
• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!" - Act 1
• "Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?" - Act 3
• "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest." - Act 3

学习指南

查看这些其他来源，帮助你学习“认真的重要性”

• 评论：“认真的重要性”
• 供研究和讨论的问题
• 奥斯卡王尔德传记