The Importance Of Being Earnest/Victorian Research

Researching the Victorian Era helped me understand many things in "The Importance of Being Earnest" such as social classes, marriage, and even education. I learned that many young women did not get taught school subjects like German, but instead were taught to become a normal housewife. Rich people however, were usually taught regular school skills instead of housework skills, since they most of the time would marry another rich person and have servants. If you were a poor person, marrying a rich person would be very unlikely. But even though Cecily was given the opportunity to learn school subjects, she disgusted it. "Horrid Political Economy! Horrid Geography! Horrid, horrid German!"-Cecily p.40.

I also learned that marrying your own cousin was normal back then. It was considered normal to become engaged to somebody after only just meeting them. Even more, most people who loose their husbands/wifes, usually get re-married very soon. Marriage was known as "business" back then. For example, when Lady Bracknell questions Jack before he gets married with Gwendolyn(p.23-27). Basically, for Lady Bracknell, marriage was based on a persons' background(lower class, higher class). I'm glad we did research on the Victorian Era, because it has helped me understand many aspects of "The Importance of Being Earnest".