“Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom disappears,” engraves Oscar Wilde as he sets the literary table with a generous display of Victorian satire. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is obviously a comic critique of the late Victorian era (Schmidt 5). Born in Dublin, Ireland to wealthy parents in 1854. Wilde received an opportunity for social betterment after graduating from Oxford University, having received a financial scholarship that gave him insight into fashion of high society life which allowed him to acquire material to make fun of (Moss 179). Wilde shows his characters as if they know people are watching them. In doing so, he made the audience feel that the actors sincerely regretted their characters' actions (Foster 19). Two teenage girls who mistakenly consider men's names to be Ernest and are passionate about men for that very reason think highly of Jack and Algernon. By telling the story of confusions and mistaken identities, the ideals and mores of Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat seriously all the trivial things in life and all the serious things in life with a sincere and studied triviality.” (Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde's amusing scenes often take their source from unconventional societal satire (Baselga 15). Throughout his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality. Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Ernest, satirizes British education using Lady Bracknell. In a discussion with Jack Worthing, she reveals her thoughts on the education system: "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic paper...... in the middle of a paper...... a job of artistic talent and how it develops a corresponding originality. in social satire (Schmidt).Works citedBaselga, Mariano. “Oscar Wilde: The Satire of Social Habits.” In Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, England: Colin Smuthe, 1994: pp. 13-20. Foster, Richard. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest” in College English, Vol. 18, no. 1, October 1956: pp. 18-23. Moss, Joyce. “The importance of being serious.” In Literature and its Time, Gale Group, December 2002: pp. 178-182. Wallace, Sarah. "The importance of being subversive". In American Repertory Theater, November 5, 2006http://amrep.org/articles/5_2c/subversive.htmlMullen, Raymond. “The Importance of Being Earnest as Social Satire,” http://www.literatureclassics.com/essays/1021/Schmidt, Arnold. “The importance of being serious.” In Student Drama, Gale,1998.