How is The Importance of Being Earnest a melodrama?

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a melodrama because the characters and events are exaggerated. The exaggeration, as well as being satirical and critical of Victorian society, is also very humorous.

In Victorian society, people were interested in social status, fashion, and leisure activities. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are extremely dedicated to their pursuit of fashion and leisure activities and place exaggerated emphasis on social status.

Algernon is an example of a melodramatic character, because he works so hard to have an enjoyable life and maintain his status in society that he has created a fake sick friend to pretend to be visiting when he is actually out for dinner. Algernon's fake friend is called Bunbury, and when Algernon wants to go out to the club, he tells his aunt he is visiting his friend Bunbury. Algernon even has a name for this practice of lying to cover up a slightly unsavoury activity: he calls it "Bunburying." Most likely, Victorian men lied to cover up their secret activities, but they were probably not as forthright with it as Algernon and his Bunburying.

Algernon's aunt, Lady Bracknell, is another melodramatic, exaggerated character. She is extremely critical of everything. When Jack falls in love with Gwendolen and wants to marry her, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen's mother, has a list of questions he must answer.

Of course it was common in Victorian times for parents to select their daughters' husbands very carefully, but Lady Bracknell's criteria are very exaggerated and critical of some aspects of Victorian society. For example, she wants her daughter to marry a man who has enough money that he does not feel the need to work. When she asks Jack if he smokes, it is because "A man should always have an occupation of some kind." Smoking as an occupation indicates that the man is very rich. He can afford to do nothing all day but sit around smoking expensive cigars.

When they discuss Jack's property, Lady Bracknell is not pleased to hear that his house in the city is number 49, because that places it on "the unfashionable side" of the street. Lady Bracknell is so concerned with fashion that she insists Jack's house be on the correct side of the street.

Lady Bracknell is also so concerned with aristocracy, or family background, that when she learns that Jack was found in a handbag in Victoria Station (Brighton line), she advises Jack "to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible," because being found in a handbag, according to Lady Bracknell, shows that he has no respect for family life. Victorians were certainly concerned with aristocracy and family lines, but the character of Lady Bracknell points out the absurdity of this preoccupation by advising Jack to "acquire some relations."

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