The outcome of conflicts in drama can reveal values in a play more than the actual conflicts themselves can. One play where this is true is The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.
Set in Victorian England, this play satirises the aristocracy of the time. Usually, authors of that Period used the lower classes as their roving grounds for social commentary, but unlike authors such as Dickens, Wilde used the upper classes, with which he was personally familiar.
Oscar Wilde knew the upper class, and he knew that the lives they lead were so dry, boring, concerned with manners and cust…
