Paper 104: Performing Identity and Social Expectations: Satire and Self-Fashioning in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023)
This blog is a part of the assignment of Paper 104:Literature of the Victorians
Performing Identity and Social Expectations: Satire and Self-Fashioning in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023)
Academic Details:
Name: Kruti B. Vyas
Roll No.: 14
Enrollment No.: 5108250035
Sem.: 1
Batch: 2025 – 2027
E-mail: krutivyas2005@gmail.com
Assignment Details:
Paper Name: Literature of the Victorians
Paper No.: 104
Paper Code: 22395
Unit: 2– Oscar Wilde’s Impotance of Being Earnest
Topic: Performing Identity and Social Expectations: Satire and Self-Fashioning in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023)
Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of
English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Submitted Date: November 10, 2025
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Paragraphs: 89
Sentences: 215
Reading time: 12 m 55 s
Table of contents
Performing Identity and Social Expectations Click the main sections (I, II, III, etc.) to expand or collapse the details.Interactive Table of Contents
Abstract:
This essay conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of the performance of identity and social expectations in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023). Both works employ strategic satire and self-fashioning-the deliberate creation of an alternative persona-to critique their respective social frameworks: Wilde targets Victorian moral hypocrisy through aristocratic invention, while Gerwig targets modern commodified gender roles through cinematic meta-commentary. The analysis utilizes critical frameworks, examining Wilde's inversion of values (Reinert 14), linguistic irony (Rose 34), and the functional necessity of the alter ego (Bunburying), juxtaposed with Gerwig's critique of the fixed, aspirational template (Johri), the paradox of relational selfhood (Ken), and the corporate enforcement of identity (Gillis and Pellegrini 495). The essay argues that while Wilde's satire resolves through coincidence (Snider 55), accidentally validating the lie and permitting liberation within the system, Gerwig's concludes with the protagonist's conscious termination of the manufactured template, asserting a self-determined, authentic existence outside of expectation. This comparison illuminates the enduring and evolving nature of social constraint from class-based duty to market-driven aspiration.
Keywords: Satire; Oscar Wilde; Barbie (2023); Self-Fashioning; Performance; Bunburying; Identity; Gender Roles; Social Expectation.
Research Question:
How do Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023) employ satire and self-fashioning to critique the performance of identity and the social expectations that define authenticity within their respective cultural contexts?
Hypothesis:
Both Wilde and Gerwig expose the artificial nature of socially constructed identities through satire and performance; however, while Wilde’s characters achieve liberation within the confines of Victorian social hypocrisy through the accidental validation of their fabricated selves, Gerwig’s protagonist attains authentic selfhood only by consciously rejecting her commodified, pre-fabricated identity-transforming self-fashioning from a tool of conformity into an act of existential freedom.
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Introduction: The Enduring Theatre of Self
Across epochs and media, the tension between authentic selfhood and enforced social expectations has provided fertile ground for satirical genius. Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People (1895), and Greta Gerwig’s cinematic phenomenon, Barbie (2023), operate as seismic critiques of the societies that produced them, yet their core methodologies-the weaponization of performance and the creation of alternative identities-are strikingly similar. Wilde used the façade of Bunburying to expose the moral bankruptcy of the Victorian aristocracy, whose rigid codes mandated an escape route from duty. Gerwig, in turn, utilizes the manufactured perfection of Barbieland to dismantle the commodified, contradictory expectations placed on women by modern patriarchy and consumer culture.
This extended analysis argues that both works employ strategic artifice as the primary engine of their satire, but with a critical difference: Wilde’s characters invent fictional selves (Bunburying) to achieve temporary social escape and personal pleasure, while Gerwig’s protagonist, Stereotypical Barbie, must dismantle her pre-fabricated, perfect identity to achieve authentic self-determination. By examining their distinct satiric strategies, the systemic registers of social enforcement, and the final, pivotal acts of identity resolution, we uncover a continuous cultural dialogue about who is allowed to define the self.
I. Satiric Strategy in Earnest: The Critique of Victorian Rigidity
Wilde's play is not merely a funny farce; it is a meticulously crafted satiric assault on the Victorian obsession with solemnity, duty, and moral rectitude. The entire framework rests on the premise that the public performance of virtue is so demanding that only a sophisticated, well-maintained lie can offer personal freedom.
1.1. Inversion and the Triumph of the Trivial
The foundation of Wilde's genius in Earnest is the strategic inversion of values, a technique where the moral and consequential is treated lightly, while the aesthetic and trivial is accorded grave importance. As Otto Reinert states, Wilde’s method is to ensure that "the trivial is treated seriously and the serious trivially" (Reinert 14). This approach immediately disarms the audience, forcing them to laugh at the very things Victorian society held sacrosanct.
A. The Serious Treatment of Pleasure and Form
In the world of Jack and Algernon, escaping a dinner party or eating a muffin becomes a matter of life-and-death importance, worthy of complex plotting and profound philosophical declaration. Algernon’s near-obsessive concern over cucumber sandwiches and his declaration that he has "nothing to live for" upon their consumption is treated with the same dramatic weight as a tragedy. This obsession with form over substance is the core of Wilde's parody (Foster 18). Algernon's invention, Bunbury, is valued precisely because of its utility as a tool for evasion, not because of any genuine affection or duty. As Algernon says, "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it" (Wilde 4). The seriousness is inverted to triviality: marriage, a sacred Victorian institution, is merely improved by a calculated lie.
B. The Trivialization of Moral Imperatives
Conversely, matters of birth, death, and social class are discussed with a callous, amusing detachment. Lady Bracknell's reaction to the death of Bunbury is only concerned with the inconvenience it causes her, stating that Bunbury "could not have a more serious illness" (Wilde 45), suggesting that social protocol is the only true measure of severity. Her acceptance of Cecily's fortune, immediately outweighing her distaste for Cecily's parentage, highlights the ultimate supremacy of wealth as the true Victorian moral compass. Wilde’s strategy is clear: by rendering moral earnestness absurd, he frees the audience to recognize and value aesthetic pleasure, wit, and personal freedom above rigid duty (Reinert 18).
1.2. Linguistic Irony and the Problem of Naming
Wilde’s satire extends into the fabric of language itself, centering on the pun that gives the play its title. The conflation of the proper name "Ernest" with the ethical quality "earnestness" highlights the era’s superficiality, where names and titles are more important than character.
A. The Label as Social Currency
D.C. Rose’s work, "Calling Things by Their Proper Names," suggests that the play critiques the reliance on linguistic signifiers to denote moral status (Rose 34). Gwendolen and Cecily are not in love with a virtuous man; they are in love with a name-a signifier of the highly desirable Victorian male. Gwendolen declares that the name Ernest "inspires absolute confidence" (Wilde 22). The name acts as a linguistic mask, a pre-approved persona that instantly validates the wearer in the eyes of society.
B. Aphorisms as Social Disruptors
Wilde uses the aphorism as a secondary satiric device. Phrases like "The truth is rarely pure and never simple" serve to invert societal wisdom, presenting calculated cynicism as high-society elegance. This witty, inverted language creates a world where intellectual sophistication is measured by one's ability to undermine established truths. Richard Foster notes that Wilde uses this parodic style to constantly destabilize serious thought, making the entire play a prolonged, brilliant exercise in intellectual mockery of the era's earnest conventions (Foster 20).
1.3. The Trickster and Synchronicity: Resolution by Absurdity
As Clifton Snider explores, the play's resolution can be analyzed through the lens of the Trickster archetype and Jungian synchronicity (Snider 55). Jack and Algernon, through their deliberate deceptions, act as Tricksters, disrupting the established order through chaos and wit.
A. The Chaos of the Lie
The trickery forces the play’s logic into increasingly absurd corners-the rival engagements, the competing "deaths" of Ernest, the battle over the diary. This chaotic energy, generated by the lies of the central figures, is the necessary precursor to the final, magical resolution. The play suggests that only through the systematic dismantling of order can true desire (marriage) be achieved.
B. Synchronicity as the Divine Joke
The final revelation that Jack is, by accident of birth, actually Ernest Moncrieff-Algernon’s older brother-is a moment of pure synchronicity. It is not earned through moral effort or reform; it is arbitrarily bestowed. Snider’s analysis highlights that this device is Wilde’s ultimate joke on earnestness: the only way to satisfy the absurd demands of the social system is for the lie to turn out to be the accidental truth (Snider 58). This final coincidence confirms that aristocratic privilege, not morality, dictates identity and success.
II. Self-Fashioning in Earnest: Desire and The Functional Lie
The identity adopted by Jack and Algernon-Bunburying-is not a random act of deception but a crucial piece of personal infrastructure. This practice of self-fashioning allows them to live the lives they truly desire, free from the burden of duty.
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The irony: by wearing the mask of "Ernest," they are at their most authentic—free to pursue their true desires.
2.1. Character Invention as Functional Analysis
Ryan Flanagan’s analysis of "Character Invention" highlights that the invented persona in Earnest is highly functional (Flanagan 121). It serves a specific, necessary role in the characters’ psychological and social lives.
A. The Necessity of the Alter Ego
For Jack, "Ernest" is the means by which he can be responsibly irresponsible. His formal, respectable self, Jack Worthing, is the guardian of Cecily in the country; his reckless, urban self, Ernest, is the one who can pursue Gwendolen. For Algernon, Bunbury is the perennial escape hatch from family duty and social engagements. The alter ego is essential because Victorian life is designed to crush individual desire under the weight of prescribed duty.
B. The Dual Persona and Desire
The theme of "Alias Bunbury: Desire and Termination in The Importance of Being Earnest," explored by Christopher Craft, speaks directly to the function of this dual persona (Craft 19). The invented self is inextricably linked to the desire for liberation and pleasure. The act of "Bunburying" allows the characters to satisfy their aesthetic desires-muffins, country air, witty banter-which their 'real' roles prohibit. This desire, however, is a threat to the play's eventual desired termination (marriage), meaning the lie itself must ultimately be killed off to achieve the higher goal.
2.2. The Masks of Oscar Wilde
The deliberate creation of a theatrical, constructed identity in the play mirrors the public persona Wilde himself adopted. As B. H. Fussell discusses in "The Masks of Oscar Wilde," the idea of the mask is central to his aesthetic philosophy (Fussell 124).
A. Performance as Protection
The 'mask' of Ernest serves as a protective layer, allowing the wearer to commit social transgressions without the 'real' Jack or Algernon suffering reputational damage. It is an exploration of the freedom found in anonymity and the protection offered by theatrical role-playing. By wearing the mask of "Ernest," they are ironically at their most authentic-they are free to pursue their true desires.
B. The Aesthetic Ideal vs. Moral Reality
Wilde elevates the aesthetic ideal of living beautifully over the moral obligation of living righteously. Since the 'moral' world is demonstrated to be absurd and hypocritical, the aesthetic world of wit and performance becomes the only valuable reality. The characters’ self-fashioning into witty, charming, and stylish figures (Ernest) is their true ethical commitment.
III. The Commodification of Self: The Fixed Template in Barbie (2023)
In stark contrast to Wilde’s critique of inherited social rigidity, Gerwig's Barbie critiques the manufactured, commodified rigidity of modern gender expectations. The identity of Stereotypical Barbie is the ultimate pre-fashioned, ideal template.
3.1. The Fixed Aspiration and The Illusion of Perfection
Barbieland is a realm where identity is not a choice, but a product design. Stereotypical Barbie is the ultimate aspiration, embodying the impossible list of achievements and aesthetic perfection demanded of modern women.
A. The Weight of Aspiration and Body Image
The film’s central conceit-that Barbie has solved feminism-immediately satirizes the contemporary expectation that women must be both beautiful and professionally successful (President Barbie, Doctor Barbie). Manjari Johri’s research on the toy's impact emphasizes the inherent contradiction: Barbie presents an anatomically impossible ideal that severely affects real-world gender identity, self-esteem, and body image (Johri). Barbie’s initial existential crisis-her thoughts of death, cold showers, and, crucially, her flat feet-is the direct result of the system demanding the maintenance of this fixed, flawless template. The flat foot is the rupture in the performance, the literal break from the fixed pose.
B. The Cultural Politics of Pink
Stacy Gillis and Chiara Pellegrini analyze how the film utilizes the overwhelming aesthetic of pink to engage in a form of "cultural politics" (Gillis and Pellegrini 495). Pink, the color of Barbieland, is initially a symbol of female utopia and sovereignty. However, the uniformity of the color palette suggests a rigid, manufactured sameness. The satire lies in the revelation that this utopia is still a cage, built upon the foundation of a male-dominated corporate structure (Mattel). The aspiration is built on a lie: the system that created the ideal still benefits from women’s insecurity and subsequent consumption.
3.2. The Ken Paradox and Relational Selfhood
Ken’s journey provides a necessary parallel satire of male identity in a world that he feels renders him secondary. His initial identity is purely relational-he is "just Ken," defined by his adjacency to Barbie.
A. The Identity Vacuum
Ken’s crisis is a search for significance outside of his role as an accessory. This lack of inherent selfhood in Barbieland is a brilliant inversion, satirizing the historical invisibility of women relegated to relational roles. The moment he enters the Real World, he desperately performs a new, externally-sourced identity based on what he sees as male authority.
Ken is "just Ken''- Ken's Crisis
B. The Superficial Performance of Patriarchy
His subsequent self-fashioning into a patriarchal figure-complete with horses, sports, and mansplaining-is the ultimate modern form of Bunburying. It is a surface-level invention designed purely to gain respect and attention. The introduction of the "Mojo Dojo Casa House" is the absurd culmination of this uninformed, performative masculinity. Ken attempts to use this invented persona to escape his own emptiness, only to find the new role equally stifling and ultimately inauthentic.
IV. The Enforcers: Registers of Social Constraint
Both the play and the film feature powerful, institutionalized figures who act as the gatekeepers of the acceptable social register, enforcing the rules of performance with absolute authority.
4.1. Lady Bracknell and the Register of Birthright
Lady Bracknell is the human manifestation of the Victorian social code. Her authority is absolute, unfeeling, and rooted entirely in inherited power and wealth.
A. The Liturgy of the Interview
Her interrogation of Jack is the most famous example of the social register being enforced. It is a checklist for a marketable asset, not a suitability interview for a human partner. She is less concerned with moral character than with economic and geographic suitability: "What is your income? ... What are your politics? ... Do you smoke?" (Wilde 11-12). Her horror at Jack’s lack of known parents and his origin in a "handbag" is the sound of the entire aristocratic structure recoiling from non-conformity.
BARBIE director: Greta Gerwig special Interview
B. The Unyielding System
Lady Bracknell represents a system that demands a fixed, documented past. Her security rules are non-negotiable, and the only path to satisfying her demands is the impossible: to have been born correctly. She is the embodiment of the "Desire and Termination" principle: she will terminate the possibility of desire (marriage) if the structural rules of society are violated (Craft 46). The individual must conform to the system, not the other way around.
4.2. The Mattel CEO and the Register of Corporate Commodification
In Barbie, the oppressive authority is institutionalized and corporate, embodied by the bumbling but ultimately powerful CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell) and his all-male board.
A. The Corporate Security Protocol
The CEO’s sole concern is the preservation of the product’s image and profitability. His pursuit of Barbie is not moral but commercial panic. Barbie is not a person; she is an asset whose malfunction (her existential crisis) threatens the company’s bottom line. The "security" in this system is market-driven: the ideal must be protected to ensure continued consumption.
B. The Demand for a Fixed Future
If Lady Bracknell demands a correct past (parentage), the Mattel CEO demands a correct future (continued aspiration and consumption). He demands Barbie return to her box and resume her perfect performance. This satirizes the way modern corporate culture attempts to contain and monetize authentic female experience, dictating that even personal freedom must be packaged and sold. His authority is the voice of commodified patriarchy, which co-opts the language of empowerment while maintaining control over the narrative of identity.
V. Termination and the Final Act of Self-Fashioning
The defining comparative point between the two works is the nature of the final act of self-fashioning. Wilde allows his characters to inherit their authentic identity; Gerwig forces her protagonist to choose it.
5.1. Wilde’s Termination: Accidental Validation
The ultimate joke of Earnest is that Jack’s self-fashioning is retrospectively validated by coincidence. The termination of the lie (Bunbury) is immediately replaced by the accidental discovery of the truth (he is actually Ernest).
A. Reward for Aesthetic Living
Wilde rewards the characters for their aesthetic commitment to pleasure, not for any moral awakening. Jack’s final line, "I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest," is a deeply comic affirmation. It means that what is truly important is having the name and satisfying the arbitrary social requirements, not possessing the quality of sincerity. The final act of self-fashioning is a surrender to the inherited role, which just happens to align with his desires.
B. Liberation Within the System
The liberation achieved in Earnest is limited: it is the freedom to enjoy life within the arbitrary, high-stakes boundaries of the aristocracy. The system itself is not reformed; it is merely satisfied by a convenient accident of plot. The central satiric premise remains: society is absurd, but one must conform to its dictates to be happy.
5.2. Gerwig’s Termination: Conscious Choice
Barbie rejects coincidence and demands a conscious, existential leap. The self-fashioning of Barbie is the termination of the aspirational template itself.
A. The Choice to be the Inventor
Barbie’s decision to become human is the definitive, conscious act of self-creation. "I want to be the one who does the inventing, not the thing invented," she declares (Gerwig). This choice is an active, definitive rejection of the fixed, commodified role she was assigned. It is the embrace of the messy, contradictory reality of human female existence, complete with imperfection and emotional pain.
B. Authenticity over Aspiration
This is the central point of Gerwig’s critique: true self-fashioning in the modern era is not about adopting the best mask, but about shedding the ideal template. The final scene, where Barbie, now wearing ordinary clothes, announces she is going to see her gynecologist, is a deliberately mundane and human-affirming punchline. It confirms her commitment to the biological, the imperfect, and the unmarketable reality of the self. The liberation achieved is not social, but existential: freedom from expectation itself.
Conclusion: The Enduring Critique of Social Performance
The comparative analysis of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Gerwig’s Barbie reveals a continuum of satiric critique on identity and social expectation. Wilde’s fin-de-siècle genius lay in exposing the hypocrisy of a moralistic society, showing that performance (Bunburying) was a necessary functional tool for survival and pleasure, and that liberation was an aristocratic accident. Gerwig’s 21st-century commentary, however, moves beyond the social class critique to target the existential hypocrisy of consumer culture, where identity is pre-packaged and sold as an aspirational, flawless template.
Both narratives affirm that the performance of identity is critical to navigating society. However, while Wilde's satire encourages the audience to laugh at the rigid system while remaining safely within it, Gerwig's forces a more painful, existential laugh-a laugh that precedes the necessary step of walking out of the Mattel box and into an unscripted, authentically self-determined life. The enduring power of both works lies in their capacity to entertainingly expose the arbitrary, demanding nature of social expectation, confirming that the journey to the self is always, in some way, a grand theatrical performance.
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Based on the analysis by Kruti B. Vyas This analysis explores how both works use satire to critique social expectations, but reach divergent conclusions. Wilde's characters find liberation within their hypocritical system through accidental validation. Gerwig's protagonist achieves liberation from her commodified system through conscious choice. The academic paper by the numbers: A breakdown of the source document's composition, providing a quantitative look at the academic analysis itself. A satirical assault on the moral hypocrisy, class-based duty, and solemnity of the Victorian aristocracy. The public performance of virtue is so demanding that it requires a sophisticated lie ("Bunburying") to escape. A meta-commentary on manufactured gender roles and consumer culture. The "perfect" identity is a pre-fabricated, commodified template that must be actively rejected to achieve authentic selfhood. A comparative look at the "invented selves" characters use to navigate their worlds. The chart quantifies their key attributes based on the paper's analysis. A visualization of the two divergent narrative paths to liberation, built entirely with HTML and CSS. Wilde's characters achieve freedom when their lie is accidentally validated by the system. Gerwig's protagonist achieves freedom only by consciously rejecting the system entirely.Performing Identity & Social Expectation
A Comparative Analysis of Wilde's Earnest & Gerwig's Barbie
The Core Thesis
Document Stats
Paper Analysis by the Numbers
The Core Conflict: Critiquing The System
Wilde's Victorian Rigidity
Gerwig's Corporate Commodification
Acts of Self-Fashioning: The Alter Ego
Meet the "Enforcers": Registers of Social Constraint
Lady Bracknell
The Mattel CEO
Resolution: Two Paths to Freedom
Wilde: Accidental Validation
Gerwig: Conscious Choice
Final Hypothesis
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Craft, Christopher. “Alias Bunbury: Desire and Termination in The Importance of Being Earnest.” Representations, no. 31, 1990, pp. 19–46. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928398 .
FLANAGAN, RYAN. “Character Invention in The Importance of Being Earnest and The Playboy of the Western World: A Functional Analysis.” The Wildean, no. 45, 2014, pp. 121–33. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48569602
Foster, Richard. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at the Importance of Being Earnest.”
College English, vol. 18, no. 1, 1956, pp. 18–23. JSTOR,https://www.jstor.org/stable/372764
Fussell, B. H. “The Masks of Oscar Wilde.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 80, no. 1, 1972, pp. 124–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27542607 .
Gillis, Stacy, and Chiara Pellegrini. “‘In Pink, Goes with Everything’: The Cultural Politics of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.” Feminist Theory, vol. 25, no. 4, 2024, pp. 495–501.
https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001241291402.
Johri, Manjari. “ Greta Gerwig’s Barbie: Examining the Impact of Toys on Gender Identity, Self Esteem and Body Image.” Researchgate, www.researchgate.net/publication/380403089_Greta_Gerwig%27s_Barbie_Examining_the_Impact_of_Toys_on_Gender_Identity_Self_Esteem_and_Body_Image .
Reinert, Otto. “Satiric Strategy in the Importance of Being Earnest.” College English, vol. 18, no. 1, 1956, pp. 14–18. JSTOR,https://www.jstor.org/stable/372763
ROSE, D. C. “Calling Things by Their Proper Names.” The Wildean, no. 33, 2008, pp. 34–43. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45269089 .
SNIDER, CLIFTON. “Synchronicity and the Trickster in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest.’” The Wildean, no. 27, 2005, pp. 55–63. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45270141 .
WILDE, OSCAR. Importance of Being Earnest. FINGERPRINT! PUB, 1895, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/844/pg844-images.html.
