The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde and first performed in theaters around 1895, at the height of the Victorian Era, was probably the one and only work written by this author that was a trivial comedy that sought to criticize through satire and farce that views that Victorian society had on marriage and relationships. He not only makes fun of things that for society were very important at the time, like marriage, but he also trivialized the institutions and society in itself. The two most important characteristics of this play are the use of farce and satire, but also the witty dialogues with which the characters trivialize evertything.
In this particular passage, where Lane, Algernon´s butler, is reflecting on the reality of marriage and his previous conversation with his master, he makes this statement after his master has made it clear that he does not care about his previous married state and comments on how little he cares about the institution of marriage and how lowly he thinks of that way of life. It is almost a criticism, a jugdement on Algernon´s poor analysis of the married state of life, which extends also into a critism of the way in which Algernon´s social class views the institution of marriage and its importance. In this passage, then, you can see the use of words in a witty way to attract the audience, also a very strong position on social differences between lower and higher classes and also a standing on appearances vs true morality. This is why the correct choices are thus: a, b and c.
