What is the significance of the play's satire on marriage and class for its central theme?

• A. The dangers of scientific progress
• B. The marriage market and class codes
• C. The role of fate and destiny
• D. The value of traditional agriculture

Answer: (B)

The satire of marriage and class is used to expose how social expectations shape what people value in relationships and how identities are performed to fit those expectations. Wilde shows that marriage is treated more as a strategic alliance tied to wealth, status, and parental approval than as a matter of genuine affection. The characters’ conversations and schemes—from name-based “Earnest” desirability to the elaborate care with appearances and lineage—reveal how rigid class codes drive decisions and behavior. This illumination of social pretensions is central to the play’s larger theme: the conflict between outward propriety and inner truth, with wit and farce exposing how empty and constructed much of Victorian social life can be. The other topics aren’t the focus of the drama here, so the emphasis on the marriage market and class codes best captures the play’s commentary on social life.