Sincere -- or earnest -- is, it appears, the worst thing that one can be in Victorian England. Being sincere means that one has to be true to who they are and must not try to deceive anyone. That is to say that being sincere could perhaps mean being boring, smug, or solemn. These are precisely the qualities that Wilde saw as the distinguishing elements of the Victorian character. Oscar Wilde's story about double lives in trying to conform to ideals of a culture have of course been attributed to his own dealings with being homosexual in Victorian society (Woods 1999). It can be surmised that Wilde himself knew much about having to...

Revising Wilde: Society and subversion in the plays of Oscar Wilde. New York:
Oxford

The Independent. (2009). "Greg Kinnear -- 'We all lead double lives.'" the Independent.

Accessed on March 4, 2011: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/greg-kinnear-we-all-lead-double-lives-1643711.html

Wilde, O. (1998). The Importance of Being Earnest and other plays. New York: Oxford

Woods, G. (1999). A history of gay literature: the male tradition. Yale University Press.