Compare and contrast Act One and Act Two

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        Compare and contrast Act One and Act Two

        

        Throughout act one and act two, there is a huge amount of drama, comedy and sarcasm. Combining to form a carefully formed section of this immensely funny play. In these two acts there are examples of; love, arguments, deceit, 'death' and engagement; all this within the space of two days in the lives of young aristocrats.

        In act one; the scene is set in the "morning-room in Algernon's flat in Half-moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished", immediately displaying Algernon's extravagant nature. In Act two, the scene is set in the "garden at the Manor House. A flight of grey stone steps leads up to the house. The garden, an old-fashioned one, is full of roses. Basket chairs, and a table covered with books, are set under a large yew-tree". The obvious differences in the scene settings is due to the fact hat act one is set in the town and act two is set in the country. Compared to Algernon's "artistically furnished" flat, the country house appears to be much more contemporary, with a much calmer atmosphere.

        In act one, there are many introductions of the characters. Algernon, Jack, Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen and Lane are all revealed to the audience. The events throughout the scene result in, for almost everyone a smile, or even a giggle due to the blunt and sarcastic nature of the characters. The first conversation in act one is between Algernon and Lane; his butler. The relationship between these two characters goes against the audience's expectations; they appear to be of equal status, not as a relationship should be between an upper class aristocrat and his butler in that time. In this conversation, Algernon is immediately portrayed as arrogant and cynical; and Lane is seen as sly and subversive.

        Lane then exits and Jack comes into the room. Jack is portrayed as much more withdrawn then Algernon; he is also not as arrogant and cynical. The conversations between Jack and Algernon are always humorous, because they are always so childish and they talk about such pointless things, never about everyday conversational topics such as money and work. Their conversations are always decorated with epigrams and repartees, making them enjoyable to read and watch. This argumentative relationship between Jack and Algernon is maintained throughout act one and act two. It will be humorous to the audience that Jack and Algernon argue so much, but yet they are still friends (or brothers as revealed in act three).

        There is a certain amount if irony and humour in this dialogue. The irony is that in act one, especially in this conversation, Algernon is very cynical about love and marriage, but by the end if act two, he is in love with Cicily and engaged to be married, therefore contradicting all his previous beliefs. The humour in this conversation is, for example [JACK puts out his hand to take a sandwich. ALGERNON at once interferes] then Algernon says, "please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta", he then [takes one and eats it]. This is comical because Algernon has just gone against what he has just said, but he doesn't seem embarrassed by it at all.

        Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen interrupt in the middle to Algernon's argument over Jack's cigarette case and his imaginary brother 'Ernest'. Throughout acpt one and act two, Lady Bracknell is portrayed as a very superficial woman whose only joy in life is to have dinner parties and a high social status; she is very cynical about her society. Gwendolen, her daughter and Algernon's cousin is very much her mother's daughter, although she refuses to believe it and Jack is blind to it. Gwendolen is a very manipulative woman and always seems to want to find new things to annoy her mother, [to Jack] “And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative” she said this because she knew that it would annoy her mother immensely. She also hates to be wrong and tries hard to prevent this from happening, making her seem sometimes overbearingly arrogant.

        Lady Bracknell and Algernon go into the music room, leaving Jack and Gwendolen alone together. Jack breaks the silence by commenting on the weather; which is quickly dismissed by Gwendolen as an obvious excuse to talk about something else. There is an immediate example of humour at the beginning of this conversation because Jack addresses Gwendolen as Miss Fairfax, and she calls him Mr Worthing when Jack is planning to propose to her. Gwendolen is immediately a completely different person around Jack then she was around Lady Bracknell. She becomes very dominant, and also arrogant, “ I thought so, in fact I am never wrong”.

        Jack seems very nervous around Gwendolen and uses more naturalistic language then the other characters, for example pauses and hesitation. Jack’s speech is mostly not as fluent as the other characters; his nervous behaviour is very similar to Algernon’s attitude around Cecily in Act Two. After much hesitation, Jack confesses his true feelings to Gwendolen; she then says unexpectedly, “ Yes, I am quite aware of the fact”, creating a comic effect. Jack then stares at her in amazement while Gwendolen informs him “even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you”; this in itself will completely go against the audience’s expectations and produces a comic effect because, obviously, you cannot actually love someone before you have met them. She then produces a sense of dramatic irony by telling Jack that really the only reason that she loves him is because of his name-Ernest (which, at the time wasn’t really his name at all).

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        The mode of address changes at this point, Jack and Gwendolen start to call each other by their first names. Jack also asks Gwendolen if she would still love him if his name was Jack; in response to this, she states, very confidently “I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any women who is married to a man called John”. This again is dramatic irony, because the audience know that Jack is actually his real name at this point in the ...

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