What do you find funny in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'?Consider what dramatic devices Wilde uses to create the comedy.(You should analyse in detail at least 3 comic moments).
What do you find funny in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'? Consider what dramatic devices Wilde uses to create the comedy. (You should analyse in detail at least 3 comic moments). Aims of "Modern" Drama > To write cogent critical argument in response to question > To show perceptive personal response > To write clearly and precisely > To use quotation effectively to support points > To analyse structure, characterisation and presentation within dramatic genre > To show awareness of stagecraft, theatrical devices > To demonstrate understanding of effects of these on audience and possible changes over time and context > To consider play's moral, philosophical and social significance (thematic importance) > To refer in detail to features of language and imagery > To explore and evaluate alternative responses The comedy in 'Importance of Being Earnest' focuses on the aristocratic classes at the turn of the 19th century, the time when the play was written and set. Whilst creating humour by mocking their absurdities i.e. moral and social values and ideas, he also provides the audience the witty banter of the idle rich and their somewhat ridiculous lifestyles and attitudes to enjoy. These idle rich seem to revel in making trivial matters important and important matters trivial. Wilde uses a range of techniques to simultaneously mock aristocratic Victorian
To what extent is Wilde satirising Victorian society in The Importance of Being Earnest and how does this add to its comedy?
To what extent is Wilde satirising Victorian society in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and how does this add to its comedy? The Importance of Being Earnest, subtitled, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a comedy of manners whereby Oscar Wilde rebukes the Victorian aristocracy for their social issues that seemingly prioritise the most trivial of things such as style and appearance above those of true significance such as. Wilde further achieves this by incorporating elements such as farce and melodrama in order to highlight their senseless main concerns. Wilde portrays the act of “Being Earnest” as being in opposing to its definition as having features of dishonesty and false morality, with one of the main characters Algernon stating that “The truth is rarely pure and never simple”. Wilde’s first satirical attack in the play is marriage. Algernon is shown to perceive marriage to be a business deal as opposed to the projected illusion of it as described in the play as being based on mutual feelings of love (evidence – Ceclily or Gwendolen). This is evidenced by Algernon’s sharply comical and paradoxical epigrams in response to his best friend Jack Worthing’s admittance of wanting to propose to Algernon’s own ward Gwendolen he states: “I thought you had come up for pleasure? ... I call that business.” Wilde is seemingly satirising concept of
Everything which ought to be of importance becomes merely trivial. Discuss "The Importance of Being Earnest" as a comedy of importance and triviality.
Everything which ought to be of importance becomes merely trivial”. Discuss the importance of being earnest as a comedy of importance and triviality. Oscar Wilde subverts Victorian values to mock and imply triviality of Victorian society in his play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. Wilde forces the audience to confront their priorities and rethink the importance of life while also scrutinising the ignorance of materialistic fascination of the characters in upper class society through trivialisation of the importance of life. Lady Bracknell’s character is arguably the main source of triviality in the play despite that fact she herself is not a trivial person. Wilde satirizes the ideas of marriage and personal fortune together contemplating how society views marriage as financial business hence Algernon’s remarks “business or pleasure” to introduce the argument of marriage in the play. “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise pleasant or unpleasant; it’s hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself”. This displays the inversion Wilde uses to illustrate the idea marriage isn’t primarily about happiness or love but rather the “pleasant state” as Lane utters to Algernon and Jack in Victorian society also attempting to say the experience of marriage is judged on how many times you’ve been married rather than the
To what extent is Wilde satirising Victorian society in The Importance of Being Earnest and how does this add to its comedy?- ALTERED
To What Extent is Wilde Satirising Victorian Society in The Importance of Being Earnest and how does this add to its comedy? Viewed as both the paradigm of upper-class Victorian dandyism and a non-conformist maverick of the regulatory restrictions of its prudish attitude, Oscar Wilde uses his polarised social standing to satirise Victorian society with relatively little backlash from the bourgeoisie of the time due to his personal self-deprecating sense of humour. The play’s subtitle, ‘A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,’ however, juxtaposes the defining distinction between Wilde and the peers of his class. Due to the social mobility brought by the Industrial Revolution, the upper classes of Victorian society implicated ludicrously strict regulations in an attempt to preserve the ‘purity’ of the English peerage- the manners in and aspects through which being perhaps the principle subject of Wilde’s satire in the play. Victorian attitudes to marriage are the first subject of satire in the play- with Algernon’s “I thought you had come up for pleasure? ... I call that business,” ridiculing the transactional arrangement of marriage between upper-class families to secure or strengthen their social standing. Wilde himself, however, saw the value of marriage in the early years of his life as he married Constance Lloyd- writing in love letters that he “feel[s]
This essay is comparing the 1952 film and the 2002 film, 'The Importance of being Earnest'
The Importance of being Earnest This essay is comparing the 1952 film and the 2002 film, 'The Importance of being Earnest'. This was first a play written in 1895, by Oscar Wilde. This essay is going to express and show the differences and similarities between the two films, using the play script as a reference. 'The Importance of being Earnest' is about two handsome men, who go bunburying. Bunburying is when people make things up, for their convenience, and to get out and not be questioned. Jack and Algy do this to be with the girls they love, the even lie about their names. Earnest means to be truthful, to show your true feelings, and think about the future actions, to be serious, this is why it is important to be Earnest. But this is reverse psychology, as no one is serious in the films. The film 'The Importance of being Earnest' is a comedy or romance. The film catches yours interest, with a good first scene. Also when Jack and Algy pretend to be different people 'Bunburying', and it is hard to keep up, this is very funny and you want to find out what will happen. The second film starts with Algy being chased, making him seem mysterious, and so you want to watch and find out why. The films vary from the play, although some bits have been added in, and taken out, to make the film shorter. In the 2002 film a lot more new scenes have been added in. In the latest film, in
How does Wilde use marriage and courtship to create comedic and dramatic effects in "The Importance of being Earnest"?
The Importance of Being Earnest Coursework How does Wilde use marriage and courtship to create comedic and dramatic effects? At the time when the Importance of being Earnest was written, in 1895, society’s stance on marriage was very different to that of today. In our present society, when some say the idea of marriage is dated and becoming less common, it may be difficult to comprehend how pivotal marriage was to the Victorians. Marrying for love is, surprisingly, a rather new idea. This was rarely the case with Victorian marriages, which were often business proposals. The aim of marriage was to draw profit and higher social status, and to collect the wealth of the other family involved. Failure to adhere to these expectations would be considered out of the norm. Even more rigid than this social rule was the class structure all Victorians abided by, which decreed that no one could marry out of their station, in order to preserve the wealth of the rich. As stated by K Danielová in her thesis on Victorian marriage, “The social class the future partners came from also played an indispensable role… Couples were expected to come from the same social class.” This is seen in the play for instance when Lady Bracknell tells Jack that he should, “acquire some relations as soon as possible,” in order for her to consider his engagement to Gwendolen. Clearly, she means
How far and in what ways does Oscar Wilde challenge these views on gender in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'?
The traditional view of gender relations in the Victorian era was that men were active, manly, assertive and economically independent whilst women were assumed to be passive, pliant and dependant. How far and in what ways does Oscar Wilde challenge these views in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'? Oscar Wilde does challenge these traditional roles in the Importance of Being Earnest deliberately to make humour out of these characteristics. In fact most of the intelligent wit that is in the play stems from the fact that the characters are doing or saying something that one wouldn't expect them to say, the opposite of what they are saying is what would be predicted e.g. "Divorces are made in Heaven". Oscar Wilde works in the same way with the characters, none of them are generally what a stereotypical Victorian man or woman would be. The two main male characters, Jack and Algernon, cannot really be regarded as masculine, or at any rate both of them do not fit the criteria for what characteristics a stereotypical Victorian man would be. Algernon is active up to a certain point; he does go away to the country when he becomes bored of the city and so is in charge of his own life. However, without his ability to be deceitful be would complied to go to Lady Bracknell's dinner parties, so really he is not completely free and wouldn't dare be assertive with Lady Bracknell as she
How Does Wilde Introduce the characters in A Woman Of No Importance
How successful is Oscar Wilde in introducing the characters in 'A Woman of No Importance'? 'A Woman of No Importance' was written in 1892 by Oscar Wilde. In the play Wilde shows the hypocrisy that permeated through the 19th century and he expresses his views on a parochial society. The exposition of the play is pivotal in Wilde's craft as he establishes characters and lays the foundations of the play. The play shows how 19th century, upper-class societies functioned. With hindsight, we can reflect upon Wilde's use of suggestion as he radically expresses his views on the society in which he lived in. Wilde successfully introduces the characters within the exposition and the subtext allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the true nature of all the characters. Wilde immediately introduces us t the character of Lady Caroline, a woman who has been married four times herself, a trait that would be highly disapproved of in the 19th century. Her opinions seem to echo what many women of her status may have thought about the goings on in a 19th century society. She is persistent in patronising Miss Worsley and takes amusement in insulting her about her American heritage. 'I am not sure Miss Worsley, that foreigners like you should cultivate likes or dislikes'. This statement shows that Lady Caroline places herself above Miss Worsley in society, although she is a Lady, and
The Importance of Being Earnest - 'We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an age of ideals' what are these ideals in the context of the play in Act One, and how does Wilde present them to the audience?
'We live, as I hope you know, Mr Worthing, in an age of ideals' what are these ideals in the context of the play in Act One, and how does Wilde present them to the audience? In 'The Importance of Being Earnest', ideals are a dominant theme, and to that end are critical in determining the actions of the characters. Wilde is typically subtle in his presentation of these ideals, and consequently many of them come to be used as a means for satirising the society depicted. It is important to establish from the outset that Wilde's presentation of ideals utilizes the different characters as bastions for the various ideals, and in doing that subjects them to scrutiny when ridiculing their respective characterizations. One of the most important ideals presented is fittingly one of the first to become apparent; that being the division of the classes and the social status that they entail. On line 1 of the play, Algernon asks Lane, after playing the piano in the adjoining room: 'Did you hear what I was playing. Lane?' Lane's response: 'I didn't think it polite to listen, sir' is indicative of various aspects of his position. Firstly, his butlership requires that he should abstain from partaking in any activity considered to be distracting to his duties, of which listening to the piano would be one. Secondly, his position in society, that of one of the lower classes, demands utter
' The Importance of Being Earnest' is a comedy of manors written by Oscar Wilde. He makes use of epigrammatic talk in the play to create humour.
"Brilliant epigrammatic talk" ' The Importance of Being Earnest' is a comedy of manors written by Oscar Wilde. He makes use of epigrammatic talk in the play to create humour. Initially in the conversation between Algernon and Lane that opens the play. Lane is shown to be a witty character in this scene as he almost undermines a lot of Algernon's comments with disagreements. The wit is introduced in the fact that Lane undermines Algernon in such a way that Algernon himself does not realise. Algernon says, "Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?" and Lane replies, "I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir." Lane's use of the noun 'sir' makes Algernon believe he is being polite, however we know that Lane is undermining Algernon's apparent views on marriage. Study the linguistic analysis of turn-taking in this scene we can see that Algernon seems to control the conversation but Lane's statements are very short and blunt. However, instead of being polite when Lane replies 'yes sir' it is meant sarcastically to undermine Algernon. Wilde uses Lane's wit at the very opening of the play to make a controversial statement on how he thinks the upper class are dim-witted. He shows Algernon to be slow on the uptake compared to Lane, the mere servant, to be quick witted and undermine Algernon without him even realising it. The next scene I would consider uses epigrammatic