' 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.

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"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.
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The next scene I would consider uses epigrammatic talk is the scene where Cecily and Gwendolen discover they are both engaged to Ernest. The girls have a war of words making offensive remarks while the other shoots straight back with an even more offensive comeback. One example of this is when Cecily is talking about being able to see five counties from the top of the hill. Gwendolen remarks, "Five counties! I don't think I should like that; I hate crowds." This remark is meant to demoralize Cecily's view of her previously complimented grounds and house. However, Cecily ...

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