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Wilde importance of being earnest as a farcical comedy
Wilde's use of irony
Wilde importance of being earnest as a farcical comedy
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Oscar Wilde, the author of The Importance of Being Earnest, was most definitely a peculiar character. This is present in his writings, particularly in the aforementioned work. The Importance of Being Earnest uses unusual situations and striking puns to produce a humor that would be enjoyed by nearly all peoples.
The Importance of Being Earnest was nearly a Victorian example of an episode of 'Seinfeld.'; The characters contained within often find themselves in the most peculiar of situations, so strange that we can find them humorous. They even, at times, seem to represent situations in which we may find ourselves involved. One such example is in Act One, where Jack realizes that Gwendolyn loves the name Ernest. He tries through several ways to talk to her and find out if she could love him if his name was Jack. She considers the entire question to be hypothetical and unimportant, since she's always known him to be Ernest. The entire dialogue that occurs during the discussion has humorous pieces that add to the colorful nature of the play. One piece of the dialogue is spoken by Jack, where he says, 'Gwendolyn, I must get christened at once—I mean, we must get married at once.'; Wilde shows how society would tend to care about what was on the outside of a person, such as their name or wealth, rather than their character.
Another such example of this situation is when Algernon is speaking to Cecily in regards to their engagement. Cecily knows Algernon to be Jack's brother, Ernest, and is in love with the name the same as Gwendolyn. Algernon tries to inquire, in a similar manner whether Cecily could love him if he bore another name, such as Algernon. Cecily responds in a similar manner. Wilde found one piece to be humorous, and as a result included it into the first Act. He then decided to repeat a similar situation in the second Act of the play.
Another example of Wilde's use of humor is in his witty remarks and epigrams. By using these devices, it adds color to a character, and helps to balance them well against others instead of creating a 'flat'; appearance. The most prominent character that demonstrates these attributes is Algernon, whose timing throughout the story is impeccable. In Act One, after Jack has finished speaking to Lady Bracknell about marrying Gwendolyn, Lady Bracknell exits the room.
Fatima is a 30-year-old single mother of 2 young children. She works 50-hour weeks to support and care for her family and has little time to relax on her own. Fatima does not smoke, in truth, she cannot afford to. All of her money goes to her children. Fatima eats along with her kids every day, but often cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables for their dinner, often the family eats processed foods (boxed macaroni and cheese, frozen pizza, etc.). Fatima has long suffered from fatigue and the occasional chest pain but cannot afford to go to the doctor. One day, she fainted and was diagnosed with hypertension at the hospital.
Another symbol, though it may not be called to mind as quickly as food, is Lady Bracknell. Throughout the story, especially in Act III, she is the picture of the high-class in all its pride. Her character's purpose in the story is so witty on Wilde's part that it's comical in itself. She believes that for the high-class anything is possible, and a well-respected, dignified marriage is a key to more power, which is ironic because her character isn't power-hungry. Her pride is easily identified when Lady Bracknell asks Jack where his house is located in London by asking, "What number in Belgrave Square?" to which Jack answers, "149." and she replies, "The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. But that could easily be altered." Jack asks, "Do you mean the fashion, or the side?" and she says, "B...
In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” is an early Victorian melodramatic play. This play is very honest and frank. It is a satire, comedy of errors, and an intellectual farce. There are two main characters, Algernon and Jack. Jack Worthing, is known by Jack when he is living at his own country estate, but when he goes into city, London; he creates a fictional character called ‘Earnest.’ Algernon has created a fictional character named ‘Bunbury.’ Algernon uses Bunbury to get him out of prior engagements. This helps him get out of the house and clear his head whenever he wants. Although their both the characters situations are different, both created an “alter-ego” to help them get away from their own lives and also to live another life. They are best friends; both have the same social background, class and taste. Between Jack and Algernon, Jack is more serious about his life; he creates a fictional character to help him keep his image of being humble and respectable intact but in truth is vain. On the other hand, Algernon is truthful about himself and he goes against the Victorian values. But society loves him anyway as he accepts that he is not formal or conservative, or proper and he is rough around the edges but he’s funny, witty and smart. Although Wilde creates two characters in Jack and Algernon who are similar in social class, age, tastes, etc., he also carefully creates subtle character differences between them that create conflict and humor in the play.
Jack’s persona ‘Earnest’ has been described by Miss Prism as “irretrievably weak and vacillating” (701.35). Not only that, but Jack uses his persona of Earnest to make it seem like Jack adheres to notions of duty, honor and respectability all the while getting into mischief in London as his fake brother Ernest. Jack has shown that he will even lie to his loved ones his persona in order to get away with misbehaving and be seen as upright and moral. Later into the play Jack and his double life collide when the woman he loves starts to love his alter ego Earnest, although Ernest was an escape Jack used for his personal life but when his personal life and his real life collide he has to embrace his deception to get the life that he truly
The Importance of Being Earnest, a trivial Comedy is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on February 14 1895, it is a comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious identities to escape demanding social obligations. Throughout the play,
...erpreted as dark and significant to the period. The comedy Wilde achieves is at the expense of the characters who are seemingly intelligent adding to the ironic structure that much of the comedy is based on. Many of the comic elements of the play are shown through human reactions to Victorian repression and the effect it has on the men and women of the time. Love seems to be nonexistent within the finds of the fierce and brutal Aristocracy when so many of the qualities they value are not based on human qualities but that of the class’s social norms. Wildes Characters are at often times not subtle about their distaste in marriage and love, Algernon is no exception to this “In aried lie, three is company, two is none” showing that they all have distorted views on many of the social practices that make them morally sound, thus adding to the satire elements of the play.
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...
The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded as one of the most successful plays written by Oscar Wilde, a great 19th century playwright. Oscar Wilde deals with something unique about his contemporary age in this drama. It addresses Victorian social issues, French theatre, farce, social drama and melodrama. All these factors influenced the structure of the play in a large scale. This play is basically a Victorian satirical drama showcasing the social, political, economic and religious structural changes that affected 18th century England. It was the time when British Empire had captured most part of the world including Oscar Wilde’s homeland, Ireland. The aristocrats of England had become dominant over the middle and poor class people and Wilde wrote plays with the motivation to encourage people to think against the English aristocracy and artificiality.
By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19). Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason, think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
In Oscar Wilde’s drama The Importance of Being Earnest, he uses light-hearted tones and humor to poke fun at British high society while handling the serious theme of truth and the true identity of who is really “Earnest.” Truth as theme is most significantly portrayed through the women characters, Gwendolen and Cecily but to present serious themes comically, Wilde portrays women to be the weaker sex of society, despite the seriousness of the subject—the identity of the men they want to marry.
Satire in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a play by Oscar Wilde, set in the late 1800's. His actors are playing upper class citizens who are very self-absorbed. The play is set amongst upper class, wealthy people. They appear not to work and are concerned with their own pleasure.
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde plays around with the standard expectations along with the absence of compassion of a Victorian society in the 1890’s, he demonstrates this through several genres of comedy such as Melodrama, Comedy of Manners, Farce, dark humour and Irony, as well as portraying the themes, death and illness, in this play in a brilliance of unusual amount of references.
At the end the farce turns to be an idyll of wish-fulfillment- Cecily wishes to be engaged to Earnest and it happens so, Jack declares that he is called Earnest and he is in fact, Algy pretends to be Jack's young brother and it comes true too. The characters' fantasies are brought to life at the end of the play. Their double life is not a hypocrisy. They mock the laws and the customs of the society in which they live. The characters challenge society's values, free themselves from their rigid norms and at the end of the play they manage to regain their balance and become earnest.
The pun on the word "Earnest" suggests two things; it stands for the name but also refers to honesty and integrity. It is also known as a `one joke' or a play on words. Though the name is spelt as "Ernest" the reader still recognizes the double meaning of the title. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationships base on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a `scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack,
In the play, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde ridicules and identifies the negative aspects of Victorian society through comedic dialogue. He uses characters with ridiculous personalities to demonstrate his idea of Victorian life. By making absurd scenes with foolish characters, it is his way of mocking the Victorian lifestyle passive aggressively.