The Comedic Element in The Importance of Earnest

583 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Discuss satire in importance of being earnest by wilde

A comedic movie, play, or book should have more importance in the world than it currently does. On any given night, if someone were to watch the news or read the newspaper, they would see just how dire and depressing the world actually is. It is important to take the time now and then to have a good laugh to ease the tension that the news can cause. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a witty and amusing comedy that conveys real-life everyday themes such as real love as opposed to selfish love, religion, marriage, being truthful, and country life as opposed to city life. This play shows a striking similarity to many of the remarkable yet amusing circumstances of sitcoms seen on television today. To say that a comedy begins in error and confusion and ends in knowledge, recognition, and self-discovery is a very accurate description, especially when referring to The Importance of Being Earnest. There are countless instances in the play for the first characteristics of a comedy: error and confusion. Many of these occurrences involve Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. Near the beginning of the play, Jack and Algernon are discussing the matter of the cigarette case and who it belongs to. This leads to the admission from Jack about his true country identity. Here, Jack must explain to Algernon why he is calling his niece Cecily his aunt and why his alter ego is actually Earnest and that Jack is his true identity. Another comical situation is when Jack returns to the country and tells everyone that his "brother" Earnest has been killed by severe chill when, unbeknownst to him, Algernon has come to the country that very day claiming to be Earnest. It is exciting to see how the characters will get themselves out of the middle of the confusion. In the end, the characters discover who they really are, and as luck would have it, they are brothers who were separated during their childhood. Jack discovers that his name has actually been Earnest all along: "I've realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest" (Wilde 1924). The Importance of Being Earnest is a fantastic play; it is truly a great work of English literature. It makes light of love, marriage, and religion, which are issues that people take very seriously, and that is what everybody needs is to lighten up sometimes. Despite the fact that it was written in the Victorian era, the witty comedic themes are still relevant in today's society, which makes the play all the more entertaining and relatable.
Works Cited
Wilde, Oscar. "The Importance of Being Earnest." The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 2A. Edited by David Damrosch, New York: Longman, 2002, pp. 1185-1924.

Show More
Related

  • Importance Of Being Earnest Movie Vs Play Analysis

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone always says the story is always better than the movie, let’s say it’s always the truth. ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a theatrical play about two men Jack and Algy. Jack is a man from the country who lies saying his name is earnest when he goes into the city, he is very in love with Algy’s cousin Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell is Gwendolen’s mothers who very much does not like jack what so ever. Algy is a man in very much debt who ends up falling in love with Jacks ward Cecily, he also has some lies about who is. The whole point of lying about who they both are was to get away from the everyday lives they lived and not worry about being found out. In 2002 this famous play was turned into a movie, sadly though a lot of scenes were

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Earnest Essay

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    This is the first example. Jack, Ernest Worthing, is a close friend of Algernon’s who has made up a fake brother that gets him out of situations. His name is Ernest. So when Jack is in the country, he is himself and goes by Jack. When he wants to go to the town, he tells people he has to go rescue his delinquent brother named Earnest, and then goes by Ernest when he gets there. It’s his own personal bunbury. Seeing that this is harmless because he doesn’t do anything illegal or dangerous, it is still lying about his true

    Read More

  • A play that comes to life

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plot devices play a major role in creating character development. The first plot device used in the movie is flashbacks. Flashbacks in the “Importance of Being Earnest” movie allow the audience to get a better understanding of the story line by providing background information through imagery. In the play version a flashback scene reveals Jack’s true identity and opens up with the use of dialogue. In Act 3, Lady Bracknell asks “Prism! Where is the baby?” Miss Prism response is “I left it in the cloak-room of one of the large railway stations in London. (Wilde 1464). The play production uses the lines directly from the script. The dialogue exchange between Miss. Prism and Lady Bracknell only gives the audience a little in...

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oscar Wildes ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’’ is believed by many to be his most genius work and certainly has withstood the test of time. The play is set in London during the 1890’s in which time frame aristocracy and upper class held the majority of the countries wealth. Many of the comical aspects question the morals of the upper class in which he satirises throughout the play. One method of this, for instance is through one of the main protagonist, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon is an upper class individual who is oblivious to the world around him in such an exaggerated manner that it makes his character comically adjusted for Wildes own views. Many aspects of the time period are made a mockery through puns and witty remarks from the main protagonists, most if not all are portrayed in a sense that makes them undoubtedly a laughing stock. Wildes methods are not discrete; nor are they obvious, many of the comical comments made are by none other than the protagonists themselves. This furthermore enforces the corrupted morals of the time periods prestigious upper class by showing their sheer inability to acknowledge hypocrisy. For example, in act one; Algernon states “ Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.” This is especially amusing as Algernon believes that the lower class have a duty to set an example when in reality the matter of fact was quite the contrary. Algernon states that he believes the lower class are lacking in morals, he being arguably one of the most morally distorted characters Wilde created makes the double standards more prominent.

    Read More

  • Satire In Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest

    881 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, play carefully uses satire as a didactic tool to mask the underlying social commentary with the help of comedy through characters theme and dialogue. Wilde uses satire to ridicule class and wealth, marriage and the ignorance of the Victorian Age. Audiences are continually amused by Wilde’s use of linguistic and comic devices such as double entendre, puns, paradox and epigrams, especially in the case of social commentary and didactic lessons. Characters portrayed in the play such as Jack, Cecily, Algernon and Lady Bracknell, allow Wilde to express his opinions on the social problems during the Victorian Age.

    Read More

  • Gender and Consistency in "The Importance of Being Earnest"

    1833 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Tartuffe Hypocrisy Essay

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.

    Read More

  • Social Order Satire in "The Importance of Being Ernest"

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone,” engraves Oscar Wilde as he sets the literary table with a bountiful demonstration of Victorian satire. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is evidently a comic critic of late Victorian value (Schmidt 5). Brought into this world from Dublin, Ireland, to well-heeled parents in 1854. Wilde received an opportunity for social improvement when graduating from Oxford University, after receiving a financial scholarship that gave him a first hand account of the upper crust society lifestyle which allowed him to acquire material to poke fun at (Moss 179). Wilde shows his characters as if they knew that people where watching them. By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19).

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Being Earnest Laughter Essay

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Importance of Being Earnest Written, written in 1854, by Oscar Wilde, discusses many social matters occurring in the 19th century. Since The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy, it “awakens thoughtful laughter” (George Meredith). This comedic play often awakens thoughtful laughter, or laughter that makes someone ponder more about important issues. One of many of the primary instances of this is created by the ideas of marriage and love is a social device during this era. The characters didn’t fall in love because there was a romantic spark or that they felt a love connection with one another, they fell in love because the people they loved had a specific name, history, physical characteristics or economic status.

    Read More

  • Use of Humor in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    Use of Humor in Romeo and Juliet & nbsp; Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. One. could give many reasons as to why this play became such a huge success, but one of the most important reasons could be the use of humour in the play. The main reason for doing this could be to relieve the tensions in the play. and to entertain and keep the Elizabethan audience interested. &

    Read More

  • Satire in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Death In The Importance Of Being Earnest

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

    383 Words  | 1 Pages

    Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is full of irony. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, the protagonists in the play, get themselves into a complicated situation called Bunburyism (as Algernon refers to it). They pretend to be someone that they are not to escape their daily lives. They lie to the women they admire, and eventually the truth is revealed.

    Read More

  • The Double Life in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde's play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others' lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they liberate themselves from the repressive norms of society. They have the freedom to create themselves and use their double identities to give themselves the opportunity to show opposite sides of their characters. They mock every custom of the society and challenge its values. This creates not only the comic effect of the play but also makes the audience think of the serious things of life.

    Read More

  • Satire in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners, whereby Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule marriage, love and the mentality of the Victorian aristocratic society. It can also be referred to as a satiric comedy. What is a satire and what is Oscar Wilde trying to emphasize by employing it in his play? A satiric comedy ridicules political policies or attacks deviations from social order by making ridiculous, the violators of its standards of morals or manners. Usually, a satiric piece doesn't serve only as a form of criticism, but to correct flaws in the characters or to somehow make them better in the end.

    Read More

More about The Comedic Element in The Importance of Earnest

Open Document