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The importance of theatre and its role in society
Theatre and society
The importance of theatre and its role in society
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When deciding what element a play should contain, one must look at a large variety of options. These options can alter how the audience depicts the play and change their overall opinions. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play set around 1895 where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, takes on two identities in order to avoid social obligations. This play’s era affects how the characters are dressed and how their households appear. To begin with, each character is dressed in a specific way. Knowing that the play was published during the Victorian era affected my personal decisions for their proper attire. For men, sharply tailored morning suits and silk cravats were in fashion. Hats were worn at the majority of times, even when outdoors.Vests and flannel suits became increasingly fashionable during the 1890s, worn especially during the summer months. Algernon’s clothing is shown to be a black, buttoned up, …show more content…
Female attire tended to fall into two categories: tailored suits and ball dresses, reflecting the way of life for the more wealthy. During this time, dresses tended to extend out in the shape of a bell where the end of the skirt was flared. To further describe how these dresses appeared, in an essay by James Laver, he remarks, “It is impossible to put a photograph of a fashionable woman of 1895 beside a photograph of a lamp of the same period without being struck by their close resemblance in every detail. The unmistakable sweep of the Art Nouveau line was completely parallel in the dresses of the time, in particular by the fall and swirl of the skirt.” The characters Gwendolen and Cecily are wearing ball dresses like the ones described in the Victorian era in my sketch. Their dresses are shown to be tighter in the waste (flattering their body shape) and become much wider toward the end. On the shoulders of the dresses, it fluffs up to add a decorative
Victorian Fashion refers to the styles and clothing worn before and during the Civil War era of the United States, 1860-1900. This era was filled with a very difficult way of dressing oneself and to deviate from this line of dress was unheard of, and worthy of being outcaste. Victorian women’s clothing was layers, heavy, and barely manageable to even wear. Many different articles made up the full garment such as the undergarments, the skirt, top, shoes, accessories, and even the hair. How did women ready themselves for the day in this era and how did they deal with all the cumbersome attire?
Representative of the Victorian society by abiding the ideals of its age intensely, the ladies in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford deem “appearance” and “propriety” in every conceivable way of utmost importance. In Cranford, we are presented a population formed of elderly ladies who either got divorced, got widowed, or had never been married. Their only income – bearing in mind that they are not involved in trade or labour-work as they consider such occupations as “vulgar” – is most probably family fortune. However, the rise of a laborious, industrial middle-class that forms the nouveau-riche capsizes the previously established class system, leaving aristocracy, hence the ladies of Cranford, without the economic power they hitherto had. The ladies of Cranford thus exert their “aristocratic power” by holding on to their noble titles and elegant past through their behaviour and outwear – elements that form their idea of “appearance”. Headwear especially has had great significance in terms of displaying power and status in Europe through centuries yet blooms in the Victorian era, having an immense effect. Ergo, in such a society, the obsession Cranford ladies have with fashionable headgear to carry on a certain aristocratic image is justified. However, none other than the turban stands for paradoxical concepts on its own. I will therefore analyse how a turban symbolizes binary opposites in Cranford: Occident versus Orient; “civilized” versus “savage”; aristocracy versus lower-class and female versus male by doing close-readings of relevant passages from the novel.
Attending balls was a great way to show off your wealth through wardrobe and attract suitors. The Bennet sisters would have to dress for this event by typically wearing full length gowns with low necklines which would show off their bare skin. The dress would have short puffy sleeves and detail in the long skirts would have ribbon, lace, or embroidery. Their hair would be full of ornaments and ravishing jewelry would be worn, and gloves covered their hands while they hold on to fans. The dresses would be made of high-quality silk, which at the time, silk was only affordable by the wealthy. The expense didn’t end there, under the dress, petticoats and silk stockings would be worn by the ladies. Balls’ only purpose wasn’t to socialize, but to show off your wealth by
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.
Not all plays are character-driven, in fact a great many are not. So if the characters are not what keep the audience intrigued, well then what does? There are many possible answers to this question. Paper Wheat uses the history of a group of people, a specific message commenting on a time period, spectacle elements such as song and dance, and the genre of comedy to keep its audience both engaged and entertained.
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.
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.
Victorian clothing changed hand in hand with societies’ development throughout the 19th century. From the moment children were born to the moment they became young adults, there were expectations of how they should look and act. These “limits” and “guidelines” were always changing, and the new shapes and styles of clothing always followed. In the new and improved societies, children’s clothing was a very big part of their everyday life, as it still is now. Children’s clothing truly represented the society as a whole, during the Victorian era. The idea of an always changing and improving society is fully shown in both Victorian boy’s and girl’s fashion. They went from looking like miniature versions of their parents, to children, who could actually play and not be
Review of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde definitely proved itself to be “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” I saw the play at State University’s State Theatre. The play was long, in a three-act structure, yet it moved along at a good pace.
Freeman S. (2004). In Style: Femininity and Fashion since the Victorian Era. Journal of Women's History; 16(4): 191–206
uncovered the shoulders revealing lavish necklaces. The goal of women’s clothing was to be elegant and full of character at the same time (Middle Ages Ladies dresses).
In the case of Tissot’s The Lady in Pink, her dress is not for public as in “general public” like one might think. Rather this dress is referred to as an “indoor” dress, a dress that would not be worn out on the streets but for entertaining guest. Unlike the pink peignoir of Manet’s Young Lady from 1866 (fig. 2), Tissot’s figure is adorned in the most in-demand fashion of the time. While Manet’s young lady is presented to us in her dressing gown, Tissot’s young lady is in an elaborate gown donned with metallic elements which were made to be seen. Tissot’s lady in pink is not dressed to aid in her own private reflection, but dressed for the viewer’s consumption.
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.
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.
The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was set in the late 1800’s when a woman needed a man to make her someone. This play portrays two young men pretending to be someone they’re not to win the affection of Gwendolen and Cecily, two women they have just recently met. Gwendolen and Cecily, blind for love, ignored all the “red flags” a woman born in the 21st-century couldn’t forget or forgive.