• Comedy of Manners – style of drama that makes fun
of well-bred, polite high society
• Satire – a literary technique in which ideas, customs,
behaviors, or institutions are ridiculed for the purpose
of improving society
• Wit – a form of intelligent humor; the ability to say or
write things that are clever and unusually funny
• Pun - a play on words; often suggests dual meanings
of words or similar sounds
• Epigram - a rhetorical device that is a memorable,
brief, interesting and surprising satirical statement
Literary Terminology
• Farce – a type of comedy that uses of highly
exaggerated, humorous situations aimed at
entertaining the audience; have one dimensional
characters and fast-paced plot
The Importance of
Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Essential Targets for The Importance of Being Earnest
• What elements of humor does Oscar Wilde use in the play?
• What is a pun?
• What is an epigram?
• What is a farce?
• What is the definition of satire?
• What is the basic plot of the play?
• What is the central theme of the play?
• What are the stereotypical roles portrayed by the
characters in the play?
• How does the play criticize the shallowness, social codes,
and decorum of the Victorian society?
Oscar Wilde
About the Author:
Oscar Wilde
• Born 1854 in Ireland; lived in England and
abroad
• Born to an upper class family; father (doctor)
and mother (poet)
• Attended Trinity College in Ireland and
Oxford University (studied the classics) in
England
• Died 1900 in Paris
http://www.biography.com/people/oscar-wilde-9531078
Oscar Wilde: The Man
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”---Oscar Wilde
• Rebelled against the prudish, moral, religious culture of Victorian England
• Considered a “dandy” – a man who paid excessive attention to his physical
appearance
• Known as the wild, flamboyant, witty, well-educated “bad boy” of his time
• Married with children; engaged in homosexual relationships including an
affair with Lord Alfred Douglas “Bosie”
• Homosexuality was illegal in England until 1967; served 2 years hard labor;
scandalous
• Spent the remainder of his life isolated and poor in Paris
Oscar Wilde: The Writer
"Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.” ---Wilde
• Wrote several plays, essays, children’s fairy tales, but only one novel,
The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Aesthete (Lectured on the Philosophy of Aesthetics)
• Believed in the value of “art for art’s sake” - art should avoid
social, political, and moral themes and concentrate instead on
creating beauty
• Life should attempt to imitate art
• Perfected the style of comedy of manners – making fun of
well-bred, polite high society
• The audience essentially paid to laugh at themselves.
Victorian Period: Review
• British Empire = 25% of the world
• Period of peace, prosperity, refinement, national self-confidence
(and contradiction)
• Appearance in dress and manners believed to indicate inward
morality
• Strict social codes of conduct; morality substituted for religion
• Social and sexual restraint were a high public and private priority
• English society was divided into classes: aristocratic families “old
money,” growing middle class “new money,” working classes,
poor
Victorian Period:
Expectations of Gender
• Young women were always chaperoned until
they were married.
• Women’s clothing covered them from neck to
ankle; clothes had to be modest.
• Marriage often had more to do with achieving
and maintaining social status than with love.
Victorian Fashion
• For the Ladies
Victorian Fashion
• For the
Gentlemen
Etiquette
INTRODUCTIONS
LEAVING CARDS
PAYING CALLS
PRECEDENCY
THE COLLOQUIAL APPLICATION OF TITLES
POINTS OF ETIQUETTE AS REGARDS ROYAL PERSONAGES
POINTS OF ETIQUETTE WHEN TRAVELLING ABROAD, AND
PRESENTATIONS AT FOREIGN COURTS
THE RECEIVED MODE OF PRONOUNCING CERTAIN SURNAMES
PRESENTATIONS AT COURTS AND ATTENDING COURTS…
---From MANNERS AND RULES OF GOOD SOCIETY
The Importance of Being Earnest
• Written in 1895
• Bridges Victorian and Modern Periods
• A satirical comedy in 3 acts
• Criticizes Victorian moral and social values
• Uses wit, puns, exaggeration, and wordplay to
create humor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6au_dDoHBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMTpQfFypIs
Settings
• Time: Around 1890
• Place(s):
• London (“the City”)
• Jack’s House in the
Country (a very large
estate)
• The village church
The PloT:
Jack Worthington, a man of means, lives a double life: Jack in
the country and Ernest in the city. In the country he cares for
his ward, the lovely Cecily. In the city, he enjoys the freedom
of a wild bachelor. However, he has come to the city this time
to propose to Gwendolen, the daughter of Lady Bracknell and
cousin of Algernon Montclief. Algernon is a dandy who also
lives a double life to avoid society’s obligations. Lady
Bracknell (That’s Aunt Augusta to Algernon.) disapproves of
Jack/Ernest’s desire to marry Gwendolen because he does not
have the social standing she expects for her daughter.
(Gwendolen, by the way, adores Jack/Ernest, though she does
not know about his life as Jack…so the play begins!