Assignment Writing : Paper 104 ( Literature of the Victorians )
Hello Beautiful People,
This blog is Assignment writing on Paper 104 (Literature of the Victorians)assigned by Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavsinhji Bhavangar University (MKBU).
The
Importance of Being Earnest as a Comedy of Manners
J Introduction:
The Importance of Being Earnest, A
Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on
14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy
in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome
social obligations.
Teachers and parents! The Importance of Being Earnest is a comic play by
Oscar Wilde that engages themes such as marriage, class, social expectations,
and the lifestyles of … The play's central Her satire was so polished that it
would make the audience burst in uproarious laughter.
So Firstly we see that comedy of manner as Importance of Being Earnest. Importance of Being Earnest
the Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play
by Oscar Wilde.
J Brief Introduction of Importance of
Being Earnest:
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is
a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's
Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain
fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the
social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the
triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the
resulting satire of Victorian ways. Some contemporary reviews praised the
play's humour and the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were
cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue
have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly
popular play.
At the beginning of Act I, Jack drops in unexpectedly on Algernon and
announces that he intends to propose to Gwendolen. Algernon confronts him with
the cigarette case and forces him to come clean, demanding to know who “Jack”
and “Cecily” are. Jack confesses that his name isn’t really Ernest and that
Cecily is his ward, a responsibility imposed on him by his adoptive father’s
will. Jack also tells Algernon about his fictional brother. Jack says he’s been
thinking of killing off this fake brother, since Cecily has been showing too
active an interest in him. Without meaning to, Jack describes Cecily in terms
that catch Algernon’s attention and make him even more interested in her than
he is already.
In Act II, Algernon shows up at Jack’s country estate posing as Jack’s
brother Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack, having decided that Ernest has outlived his
usefulness, arrives home in deep mourning, full of a story about Ernest having
died suddenly in Paris. He is enraged to find Algernon there masquerading as
Ernest but has to go along with the charade. If he doesn’t, his own lies and
deceptions will be revealed.
In Act III takes place in the
drawing room of the Manor House, where Cecily and Gwendolen have retired. When
Jack and Algernon enter from the garden, the two women confront them. Cecily
asks Algernon why he pretended to be her guardian’s brother. Algernon tells her
he did it in order to meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack whether he pretended to
have a brother in order to come into London to see her as often as possible,
and she interprets his evasive reply as an affirmation. The women are somewhat
appeased but still concerned over the issue of the name. However, when Jack and
Algernon tell Gwendolen and Cecily that they have both made arrangements to be
christened Ernest that afternoon, all is forgiven and the two pairs of lovers
embrace. At this moment, Lady Bracknell’s arrival is announced.
Worthing, the play’s protagonist,
is a pillar of the community in Hertfordshire, where he is guardian to Cecily
Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-year-old granddaughter of the late Thomas Cardew,
who found and adopted Jack when he was a baby. In Hertfordshire, Jack has
responsibilities: he is a major landowner and justice of the peace, with
tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and other employees all dependent on
him. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible black-sheep
brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life in pursuit of pleasure and is
always getting into trouble of a sort that requires Jack to rush grimly off to
his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely Jack’s alibi, a phantom that allows
him to disappear for days at a time and do as he likes. No one but Jack knows
that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, which is
where he really goes on these occasions—probably to pursue the very sort of
behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his imaginary brother.
Jack Worthing is a fashionable young
man who lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew. He has invented a
rakish brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to
travel to London periodically to rescue him. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax,
the cousin of his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack’s name
is Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their
marriage because Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag at Victoria
Station. Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in order to
woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary rogue Ernest.
Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell’s nephew, that his
real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his brother. The play ends
with both couples happily united.
J What is meaning of Comedy Of Manners ?
Comedy of manners, witty, cerebral
form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and
affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with
social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social
standards. Often the governing social standard is morally trivial but exacting.
The plot of such a comedy, usually concerned with an illicit love affair or
similarly scandalous matter, is subordinate to the play’s brittle atmosphere,
witty dialogue, and pungent commentary on human foibles.
He comedy of manners, which was
usually written by sophisticated authors for members of their own coterie or
social class, has historically thrived in periods and societies that combined
material prosperity and moral latitude. Such was the case in ancient Greece
when Menander (c. 342–c. 292 BC).
One of the greatest exponents of the
comedy of manners was Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of
17th-century French society in such plays as L’École des femmes (1662; The
School for Wives) and Le Misanthrope (1666; The Misanthrope).
J The Importance of Being Earnest as a
Comedy of Manners:
The Importance of Being Earnest is an enlightening example of comedy of
manners as it makes fun of the behavior of Victorian aristocracy which attaches
great value to hypocrisy, frivolity, superficiality, artificiality and money
mindedness. The Victorian upper class society judged things by appearance and
the present play makes us laugh at those values by turning them upside-down
through a language which is satirical, funny and witty.
Different characters in the play embody those values and provide us
insight into the upper-class society of the Victorian period. The play centers
on the questions of identity, love, marriage and money.
Wilde's basic purpose in writing the play was to expose and prove as a
sham the norms and values of the Victorian aristocracy. That society stressed
respectability, seriousness and decency, but it was very different from what it
appeared to be. What needed to qualify for marriage was wealth and good family
background. Lady Bracknell rejected Jack as the candidate for Gwendolen, after
she knew that he was a foundling. While asking him questions she gave last
priority to his abilities and education and gave importance to family
background. When she came to know that there is a handsome amount of money in
Cecily's account she is ready to get her married to Algernon. The two female
characters Cecily and Gwendolen love their respective boys just for the beauty
of their name 'Earnest'. They find everything in the name and love for the
name. The boys prefer the name Earnest but they lack seriousness. It is a
satire on the society that gives priority to appearances and surfaces. It is
hypocrisy of the concerned people. The dialogue used in the play is funny and
witty. The clever exchange between the characters are beautiful on the surface
and hollow inside. The artificiality and paradox embedded in the dialogue well
matches the sham and hypocritical values and pretensions of the people targeted
by satire.
Thus, The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners as it uses
light hearted language to evoke laughter at the false values of the Victorian
upper society.
The Importance of Being Earnest is a
comedy of manners which scarcely has any action. It is based on dialogue, which
takes the form of paradoxes, epigrams and irony. This produces a great comic
effect upon the readers and the audience. The play contains abundant
paradoxical statements, witty epigrams, ironical or sarcastic remarks that are
made by the characters in the course of their interaction. This evokes laughter
and humour of the audience.
A paradox is a statement which appears
to be self-contradictory but it is essentially true; or it may mean a statement
expressing an idea which is contrary to the established opinion. Almost every
character in The Importance of Being Earnest makes paradoxical remarks which
are witty. We all accept the view that truth is always pure and simple, but
Algernon remarks:
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility". Jack makes a number of paradoxical remarks. On seeing tea-cups and cucumber sandwiches laid out for tea, he says, "Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young?
"Gwendolen also gives
paradoxical statements when her mother Lady Bracknell does not give her
approval to Jack's proposal of marriage: "The old-fashioned respect for
the young is dying out". Lady Bracknell is, of course, a master of paradox
in the play. When she finds Cecily affluent, she immediately approves of her
marriage to her nephew Algernon, " who has nothing but his debts to depend
upon". During a heated argument, Lady Bracknell confesses, "I dislike
arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing".
Irony is the recognition of the
incongruity or difference between reality and appearance. It lies in the
contrast between what is said and what is actually meant. The Importance of
Being Earnest contains plenty of comic irony which is a kind of mockery or
deception and its force derives from the pleasure in contrasting 'appearances'
with 'reality'. For example, when Lady Bracknell has been nasty to Jack, he
remarks, "How extremely kind of you, Lady Bracknell!
"Algernon goes to Jack's country house, in the guise of his younger
brother just when Jack arrives there to announce Ernest's 'death' from a severe
chill in Paris. This gives rise to several funny situations and verbal
skirmishes between the two friends, who later turn out to be brothers.
The play uses satirical language to turn their values upside down and
make us laugh considering the way they judge things by appearance. A language
that is funny and witty has also been used to describe the upper class of the
Victorian society. The main themes that the play bases on are love, identity,
marriage as well as money. Wilde who is the author of the play had an intention
of exposing the norms and values of the upper class individuals of the
Victorian society and to prove them as shame. The fact is that besides the
society stressing on values like respectability, decency and seriousness, its
practices are totally different from these values. In order for any marriage to
take place, the involved parties must be certified in terms of wealth as well
as family background. From the play, we find that lady Bracknell rejected the
marriage between Gewendolin and Jack simply because Jack was foundling. During
her conversation with Jack, the lady gave priority to the family background
without considering the education and other abilities that Jack had. She even
did not consider the love that existed between Jack and Gewendolin.
When she notices that Cecily’s account has a lot of money, she predicts
that the cash must have come from her boyfriend Algernon and stands ready to
support their marriage. Therefore, it is the beauty of the boyfriend’s name
that makes him qualify as a candidate for marriage other than his qualities and
abilities. Both Cecily and Gewendolin are ready to marry their boyfriends only
because of their name “earnest” as opposed to what they feel for them. They
seem to be driven by the notion that has long existed in their society which
requires them to be married by men from capable and financially stable
backgrounds. To them, wealth is a key requirement for marriage. “The play
describes them as people who find everything in the name and love for name”
(Wilde 84).
JConclusion:
A comedy of manners is a descriptive term applied to a play whose comedy
comes from social habits of a specified society. The play normally bases on the
dominant members of the society. The social habits involve the manners and the
morals practiced in the specified society. The play normally features the
conduct and social status of the upper classes in a given society and how they
interact with the lower classes. In most cases, the lower classes interact with
the upper classes by taking roles as servants, trade people and other responsibilities
as such. Therefore, I think this play can only act in a hierarchical society
with a population of different classes and social status.
The importance of being earnest is
referred to as a comedy of manners because it ironically describes the conduct
of the Victorian upper class. The play describes their behavior in a
hypocritical manner. The play seems to be making fun of them.
J Refernce :
1. Britannica, The Editors of
Encyclopaedia. "Comedy of manners". Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 Mar.
2018, https://www.britannica.com/art/comedy-of-manners.
Accessed 12 February 2021
2. Daphna Lewinsohn-Zamir, “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST:” 2015, www.jstor.org/stable/24311947?seq=1.
3. Koerble, Betty (1952). W. S. Gilbert
and Oscar Wilde – A Comparative Study. Madison: University of Wisconsin. OCLC
55806177.
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