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Oscar Wilde's comedic devices earnest importance
Wilde use of humour in the importance of being earnest
How oscar wilde uses comedy to satirize the societal pressures and constraints present in victorian england
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On “The Importance Of Being Earnest”, Act II lines 1324 to 1446 the sources of humor of these passage are the satirization of the Victorian era norms, violations against common sense, mockery of love and delusion. All of these humorous source are provided by the extravagant author Oscar Wilde in the short passage of 122 lines. Satirizing the Victorian era an example would be “But pray, Ernest, don’t stop. I delight in taking down from dictation. I have reached ‘absolute perfection’. You can go on.” This concept is humorous because in the Victorian era woman were not supposed to be conceived and act like the way Cecily is acting. Woman were supposed to be innocent, virtuous and biddable; Cecily seem to have some of her virtuous. As the quote had stated she enjoys the flattering remark from Algernon and asks for more her to infatuate her persona in her diary for the future publication of it. …show more content…
Hopelessly doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it?” Out of the four ridiculously extravagant and inappropriate forms of love when meeting a practical stranger, Cecily only worries about the hopelessness part. This violation of common sense is a hilarious one since the reasons for love come from a stranger who is 11 years older only known by tales without a previous encounter its ridiculous. Mockery of love source fits into this example as well. An extra Mock for the love source is the engagement, dated on “February 14” Valentine’s Day, all lovers Special day when presents are supposed to be given by that special someone and as portraying a late gift on February 15, engagement ring is
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.
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.
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.
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.
Humor Humor is when an object or phrase is considered funny or hilarious. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, one of the definitions of humor is, “something that is or is designed to be comical or amusing.” What people find funny differs because there are so many types of humors that can be expressed in different ways. Humor will often lead to laughter, but some people may find a subject amusing while others may find it offensive. It can be making a racial slur or even a Yo Mama joke.
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.
Oscar Wilde stated, in relation to his play The Importance of Being Earnest that “We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.” This reflects the ideas behind the play and the way that Wilde presents his characters, and their actions throughout the course of the play. This philosophy influenced many important themes throughout the play, most notably the presentation of class, as well as Satire and Comic Pairings. Wilde’s presentation of the society he showcases in the play revolves largely around this philosophy of ‘Serious Triviality’, especially in the case of Lady Bracknell, the character that exemplifies Wilde’s philosophy of Serious Triviality in the Importance of Being Earnest.
According to Gazzaniga, Heatherton, and Halpern in Psychological Science, an effective to regulate emotion is through humor (430). Humor allows individuals to distance themselves from negative emotions and can strengthen social connections to others (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, and Halpern 431). In Native American communities, laughter and humor are often utilized to cope with stereotypes imposed upon Native Americans by non-Native people. Illustrations of this occurrence can be found throughout works by Native peoples, such as that by Sherman Alexie. These sources involve Native Americans embracing, rebelling against, and bringing attention to stereotypes about who they are and who the can be, all while using humor to cope with the emotions involved
The idea of humor is centralized around someone or something establishing an engaging observation or an understanding that produces amusement and joy to an audience. In the book Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, the author notifies that the role of humor in society is to bring out hidden thoughts and messages that people can divulge and/or understand without the restraint from other people. I believe that de Botton's viewpoint of humor having a vital role in the function of society is true, because humor does rashly enable people to carelessly express and relate to messages and observations without the restriction of society on them, but also allows people more awareness of the presence of damage and destruction in a society by viewing humorists. Those around them are more likely to understand, through the usage of comical and amusing entertainment.
However, the audience knows that Ganymede is Rosalind. Phebe is admiring who she thinks is a male, which creates dramatic irony. She acts irrationally through trying to prove that she is in love, and through disregarding Silvius, who is also a part of the conversation. This conversation, caused by dramatic irony, is humorous for the reader. Similarly, in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Cecily and Gwendolen argue about their engagement with Ernest. Cecily and Gwendolen were both discussing their love lives, however, Gwendolen, not knowing the situation, politely stated: “My Darling Cecily, I think there must be some slight error. Mr. Ernest Worthing is engaged to me.” (Wilde, 335). In this line, Gwendolen uses a harsh tone and is completely unforgiving of the situation. The reader finds this funny because Gwendolen could easily be a more rational person because as an audience, he or she knows that she is unreasonable. As a result of the author’s use of dramatic irony,
Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest is merely a trivial and frivolous exercise in art for art’s sake whilst it illustrates his wit and verbal brilliance; ultimately it has no underlying purpose or meaning. Many people may agree with the statement due to the mockery of gender roles conveyed, however through the themes of class and respect and reputation this statement can be proven incorrect. The wit and verbal brilliance of Oscar Wilde is portrayed through his mockery of the gender roles in the Victorian era and particularly in his portrayal of Lady Bracknell. Through the theme of class along with respect and reputation which are expressed throughout the play show how Wilde’s play does contain an underlying purpose and meaning.
There are some reasons that people had enjoyed a sense of humor in this world. What does enjoyment cause the effect on people to have a sense of humor? The cause of enjoyment can bring out a good sense of humor to others by bringing the laughter into their voice and showing the happier side to many people who faced some difficult obstacles. From my experience in humor, I see and hear some jokes, facial expressions, and fondness with other family and friends. My experience in-jokes can entertain me in some certain ways in my life when I was feeling in depressed. The enjoyment can bring something relevant to people to form the better relations with a lot of people in this world. From my experience, there are some different ideas from a sense
Humor and laughter can benefit every person's mental health. According to Melinda Smith and Jeanne Segal, who are the authors in the Help Guide Organization, " Laughter makes us feel good. And the good feeling that we get when we laugh remains with us even after the laughter subsides. Humor helps us keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss." They are right, laughter make us feel good even when the laughter subsides. The reason why it still feels good even when the laughter is gone is because our minds keep replaying the scenario over and over again so that our mind will be able to relax, reduce the stress and the tension that is in our mind and our body. They also said that humor helps us overlook
Everyone loves to be happy and enjoy life and humor allows us to smile and laugh, making us happy and letting us enjoy life. What's so funny? Taught me many new interesting things such as learning how many types and styles of humor there are. The book taught me how humor can be used and why we use and need humor. What's so funny? Also taught me that even “Medical science has established that laughter offers numerous health benefits” Schumacher, Julie A., editor. What's so Funny? page 9, Perfection Learning Corp., 2000. When I think about humor, I see a lot of people laughing and being happy. When you think of humor you usually imagine good things. Humor can obviously have a bad effect. It could be used at inappropriate times it can turn out
The Importance of Being Earnest gets its comedic aspect from the ridiculous characters and how they view earnestness as opposed to ‘Ernestness”. For example the main struggle of the characters is that they are more concerned with the fact that they are Ernest, not that they are particularly earnest. In Oscar Wilde’s play, Jack and Algernon, the two men in the story, face the challenge of appearing Ernest and earnest in front of their love interests, both of whom only want to marry each of the men because their name is earnest. There are also funny characters such as Lady Bracknell who represents the flaws and the ‘un-earnestness’ in society at the time. Oscar Wilde did an excellent job writing this