Importance of Being Earnest

This play would have been part of the West End London Drama as it is written for the middle and upper class and alludes to their values
1. Wilde's plays often juxstapose his audience's presumptions of his work. He likes to create a conflict that goes against Victorian ideals.
2. PROPRIETY: correctness of morals and behaviour, ETIQUETTE: the customs or rules of behaviour regarded to be correct in a social group, NOUVEAU RICHE: a person that has become rich recently, ARISTOCRACY: the highest form of social class consisting of people with hereditary titles.
Character and Characterisation
1. Characters can convey a theme and can represent differing ideas on themes and ideals, they can be grouped into characters that believe in the same thing. The audience may be sympathetic of dismissive of these aides depending on the character. Wilde's plays are POLYVOCAL and DISMISSIVE (create debate) so they rely on dialogue.
  1. Cecily and Gwendolyn have differing and similar values, they don't believe in gender statuses and they are both in competition for a man which results in jealousy. There differences lie due to their social spheres being town v country. Gwendolyn comes from town so she is more fashionable and sophisticated.
2. When Algernon alludes to love being business Wilde presents a conflicting idea, and when he admits that 'the very essence of love is uncertainty' shows that Algernon believes you have to be unfaithful.
  1. He also alludes to the idea that 'divorces are made in heaven' claiming that you are saved by divorce like when you go to heaven- would have shocked audience due to religious background.
    1. Also presents relations with lower classes through his conversations with Lane and the way in which he victimises him and changes his behaviour when around him.
3. When LB interviews Jack she reveals the shallow nature of the upper class which would be funny but also cause underlying debate.
  1. Also called 'AUNT AUGUSTA' - Roman emperor, she is powerful in the family context.
4. Dr Chasuble is used to present the church in those days, he is a silly an insignificant character- Wilde goes against beliefs.
Women and Representation in the Victorian Era
1. Paintings were usually fantasies of how men wanted women to be, they were often the damsel in distress. Paintings also presented the medieval times due to people's caution of changing society, they also only showed higher classes, these were forms of denial. Women were presented to be supernatural, rebelling against the mechanical society.
  1. Cecily challenges this view as she rebels against what people expect of her. She is the lesser taken by love, she is manipulative, she calls Algy boy (on the same level as he calls her girl), she values taste above morals.
  2. Cecily conforms to this view as she alludes to a 'childish dream', she is superficial and only cares for looks, she is sometime romantic, she is idealistic.
2. The home was a safe haven, children were nurtured and mother was the centre of the household. People feared illicit sex and immorality and refused to accept it. Queen Victoria is presented to be like any other family and she is the centre of the family in all paintings. People believed that the young should get married quickly.
3. William Holman Hunt was the first to show reality in his painting 'The Awakening Conscience' people were appauled however one man said it was close to home. In reality prostitution was rife and many married women died from TB due to this.
4. In the late 19th century campaigners seeked to reform divorce laws and education for women. The Dress reform movement protested against women wearing clothes they could not breathe in.
John Ruskin 'Of Queens' Gardens'
1. Art Critic and Social commentator in late 1800s.
2. He presents men to be creators, discoverers, and exposed to trouble whereas women are the organiser and ruler and they should never travel far from husband. Also that men can make mistakes.
3. Ruskin uses metaphor of sacred temple to apply to religious context. He uses continuous tripartite structures to make the contrast larger, he uses semantic fields and metaphor. Furthermore he clearly contrasts between the other world and home 'to cross the threshold'.
4. Lady B goes against this as she is independent and is the controller she also appears to have authority over men. However she is hardly ever presented to be away from her family.
5. Cecily goes against this as she is protective of Algernon and changes his outlook, furthermore she is rebellious and doesn't deny herself. However she is still controlled by law.
6. Gwendolyn goes against this as she has freedom and she claims men should be in the domestic sphere. She is also assertive and rebellious.
Genre: Wilde combines farce, melodrama and comedy of manners to make his play more liberating.
1. Farce is the creation of comedy through the creation of mildly probable events. For example when Jack learns that Miss Prism put him in cloackroom and Jack comes back with ashes.
2. Melodrama is the creation of sensational narrative events that create an emotional response. When Algernon confesses his love to Cecily.
3. Comedy of Manners satires social class and is derived from one persons inability to get into the social class. Algernon saying that lower class should set example and LB's quizzing.
Epigrams: A remark that expresses an idea in an intelligent way.
1. He uses common phrase and modifying verbs, the effect of this is to make the audience reconsider. He often uses epigram to act subversively.
2. He contradicts the audience's presumptions and uses grammatical patterning paralleled with pun to amuse the audience.
3. He uses irony and contradiction to create ambiguity. His epigrams are usually paradoxical.
The Double, the use of doppelganger allows the author to convey two sides of character.
1. Jack and Algernon have doubles to get away from family reponsiibility and they become immoral.
2. Wilde uses the double in Dorian Grey, the character in this is secretive about his double much like Jack and Algernon. Wilde creates a large contrast in the two characters as this is more interesting to the reader.
3. 'Give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth'- Jack acts how he wishes he could be when he is his double.

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Importance of Being Earnest

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