Student+Notes+on+Key+Topics+-+Earnest

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** Student Notes on Key Topics - Earnest   ** **COMEDY OF MANNERS aka Drawing Room Comedy ** The **comedy of manners** is a genre of play/television/film, which satirizes the manners and affectations of a [|social class], often represented by [|stock characters].

Stock characters are based on common literary and social stereotypes. They are easy targets for parody and ridicule, and are related to literary archetypes.

As can be seen in the Importance of Being Earnest, the witty dialogue is more important than the plot itself (based on a scandal, an illicit love affair). This is a common feature of plays of the aforementioned genre. Plays of this genre are often set in a drawing room (hence the name – drawing room comedy). Drawing rooms are rooms meant for the entertainment of guests. E.g. Jack’s house in the country.

**CULTURE CLASH** Upper Class in the country vs. Upper Class in town

Culture clash within //The Importance of Being Earnest// is not so significant, since the upper class maintain their same values and show off their wealth, in both locations. Town: cucumber sandwiches Country: muffins

Everyone has the same agenda, regardless of whether they’re in the country, or in town.

To Cecily, the country is where she must study, and from where she never leaves. The town is for wild antics and entertainment (independence, opportunity etc.)à Her imaginings of the town and what people must do there is what induces her to “fall in love” with “Ernest”. Wants city culture.

Both cultures offer escape to Algernon and Jack. For Jack, the town offers him escape from Hertfordshire/his being Jack, while for Algernon, the country offers him escape from the town/his being Algernon.

Leisure/relaxation vs. fashion/modern/following trends Watering flowers “agricultural depression”, fashionable town houses

Flowers vs. people “flowers are as common here, Ms. Fairfax, as people are in London”

**TITLE: The Importance of Being** **Earnest:**
 * Title = pun between ‘earnest’ which means honest/sincere and the name ‘Ernest’ which both characters pretend to be named and therefore are not honest.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Not one character seems to care about telling the whole truth or being Earnest but every character believes both tales of each Ernest.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Both Jack and Algernon were better rewarded/accepted (by their women) after adopting the name Ernest.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The women (Gwendolyn & Cecily) liked the name Ernest because they assumed Ernest was ‘earnest’. They put trust into a man they barely knew based on the assumptions surrounding the name Ernest.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Ernest allows both characters to be seen in a different light, it distinguishes them from other ordinary men.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">LOVE, PASSION & MARRIAGE **
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Oscar Wilde satirizes love and marriage. He tries to ridicule the romance and sentimentality of it
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Page 1 - Lane’s humourous comment about his marriage being a accident
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> This can be seen from Algernon’s own unsentimental view of love as he says: “The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else, if she is plain.” (Page 24)
 * Women fall in love with men because of their name and not their personal attributes
 * “Jack?... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if an at all... The only real safe name is Ernest.” (Page 18)
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.” (Page 22)
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed arrange for herself...” (Page 19)
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Marriage is mentioned bluntly by Jack and Gwendolen, for example when Jack asks for her hand, but Gwendolen insists he properly proposes to her, even though she’s admitted to agreeing to marrying him already.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Romantic love is portrayed in the extreme
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Cecily has already fallen in love with “Ernest” and has charted their entire relationship, even engagements. She has recorded their whole relationship into her diary and written letters to herself from Ernest. Algernon still loves her despite this.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Passion is ridiculed here, for Cecily and Gwendolen both have cultivated their own love for “Ernest” just because of his name and not his personality.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wilde emphasizes the boundaries of love, as Jack still loves Gwendolen even after finding out that Algernon is his brother and that Gwendolen is thus his cousin.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wilde emphasizes the boundaries of love, as Jack still loves Gwendolen even after finding out that Algernon is his brother and that Gwendolen is thus his cousin.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">MORALS AND MORALITY **
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Morality and Costraints it imposes on society is a common topic of discussion amongst other characters
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Reading someone’s cigarette case is ungentlemanly” (Jack)
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Servant class has a responsibility of setting the example on morals for the upper class” (Algy)
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wilde isn’t really concerned on what is moral and what isn’t moral. He just makes fun of the Victorian idea of morality as a rigid body of rules about what people should and shouldn’t do.
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Moral paradox in the title
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The actions of the characters flaunt the moral limitations of the Victorian Era.

<span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Religious
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Dr.Chasuble is supposed to be chaste but in the end he has sexy time with Miss Prism.
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Christenings; they are important but for the wrong reasons.
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Wilde wanted to make fun of religious morals.

<span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> Marriage
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Seen as social advancement. (Lady Bracknell)

<span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Capricious morality
 * <span class="s1" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Morality = mask to hide how you truly feel (tea scene)

Lady Bracknell quotes: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. (page 27) I am glad to hear it, a man should have his occupation (smoking) (page 25) We have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform. (page 89) The number of engagement that go on seem to me to be considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down to our guidance. (page 95) Lady Bracknell's arrogant, narrow-minded, stuck-up, antagonistic demeanour.
 * PARODY **

Ridiculous and highly improbable situations. Turning a potentially wise statement on it's head. Saying something outrageous, but the explaining it with even more outrageous things. These impossible situations characterise the farcical nature that can be seen throughout the play. 'Bunbury? He was quite *exploded*' 'Exploded?' (page 88)
 * Farce **