Comedic Conventions Used in the Importance of Being Earnest free essay sample

In general her reaction to Jacks history is ridiculous claiming Gwendolyn would ‘Marry into a cloakroom to a parcel. ’ The character even claims to marry Gwendolyn he must get himself some parents – which is completely ridiculous. Another example of incongruity is the muffin scene towards the end. After both Cecily and Gwendolyn find out the truth about Jack and Algernon’s names and hurriedly leave one would expect the two characters to follow and attempt to straighten it out. Instead, both characters sit at the table and start fighting over who has the muffins in a very childlike manner. However this scene can also be seen as relief theory. After the serious event with the women the scene is quite tense and this scene breaks it. Wilde also loosely follows the schematics of the `green world’. To fully use the green world theory the end of the play would have to end in the town, not the country, as that is where the beginning took place. However he follows the rest of the theory perfectly; order – Jack being the only Ernest with no one knowing that they are the same person; chaos – Algernon pretending to be Ernest asking Cecily to marry him and Gwendolyn who Jack asked to marry him as Earnest comes to the country; resolution – when both male characters have been discovered and identities revealed. Throughout the script Wilde created comedy using wit and wordplay. Even the title is a pun- ‘Earnest’ means to be honest which the main characters clearly aren’t. One character that expresses a play in words a lot is Lady Bracknell. Her lines are very clever yet at the same time completely and mockingly ridiculous. Lady Bracknell makes the claim that she didn’t know of anyone ‘whose origin was a Terminus’. This is a very clever line as at a railway station during Wilde’s time the end of a line was called a terminus – and the railway station is as far back as Jack can trace his history, his origin. Wilde also uses comedy duos in his text; the most obvious pair being Jack and Algernon; another being Algernon and Cecily; and another being Cecily and Gwendolyn. Even at the beginning before the truth was revealed both males acted like brothers with a love/hate relationship- made clear at the very beginning when they are brought together before us. They constantly argue with each other but using empty points. Just like real brothers they fight over the simplest things (the muffins) and get away with taking things from each other (the cigarette case). These little things create comedy partly because they are ridiculous but also because people can easily relate to them and remember themselves in a similar situation. Their arguments often use the comedy of manners technique. When alone they fight to their hearts content but as soon as another character steps into the picture they are very well mannered towards each other and act as if they are incredibly close – making it funny for the audience who knows the true relationship between the two characters. The relationship between Algernon and Cecily is very humorous because of the contrast between the two characters. Cecily is a very innocent character who has never been revealed to the harsh realities and makes up fantasies of her and Ernest (her knight in shining armour). Algernon is the complete opposite. He is a typical character seen in restoration comedy – bawdy, licentious and predatory. Comedy is created when at points she comes out on top with her fantasies confusing Algernon. The characters Cecily and Gwendolyn are another comic duo that has a different approach towards one another – deceit. As they first meet they are quite fond of one another however once the ‘truth’ that they are both engaged to Ernest is out ‘the gloves are off’. Women were not expected to act brash at all – especially women of high class and social standings like these two characters. All the fighting had to be sneaky. Wilde also uses these characters to mock the way a lady should behave; acting overly polite. After discovering the truth that they are not engaged to the same man the instantly return to being friendly towards one another – the complete opposite to the previous behaviour. Wilde mocks a lot of subjects in his script one of them being death. Death is commonly a sensitive subject; Wilde uses this to his advantage. He ridicules the story of Ernest being dead by having Algernon claim it was a joke and go as far as to put the ashes from his cigar in to the urn where his ashes supposedly were. He also mocks death further by claiming Ernest’s cause of death was a ‘severe chill’, a simplistic and common illness. Later on in the script Wilde one again mocks death but this time uses Ernest’s friend Bunbury. Algernon as Ernest claims that Bunbury is often ill causing Lady Bracknell to exclaim that he should just choose to live or die (another example of incongruity) as if it is his choice. When he actually does die the reasoning was the doctors discovered he would die – so he just died making death sound like something very simple and basic. When writing Wilde likes to use his own experiences of life (his social standing and his double life) and create comedy by mocking them. Because he has experienced them himself he knows what features he can manipulate such as courtship and the higher class code of conduct. His incredible intelligence allows his to successfully use wordplay and wit to create humour. Molly