Comedy poems and TIOBE Flashcards
‘The predicaments and difficult situations presented in comedic literature make readers laugh.’
Depends who is the victim… if it is someone who tends to have a good position in society/hierachy - yes. But if it is someone who is disadvantaged - not so funny.
Sunny Prestatyn: woman, put down in society/oppressed/objectified: “Set her fairly astride/a tuberous cock and ball.”
Satirical Elegy: When characters we don’t like/ had a advantage/privilage and power:
-“His Grace! Impossible! What dead! / Of Old age too, and in his bed!”
“Cruel and sudden” (About her killing the flea.) (farcical situation - hyperbolic, makes us laugh.)
Importance of being earnest: “To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies” (Farce).
“Explore the significance of romantic love to the comedy of two texts you have studied.”
Romantic love usually creates comedy due to it’s farcical and superficial nature.
Importance of being earnest: Chausuble and Prism farcical cause of their rigid, unloving, cold characters.
“Chausuble: I would hang from her lips (Miss Prism glares) I spoke metaphorically – my metaphor was drawn from the bees.”
Gwendolyn: My ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest.
The Flea: “Sucked me”, “sucks thee”, “mingled”, “swells”. - sexual, creates crude comedy.
Not my best side: “but the dragon/ well, you could see all his equipment/ at a glance.” (Farcical - inverts expectations).
Mrs Sisyphus: “I could do something vicious to him with a dirk.”
‘By the end of comedic texts, the central characters have changed for the better.’
No, generally they have had a superficial, farcical transformation.
‘Readers and audiences laugh at those with power and privilege in comedic literature.’
Yes.
Not my best side: “Conqueror”, “Ostentatiously beardless” (Knight in shining armer - stereotypes inverted - comical.)
Satirical Elegy: “His Grace! Impossible! What dead! / Of Old age too, and in his bed!” (bad person - ironic death for a general.)
My rivals house: “Lady of the house./ Queen bee.”
TIOBE: Lady Bracknell: “To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag,”
“to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?”
TIOBE: Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?
‘Comedic literature celebrates the resourcefulness and power of female characters.’
Although female characters often have power, they are usually mocked rather than celebrated for this.
Sunny Prestatyn: “laughed” “Tautened white satin” “kneeling” (sexual power and adoration in 1st stanza). - lost in second stanza: “Set her fairly astride/a tuberous cock and ball.”
My Rivals House: “Lady of the house.” “Queen bee.”
Mrs Sisyphus: “I could do something vicious to him with a dirk” - powerful yet “Lie alone in the dark.” - power is gone - depression.
Lady Bracknell: “To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies “ - has power - satirized for it.
Algy: What could have put such an idea into your pretty, little head?.
“Deception is a central aspect of comedic literature.’
Deception is vital as it lends itself to comic confusion and inversion of norms.
TIOBE: Cecily: “It had always been a girlish dream of him to love someone whose name was Ernest… “
TIOBE:
Explore the significance of marriage in two texts you have studied.
Marriage often a key creator of comedy… Shapes the text, creates comical tensions.
-the way in which marriage shapes the plot and is the outcome of the drama texts, e.g. desire of the
four central characters in The Importance of Being Earnest to marry.
-Cecily: It had always been a girlish dream of him to love someone whose name was Ernest…
TIOBE: comedy created in the obstical to get to marriage.
-“Marry into a cloak room, form an alliance with a parcel.”
-My Rivals house: “Capped tooth, polished nail,/ will fight, fight foul for her survival.”
Comical tensions cause by Marriage:
-Mrs Sisyphus: “I could do something vicious to him with a dirk.”
Mariage as an obsitcal to a cause:
-“A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;”
‘Comedic literature contains revelations – key moments in the comedy where information is revealed, or characters discover something.’
-Revelations to provoke laughter: Jack’s announcement of the
sudden death of his brother. Jack: “My brother”, “Dead!”, “Quite dead.”
-the uncovering of Jack and Algy’s
identities at the end of Act 2 and the impasse it creates: Cecily:”Are you could Algernon?” “i cannot deny it.” Gwendolen: “Is your real name Jhon?” “It has been Jhon for years.” “neither of us are engaed to be married to anyone.”
-Algernon: “Bunbury? Oh he was quite exploded.” (comic slip) (idea exploded).
-To create shock factor:
-Sunny Prestatyn: “Set her fairly astride/a tuberous cock and ball.”
-Comically invert expectations:
-Not my best side: “It’s hard for a girl to be sure/ she wants to be rescued.”
‘In comedic literature, the problems and difficult situations faced by characters are of no lasting importance, because they are always resolved.’
Often the problems seem solved on the outside, yet the real route of the problem remains. Some Poems, nothing resolved, things seem even worse at the end.”
-IOBE: Jack: “Christian names, Earnest Jhon.” (Problem is hedonism and superficiality, not actually names.)
-TIOBE: “At last!” “At last!” “At last!”. (Happy couples - route of their troubles not solved.)
-Sunny Prestatyn: “Fight Cancer is there.” (Death and decay - no escapism to suffering.) (Cyclical.)
-Mrs Sisyphus: “I lie alone in the dark.” (Depression.)
-Not my best side: “It’s hard for a girl to be sure/ she wants to be rescued.” “Bad publicity” “Taking me seriously”.
‘Comedic literature entertains rather than instructs: it aims only to please.’
Comedic literature is written in a pleasant for that makes audiences laugh, but often contains deeper messages.
-Sunny Prestatyn: “Set her fairly astride/a tuberous cock and ball.” (Crude funny - dark subject matter.)
-Satirical Elegy: “Last loud trump must wake him now:” “he’d wish to sleep a little longer.”
-Mrs Sisyphus: “I could do something vicious to him with a kirk.”
-TIOBE: Cecily: “No, men are so cowardly, aren’t they?” (Rhetorical, makes reader think.”)
-TIOBE: “It had always been a girlish dream of him to love someone whose name was Ernest… “ (superficial concerns of the upperclass.)
‘Comedies leave readers and audiences with a final sense of joy.’
-TIOBE: “At last!”, “At last!”, “At last!”
-TIOBE: Jack: “Christian names, Ernest Jhon.”
-Sunny Prestatyn: “Fight Cancer is there.” (Death and decay - no escapism to suffering.) (Cyclical.)
-Mrs Sisyphus: “I lie alone in the dark.” (Depression.)
-My Rivals House: She won’t/ Give up.”
‘Comedic texts are light-hearted: ultimately, they have nothing to say about serious matters.’
Comedy texts make often make dark/serious situations light-hearted so that at surface level they appear jolly, however upon deeper inspection the carry heavier messages.
Tam O shanter:
-No consequences
TIOBE:
Wildes Epigrams:
-‘Ignorance is like a rare exotic fruit, touch it and the bloom is gone.’
-‘Girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don’t think it right’
-On first glance meaningless inversions - funny and ironic - lighthearted.
-Upon deeper exploration - satire of upper class - lack original thought - makes upper class look absurd - challenges their power - how can trivial section of society have power.
-‘The soul of man under socialism’ - emph need to change social structure - redistribute wealth.’De profundis’ offered himself as matyr to lead working class out of misery.
VIctorian morality in earnest:
-‘Really, Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?’
-Inverts victorian idea of transmission of
-‘nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids… Health is the primary duty of life.’
-‘She looks quite 20 years younger’ algy: ‘Her hair has turned quite gold with grief’
-comical subversion of cliche.
