Importance of Being Earnest: Context and Authorial Methods Flashcards
1
Q
Wit
A
- epigrams, repartee, wordplay, puns
2
Q
Hyperbole
A
- exaggeration for comic effect
3
Q
Symbolism
A
- food (a catalyst for personal and social conflict); the handbag (a symbol of comic misfortune); the cigarette case (a symbol of Jack’s double life and the truth); Cecily’s diary (a symbol of fiction and make-believe)
4
Q
Settings
A
- town and country antithesis
- used to satirise Victorian society
5
Q
Paradox
A
- a statement that apparently contradicts itself, or is false or absurd
6
Q
Irony
A
- a statement that apparently contradicts itself, or is false or absurd
7
Q
The ‘well made play’
A
- Victorian melodrama was derived from the French ‘well made play’ which features uncertain parentage, secrets from the past and letters.
8
Q
Comedy of Manners
A
- TIOBE is a comedy of manners in the way it mocks and satirises the Victorian aristocracy’s manners and behaviour
9
Q
Comic Structure
A
- starts with problems and moves through typical obstacles before resolving in marriages.
10
Q
The Aesthetic Movement
A
- ‘Art for Art’s sake’
- the concept of beauty taking precedence over narrative
- subverts the idea of Art as a moral entity
- the ‘dandy’ figure lives for art and pleasure
11
Q
Social Class
A
- Wilde himself was a social outsider, being Irish
- the play questions the authority of aristocracy
- it also examines the place of the lower classes through the depiction of servants
12
Q
Gender Roles and Marriage
A
- the play portrays a patriarchal society in which marriage is formal and based on status
- sexuality is a taboo subject (Paglia argues that sexual lust does not exist in the play, replaced by appetite for food)
- roles of women are examined and questioned
13
Q
Behaviour, Morality and Religion
A
- social inequality is highlighted
- aestheticism challenges rigid Victorian norms
- religion is shown to be a superficial concept
