Oscar Wilde as DRAMATIST
or
The Importance of Being Earnest is a MASTERPIECE by Wilde
or
As a Farce
Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright prominent in the
Victorian era who is best known for his critically acclaimed plays. After
writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most
popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Some of his plays are considered as
great masterpiece. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is the greatest example in
this respect. There are many such the greatest characteristics in this play that
make it a masterpiece and the play proves Wilde a great dramatist of Victorian
literature.
The most striking quality which helps in identifying the play a masterpiece
is that it is a comedy of comedies for it is the mixture of farcical comedy, comedy
of manner satirical comedy and many others. Wilde has woven them very masterly
and skillfully like a weaver.
(Farcical Comedy)
A farce is a
literary genre and type of comedy that makes use of highly exaggerated and
funny situations. It only aims at making the audience laugh. It uses elements
like physical humor, deliberate absurdity and vulgar jokes just to make people laugh.
Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is one of the best verbal farces. Just
like a typical farce that contains basic elements, such as mockery of the upper
class, disgraceful physical humor, absurdity, and mistaken identities, this play
also demonstrates these features of a farce. The most absurd thing in tale is
the fact that Miss Prism commits a blunder by leaving her manuscript in the
pram, and puts her child into her handbag.
Moreover, this farcical comedy is interlaced
with comedy of manner that makes the play satirical and more farcical. The
comedy of manners is a genre of comedy. Plays of this type are typically set in
the world of the upper class, and ridicule the pretensions of those who
consider themselves socially superior. It explores the relationships of the
sexes. Marriage is a frequent subject. The best examples in the book are all
the major characters especially Algernon and Lady Bracknell. Algernon belongs
to upper class but is empty-handed. As he himself says to Jack,
“I happen to be more than usually hard up.”
The absurdity in Bracknell’s dialogues and
actions is ridiculous. Wild ridicules the upper class through these characters.
Play also has the subject of marriage between both sexes; jack and Gwendolen, Algernon
and Cecily. As Algernon clearly says,
“I am engaged to be married to Cecily, Aunt
Augusta.”
And Jack says,
“The moment you consent to my marriage with
Gwendolen, I will most gladly allow you nephew to form an alliance with my
ward.”
This is a great satire on Victorian society
through such absurdities which makes the play satirical comedy.
In
farcical comedy, characters, dialogues, situations are ironical and absurd.
Almost all dialogues of Lady Bracknell are absurd i.e. when she says Algernon
had been a student at Oxford University, so, he cannot be a liar;
“My
nephew Algernon? Impossible! He is an Oxonian.”
How absurd
this dialogue is! By emphasizing the absurdity of the characters’ situation he
maintains a comic tone. Characters have attitudes, reactions and customs which
defy reason. It enhances absurdity and irony in the play. As Wilde particularly
uses epigrams—a terse and satirical saying to attack perceptions of fixed
truth. For example, “Divorces are made in heaven” and “all bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.” Almost every
line of the play is loaded with joke, pun, witty remark, epigram, absurdity and
paradox that make this play master piece of the Victorian age as well as of all
ages.
Irony is the
backbone of farcical comedy. The whole play deals with irony. The title is also
ironical. The word earnest has three related meaning; to be eager and clever;
to be sincere; and to be honest. But the earnest in title is quite opposite to
the earnest in the story. Both earnests in the play are neither sincere nor
honest. They are eager and clever to deceive others. Irony of dialogue and
situation is clearly found. In the opening scene Algernon condemns to propose
someone as he says,
“I
really don’t see anything romantic in proposing.”
But in the second act, he himself proposes;
“I
love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you?”
Jack tells
Cecily that he has a brother and goes town to see his him but in the second
act, he also says,
“What
nonsense! I haven’t got a brother.”
To sum up,
undoubtedly Wilde's play is a great farcical comedy. It is comedy of comedies
deals with absurdity and irony that make the play more farcical. Therefore, it
can be said that the play is masterpiece that is artistically and masterfully
arranged by different type of comedies.
Another
striking quality of this masterpiece is to make use of irony very skillfully. The whole play deals with irony. The title is also
ironical. The word earnest has three related meaning; to be eager and clever;
to be sincere; and to be honest. But the earnest in title is quite opposite to
the earnest in the story. Both earnests in the play are neither sincere nor
honest. They are eager and clever to deceive others. Irony of dialogue and
situation is clearly found. In the opening scene Algernon condemns to propose
someone as he says,
“I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing.”
But in the second act, he himself proposes;
“I love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you?”
Jack
tells Cecily that he has a brother and goes town to see his him but in the
second act, he also says,
“What nonsense! I haven’t got a brother.”
We notice in
this play that Characters have attitudes, reactions and
customs which defy reason. It enhances absurdity and irony in the play. As
Wilde particularly uses epigrams—a terse and satirical saying to attack
perceptions of fixed truth. For example, “Divorces are made in heaven” and “all bad poetry springs from genuine
feeling.” Almost every line of the play is loaded with joke, pun, witty
remark, epigram, absurdity and paradox that make this play master piece of the
Victorian age as well as of all ages.
Wilde
describes the thing at micro level and makes it macro. The whole play is the
true picture and bitter criticism of Victorian society. The characters are
often types rather than individualized personality. Algernon
and Lady Bracknell are representative of Victorian upper class. Algernon
belongs to upper class but is empty-handed. As he himself says to Jack,
“I happen to be more than usually hard up.”
The
absurdity in Bracknell’s dialogues and actions is ridiculous. Wild ridicules
the whole upper class of Victorian society through these characters.
The
unique characteristic of Wilde’s play is parallelism—state of being parallel. From
beginning to end, we find this trait. Jack tells Gwendolen that he is earnest.
She loves him because of his this name. Algernon also tells his name is earnest
and Cecily too lives him for his this name. Both the jack and Algernon are Bunburyist
and both want to be christened for their beloveds. Both pretend to be brother
of each other and both are proved to be brother in reality. Both are fed up
with their domestic responsibilities. Moreover, both the girls, Gwendolen and
Cecily love a name earnest not personality. Both are parallel in having
diaries. Both become angry at the same issue about name and at the same both
are agree with their christen ceremony. Both are engaged with their lovers at
the same place and time. There is the matter of love and marriage between both
couples. Both couples have happy ending. There is parallelism in the title and
the play that both end with the same name ‘earnest’. The name, earnest, is the
backbone of the title and the play.
The
plot of the play is superb. Plot according to Aristotle is a set of events and
situations artistically rendered and diametrically arranged. Structurally the
plot has symmetry and simplicity. Every incident, each conversation and each
speech is absolutely necessary to the plot. Although there are absurdities but
they are so artistically interlinked that the plot gains an organic unity. The
wonderful thing in plot that makes play really masterpiece is that all the
false things become true and all imaginations are proved to be real. At
exposition, jack is false earnest but at the end he is really earnest. He falsely
says that he has a brother and at the end he has really a brother. Cecily’s
imaginative engagement with Algernon becomes real at the end of the play.
In
short, the importance of being earnest is a comedy of comedies. Everything is
artistically managed. In this comedy, if we find irony, it is outstanding. If
we find comic or absurd elements, they are also skillfully woven in plot, theme
and characters. All these things make the play masterpiece and this masterpiece
proves Oscar Wild a great dramatist.
1488 words
KEY POINTS
of Oscar Wild as great dramatist and the play is master piece
Ø Introduction of Wild and his play
Ø The play is comedy of comedies; in
farcical comedy we have comedy of manner and satirical comedy
Ø There is much absurdity; it makes the
play more farcical, ironical
Ø Irony is the backbone of the play
o
Characters,
situation and even their dialogues are ironical.
o
Universal
dialogues are made opposite to truth such as “divorces
are made in heaven”.
o
Irony
is used as a great instrument to satire on Victorian society and especially its
upper class
Ø Almost every line of the play is loaded
with joke, pun, witty remark, epigram, absurdity and paradox (you may elaborate this point on your own as it small part of this
query)
Ø Say micro and mean macro
Ø The unique quality of the play is
parallelism. Algernon and Jack are parallel in their characters and Gwendolen
and Cecily are parallel in their ideals.
Ø The plot is superb as it has not only
organic quality but also the exchange of falseness with truth and imagination
with realism.
So, all these
things make the play masterpiece and this masterpiece proves Oscar Wilde a
great dramatist.
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