For example, social interaction in Victorian England was very formal and serious. However, Wilde viewed social interaction as amusing and at times ridiculous due to its emphasis on insignificant or untrue factors. Similarly, the tone of the passage appears to be serious due to the severity of Jack and Algernon’s elaborate lies, but this seriousness is actually being mocked by the author through Cecily and Gwendolyn’s reactions. In the first half of the passage, Gwendolyn and Cecily’s fears of being engaged to the same person are easily allayed by Jack and Algernon’s simple inquiry as to how such an idea entered their “pretty little head”. As previously stated, a very serious matter which Cecily and Gwendolyn had been fighting over is
When Benedick says he does not like the dish, he is being disrespectful not only to Beatrice but to the people of the time. He also states that no woman will be let in to his perfectness until the woman is perfect herself. Benedick loves teasing people but will not accept the fact that people tease him. Shakespeare illustrates benedick in more detail which allows the audience to understand what type of character
We could also infer from this that Lord Illingworth is trying to shape or teach his son to become a version of himself, he behaves very vicariously. Throughout the play Wilde uses Lord Illingworth as a tool to provoke carious reactions from the audience. The first of these can be said to be admiration of his unsurpassable wit and popularity. However these tones of appreciation soon begin to sour and turn to notions of repulse. I feel Wilde did this to express how easily people can lose their highly regarded reputation; this is the social message throughout the play as Lord Illingworth becomes ‘a man of no importance’.
Throughout the play, Wilde takes advantage of the double meaning of the word earnest through the functions of a man’s name and an adjective describing sincere. In act 1, following the discussion between Algernon and Jack where Algernon finds out the truth about Jack’s name Earnest, Algernon tells Jack, “You look as if your name is Earnest. You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life” (8). Wilde uses this pun to show the double meanings of the word earnest and to illustrate his insight of appearance versus reality. While Jack may or may not look like a sincere person, his actions are certainly not honest or sincere.
He appears to be solely interested in women’s sexuality, shamelessly objectifying them. For instance, when Claudio asks whether the world could ‘buy such a jewel’ as Hero, Benedick replies ‘yea, and a case to put it into’. The objectification of Hero as something valuable and desirable (but with no human emotion) is taken further by Benedick; his play upon Claudio’s romantic metaphor is witty but deeply sexist, as he is calling Hero worthless. Whilst a modern audience might see this as derogatory, an Elizabethan audience would have potentially been indifferent; in that age, men were superior; they could be an eligible bachelor, but if they married they would look for a chaste and wealthy wife- talk of ‘buying’ Hero is in a sense quite literal as Claudio would be ‘buying’ into her wealth. On the other hand, Shakespeare hints that this is a façade.
Much Ado is a play based around the theme of deliberate deception- sometimes this deception is malevolent and sometimes benevolent but much of the play hinges around them and their effect on the characters. An example of malevolent deception would be Don John trying to ruin Hero and Claudio’s marriage whereas an example of benevolent deception would be the gulling’s of Beatrice and Benedick in an attempt to get them to admit their true feelings for one another to get them to wed. The gulling scenes both rely on Beatrice and Benedick being persuaded into believing that they are in love with one another, this is dependent on them ‘accidentally overhearing’ the other characters talking about them whilst being within earshot but so as not to be seen. The majority of the subplot is dependent on these gulling scenes being successful as if they hadn’t worked or if Beatrice and Benedick hadn’t been so susceptible to this benevolent deception than there wouldn’t be much of a story. These gulling scenes provide comic relief in contrast to Don John’s malevolent deception and make Much Ado lean towards being a comedy rather than a tragedy as they use dramatic irony for humour.
Nevertheless, for many characters, things do ‘turn out for the best’. To begin with, Orsino’s self-indulgent delight in his ‘bulimic’ nature of wanting ‘excess’ of love -which Cash notes is akin to ‘mental masturbation’ - is abandoned and he adroitly switches his ‘constant’ affections towards ‘Cesario’ and conveniently forgets his love for Olivia. Orsino perpetually delights in adoring Olivia from afar, and admires how she can, in a rather hyperbolic metaphor, purge ‘…the air of pestilence’, such is her beauty. And yet at the end of the play, Orsino announces that he will ‘have share in this most happy wreck’, and orders Cesario to ‘give me thy hand’. The audience cannot help but muse at the irony here of his complete change of heart.
Peacocke describes just how the show has used its humor to talk about taboo subjects through humor. Peacocke’s essay “Family Guy and Freud: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious” successfully shows her purpose of giving those who don’t know the show, with all its controversy, still has some value to it. She successfully showed how she disliked the series and after giving the show a try can’t get enough of it. No matter how much the networks have been ridiculed for broadcasting the show, it is still very successful
Comedy changes the original order. Comedy sublits subverts authority by changing into the opposite way. 12. Why is the Divine Comedy a comedy? It is a comedy because it demonstrates lower acts by lower actions which that is a comic character, The divine comedy was meant as a warning of committing a sin and not repeting.
Doubling and use of disguise are the heart of the comedy produced in The Importance of being Earnest. Do you agree that the comedy is mainly created through the use of doubling and disguise? In this essay, I will discuss how Wilde uses doubling and disguise as the heart of the comedy, created through a sense of humour and fun. Wilde introduces disguise and doubling to present to the audience to show that the comedy can be silly and hilarious. The play is a comic play in which doubling and disguise creates confusion to the characters.