The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners that satirizes the manners and pretensions of upper-class Victorian society. It focuses on flaws and hypocrisy through elements like irony, witty dialogue, and plots that ridicule the trivial priorities and lack of emotion among aristocratic characters. The play exposes the artificial values of the Victorian aristocracy through devices like the dual identities of Jack and Algernon, the women's obsession with the name "Earnest", and Lady Bracknell's judgmental nature.

1. INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST AS A COMEDY OF MANNERS
Presented to Sir Amir Ch.
Presented by Iqra Mushtaq

2. Comedy
• A comedy is a play with happy ending and
aims at making people laugh at certain
follies, vanities, hypocrisies and weaknesses
of people for reforming society.
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3. Comedy of Manners
• A Comedy of Manners is a play concerned
with satirizing society’s manners.
• A manner is the method in which everyday
duties are performed, conditions of society, or
a way of speaking.
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4. History of the Comedy of Manners
• Ancient Greek playwright Menander.
• The Ancient Greek characters were imitated by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence.
• During the Renaissance there is the transcription of the classic comedies and there are original
writers as Molière that is the best-known comedies of manners in the French playwright.
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5. The Restoration
Began in 1660 (England)
Charles II was restored to the throne after
being in exile in France for years.
• While Charles II was in France,
he saw a lot of theatre in the French court.
• He opened the theatres back up and had new
ones built
• English society was influenced by it and became
corrupted and more interest in entertainments
than moral and social rules.
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6. Aims/Themes of the Comedy of Manners
• The plays are satire, they poke fun at society, especially the upper class.
• social “rules”
• mannerisms
• hypocrisy
• greed
• gossip
• Affairs
• conflicts of men and women
• moral weakness of aristocracy
• new bourgeoisie in love
and marriage
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7. Features
• Written in prose
• Function to teach people “good manners”
showing what were bad behaviors Humorous
and funny
• Relies on witty wordplay, not so much on
physical action and plot
• often use stock characters (easily recognizable
character types; usually not much depth)
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8. Comedy Writers and their works
• George Etherege The Man of Mode
• William Wycherley The Country Wife
• William Congreve The Way of the World
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9. Comedy of Manners began in ancient
times and has appeared throughout
many periods of history but it is just
most strongly associated with the
1600s-1800s
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10. The importance of being earnest as a
comedy of manners
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11. Oscar Wilde
• Irish playwright and
novelist (1854-1900)
• His fiancé left him for
Bram Stoker.
• “I have nothing to declare but my genius.”
• The Importance of Being Earnest
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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12. Elements that make The Importance of
Being Earnest as a Comedy of Manners
• Victorian Aristocracy ( especially norms and values)
• Language
• Irony
• Farce
• Satire
• Complexity of Plot
• Lack of Emotion
• Focus on Flaws Weakness of Characters
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13. Victorian Aristocracy
• The play is an example of comedy of manners
as it makes fun of the behavior of Victorian
aristocracy.
• Basic purpose in writing the play was to
expose and prove as a sham the norms and
values of the Victorian aristocracy.
• Lady Bracknell rejected Jack as the candidate
for Gwendolyn because he was a foundling
and she gave last priority to his abilities and
education and gave importance to family
background.
• The two female characters Cecily and
Gwendolyn love their respective boys just for
the beauty of their name 'Earnest'.
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14. Language
• The language used in the play that is
brilliant on the surface, but it is all deep
within and its shows the bankruptcy of
emotional and psychological depth of
characters.
• The dialogues are short and sharp
• Witty language is depicting the artificial
values of characters and used to evoke
laughter at the false values of society.
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15. Irony
• The concept of irony has more than one
meaning.
• One the one hand it can refer to a cynical
approach to matters in general. This form
of irony is most commonly associated with
the character Algernon, who makes
statements like: ''The truth isn't quite the
sort of thing one tells a nice, sweet, refined
girl.
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16. • Irony can also mean using words in a way
where they mean the opposite of their usual
meaning, in a funny way. The title of the play
is ironic since it suggests that it is important
to be earnest, yet everything works out
despite the men's dishonesty.
• irony can refer to a situation in which
something turns out to have the opposite
result from what was expected, e.g. Jack's
attempt at misleading people about his
identity is ironic as it turns out that his name
was Ernest all along.
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17. Farce
The play can be a farce, because its
humorous play involving unlikely (not real)
situations, e.g. the fact that the woman
responsible ( Miss Prime) for separating Jack
from his family had been working for him all
along, and Jack real name is revealed to be
Ernest.
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18. Satire
• Satires are literary works in which human
immoralities and foolishness are ridiculed.
• The play satirizes the upper class by
showing them to be trivial, judgmental, and
having the wrong priorities.
• A scene like the one in which Algernon
eats all the muffins while Jack scolds him
for it can be seen as ridiculing the character
for his greediness.
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19. Lack of Emotion
• The play show the lake of emotions in all
the characters. e.g.
• “The only way to behave to a woman is to
make love to her if she is pretty and to
someone else if she is plain.”
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20. Focus on Flaws and Weakness of
Characters
• Wild focus on the Flaws and Weakness of
Characters e.g.
• Jack dual identity in country and city
• Algernon Banbarism
• Girls love for the name of Earnest
• Lady Bracknell hypocrisy
•
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21. Complexity of Plot
• The Important of Being Earnest have plot
within plot and complex situations e.g.
• Different settings: Algernon's flat in the
city, Jack’s garden in the country
• Different stories: Gwendolyn and Jack story,
Cecily and Algernon story
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