The+Importance+of+Being+Ernest+-+Ms+Crouch+Class+Notes

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FC's Year 13 Earnest context notes...add here, please!

1) Marissa When was the play written? What was life like for rich people at that time in England?  è  The play was written in 1895  è  Set in England, late Victorian Era  è  Mid and Late 19th Century signified role of Victoria (1837-1901)  è  During British Industrial Revolution è Style/Fashion/Elegance/ Splendour è Women had such liberty in various social activities è Etiquette, cleanliness gardeners, and parlours were *essential è Etiquette shaped character è Conscious social status è Women did not have to work è The rich enjoyed story telling, and chess è Spent hours in gardens è Enjoyed hunting and feasting

Sunit

Common activities at the time: Hunting Feasting Drinking Enjoy storytelling, riddles, games and chess Theatre and Opera outings Appearances at restaurants and casinos to demonstrate wealth Hours spent promenading through gardens Proper etiquette was essential Proper sense of fashion to show aristocracy Rough, crowded and uncomfortable houses All about how the people look, what goes on inside the house is completely different from outside.

KATRINA AND SHURABHI: 3) Oscar Wilde is sometimes connected with the 'Aesthetic movement'. What was this and when was it popular? Was it a reaction against anything? If so, what?

The Aesthetic movement was from the late 19th Century Britain, concerned with 'art as a self-sufficient'; "art for art's sake". This was a movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts. Belongs to the anti Victorian reaction, took place in the Victorian Period, ended with Oscar Wilde's trial.

4) The play is a 'comedy of manners'. What does that mean? In what other eras were these types of comedy popular?

The comedy of manners satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, The plot of the comedy, often concerned with an illicit love affair or some other scandal, is generally less important than its witty and often bawdy dialogue Works/eras found in: -Shakespeare

-Roman

-Ancient Greece

-Renaissance period

5) What do the following terms mean…

· Satire – literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. Humor is often used to aid this

· Farce/farcical - a comedy written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humor

· Epigram- a witty saying

· Aside - An aside is a literary device in that an actor speaks to the audience; he/she is not heard by the other characters

· Wit - Wit is a form of intellectual humor

· Absurdity - a message whose content is at variance with reason

Paradox – things don’t make sense – leads to conclusion Hedonist – pure pleasure, self indulgence Matriarch – powerful woman/ the head Dandy – Devoted to style/ neatness Banter – friendly exchange of remarks

CHERIE

4. The play is a ‘comedy of manners’. What does that mean? In what other eras were these types of comedy popular?

WHAT IS THE COMMEDY OF MANNERS? comedy of manners, a kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. The comedy of manners tends to reward its cleverly unscrupulous characters rather than punish their immorality.

WHOIS IN THE PLAYS ? Stereotypes instead of real characters The comedy of manners satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class, often represented by stock characters

OTHER ERAS In England, the comedy of manners flourished as the dominant form of Restoration comedy in the works of Etheredge, Wycherley (notably //The Country Wife//, 1675), and Congreve; it was revived in a more subdued form in the 1770s by Goldsmith and Sheridan, and later by Oscar Wilde. Modern examples of the comedy of manners include Noël Coward's //Design for Living// (1932) and Joe Orton's //Loot// (1965).

The comedy of manners was first developed in the new comedy of the Ancient Greek playwright Menander. His style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence, whose comedies were widely known and copied during the Renaissance. The best-known comedies of manners, however, may well be those of the French playwright Molière,(mo-li-ye) who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of the ancien régime in such plays as //L'École des femmes// (//The School for Wives//, 1662), //Le Misanthrope// (The Misanthrope, 1666), and most famously Tartuffe (1664).

Restoration comedy – comedy after the Restoration ( when King Charles II 1650 was restored to the throne again after the Commonwealth period)

The Aesthetic Movement – Tanya

Aestheticism was an approach to life based on the philosophy of 'art for art's sake'. It emphasized the importance of art above everything else and the pleasure to be found in beautiful things. Aestheticism was a complex mixture of a number of styles. Classical and Japanese art were particular inspirations. It was fashionable from 1870 to 1900.

The Aesthetic Movement argued that art was not supposed to be utilitarian or useful in any practical sense. Instead, aesthetic experience is a fully autonomous and independent aspect of a human life. Thus, art should exist solely for its own sake.

As the movement swept through America, people started to believe that beautiful objects should exist for the enjoyment of everyone, not only the elite. It was thought that a beautiful environment could actually enhance one's quality of life.

- A loosely defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design in later nineteenth-century Britain - It represents the same tendencies that symbolism or decadence stood for in France, or decadentismo stood for in Italy - Belongs to the anti-Victorian reaction and had post-Romantic roots - Took place in the late Victorian period from around 1868 to 1901 - Formed as a cultural reaction against positivism - These perspectives opposed or de-emphasized the importance of the rationality of human beings, they concentrated on Kant's "noumenal realm", or the experience of one's own existence - Art was given an especially high place as it was considered the gateway to the noumenon - The movement was not widely accepted by the public, as the social system generally limited access of the art to the elite


 * KEVIN**

//COMEDY OF MANNERS?// This is a type of comedy which satirises and makes fun of social attitudes, norms, and etiquette, particularly the customs of the socially powerful and elite. They use stock characters whose shallowness is used by the playwright to ridicule the social contexts that they place themselves in and the etiquette to which they must conform.

//The Importance of Being Earnest// is a good example of this branch of comedy, and can be seen as a tribute to the earlier types of comedy of manners in Restoration Comedy, during England's Restoration Period. This tradition traces back to the Ancient Greeks, with the plays of the playwright Menander, whose plays were eventually imitated by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence. However, the most famous and well-known example of the comedy of manners would be the plays of Molière, the French playwright whose play //Tartuffe// is the most celebrated comedy of manners play and considered the defining work of the genre.

Iris   <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who was Oscar Wilde, the author? What can you discover about his life and works? <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854 <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">An Irish Playwright and a poet <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Wilde's sexual orientation has variously been considered bisexual and homosexual <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Became a part of the Aesthetic movement, one of its tenets being to make an art of life. <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Oscar wrote “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” a response to the agony he experienced in prison  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">With a family to support, Oscar accepted a job revitalizing the Woman's World magazine, where he worked from 1887-1889  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">His first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American magazine in 1890 to a storm of critical protest. <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Oscar sailed for New York to travel across the United States and deliver a series of lectures on aesthetics  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">  <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Came from a rich family

The Aesthetic Movement - Joe P.

• The “Aesthetic movement” was a movement where people started to argue that art should not be utilitarian or even be useful in any practical sense. Late 19th century... • It was a reaction to John Ruskin’s idea that art should be something moral or useful. • The idea of the movement was that literature was written solely to be enjoyed, not just to convey moral messages

In summary, the aesthetic movement was one which was fully endorsed by Oscar Wilde and other well known writers. It worked on the principle that any form of art (literature included) need not have a purpose, but can exist solely to be enjoyed. This explains the lack of themes and complicated underlying messages in "The Importance of Being Earnest" which may not be the case in the other texts we study...

Sam <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">4. The play is a ‘comedy of manners’. What does that mean? In what other era <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">s <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> were these types of comedy popular? <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> Comedy of manners is a kind of comedy representing the complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearances count for more than true moral character. Its plot usually revolves around plotting of lust and greed, the self <span style="font-family: '新細明體','serif';">‐ interested sarcasm of the characters being masked by well-behaved deception. Unlike satire, the comedy of manners tends to reward its cleverly dishonest characters rather than punish their immorality. Its humour relies chiefly upon elegant verbal humour.

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