transcript
- Slide 1
- Oscar Wilde Pre-reading activities
- Slide 2
- Comedy Brainstorm comedic devices what do audiences find funny?
How do actors and play writers make people laugh? Think, Pair,
Share. Parody, satire, irony.
- Slide 3
- Research Assignment Complete an A4/3 sheet of paper with facts
and information about the following: a) Oscar Wilde biography b)
Victorian England how is this time/place characterised? Do NOT use
wikipedia. Due Monday
- Slide 4
- Anticipation Guide Complete the survey in 3 4 minutes (on your
own). T = true, N = never true, or S = sometimes true ___ Girls
never marry the men they flirt with ___ It is absurd to have a hard
and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldnt. ___
Once a week is quite enough to dine with ones own relations. ___
Health is the primary duty of life. ___ An engagement should come
on a young girl as a surprise. ___ I dont like novels that end
happily. ___ It is not a really serious engagement if it hasnt been
broken off at least once. ___ I am very fond of being looked at.
___ In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the
vital thing. ___ No woman should ever be quite accurate about her
age.
- Slide 5
- Discuss and Predict In pairs or groups of 3, compare your ideas
and responses to the statements. What did you think? Is each
statement TRUE? NEVER TRUE? Or SOMETIMES TRUE?? If so, in what
situation? Why do some of the statements strike you as being
absurd? Or even funny? Discuss. Keep the Anticipation Guide in your
books, we will return to it throughout the topic. Each statement
comes from the play. Predict a few things about the play such as
its tone and themes, (eg. marriage).
- Slide 6
- Title The Importance of Being Earnest Use your own knowledge
and the dictionary/ thesaurus to define the meaning of earnest.
Complete an iceberg to analyse the denotative and connotative
meanings, dig deep for analysis and clues into the play.
EarnestActual meanings? Inferred meanings?
- Slide 7
- 1. When spelt Ernest, the word is a boys name. What does the
word mean when spelt earnest? With this in mind, what does the
title suggest about the play? Explain your ideas. 2. The tagline of
the play is A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Explain the
significance and implications of this, i.e. what does Wilde mean by
trivial and serious. How would the meaning and implications change
if this sentence was reversed (i.e. A Serious Comedy for Trivial
People)? 3. Two of the central themes of the play are APPEARANCE
& REALITY and SOCIAL STATUS & EXPECTATIONS. For each theme,
do a brainstorm to show how these themes could be presented. 4. The
play is a satirical comedy: SATIRE - a literary tone used to
ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the
intent of correcting, or changing, the subject of the satiric
attack. Satirical comedies are very common on television. The
Simpsons satirizes the American Dream; programmes such as Family
Guy, Arrested Development and Im Alan Partridge also contain
satirical comedy. Watch this clip from The Office and see if you
can identify WHY it is an example of satire. Homework: Find an
example each of PARODY and SATIRE bring in the youtube link or
email it to me. Due tomorrow: Wednesday 3/8/11
- Slide 8
- Analyse opening scene Sum up the setting and opening
interaction between Lane and Algernon. Identify and comment on the
comedic techniques used (motifs, inversions, non-sequitur, satire)
and how they present ideas about marriage and class structure in
Victorian England. EXTENSION: Word play / puns / irony / farce /
wit do any of these apply to the opening of Act 1 ? HOMEWORK
Research the Aesthetics & Decadence movement in Victorian
England. Present your findings in an A3 poster with a balance of
visual and written information. DUE THURSDAY 11 th AUGUST
- Slide 9
- Research and Homework Tasks WeekDate DueTask 2Thursday 11/08A4
Research -Aesthetic and Decadence Movements 3Tuesday 16/08Map class
structure in London, 1890s. What it took to be aristocratic, etc.
Make poster chart show different social status levels and what
sorts of occupations each might have, kind of lifestyle, fashion,
other things that distinguish classes. 3Friday 19/08Create own
satiric epigrams, take cliched phrases and twisting them as
Algernon does with in married life 3 is company and 2 is none or by
coming up with your own. Use these to write a brief story about
some element of our modern day society 4Thursday 25/08Draw and/or
find pictures to create a set and wardrobe for the play with each
scene and each character matched to pictures. 5Tuesday
30/08Research ONE other book/play Oscar Wilde wrote. What makes his
writing so good? Are there any similarities between this and TIOBE?
Include pictures, quotes from him and from other sources.
- Slide 10
- Oscar Wilde Reading activities Structure / Setting / Themes /
Motifs & Symbols
- Slide 11
- Organisation (Structure) Put this information into a graph. The
play is divided into 3 Acts. Acts I and II are about 20 pages long
with 2 parts each and Act III is only about 10 pages long. The 1 st
act immediately addresses the conflict of Jacks separate
identities, and this basic issue compounds into several more
conflicts all introduced in Act I. The act also serves to give us
most of the background information for the main characters, even
some of the ones that we dont meet until Act II such as Cecily. Act
I also centres around Jacks dilemmas though Algernon is the main
character on the stage and has the wittiest lines. Act II then
proceeds to branch out from Jack to conflicts with other
characters. The action continues to rise as the characters become
entangled, but by the end of Act II things have begun to sort
themselves out. The purpose of Act III, then, is for the plot to
finally climax at what has turned out to be its central focus: the
barriers preventing the marriage between Jack and Gwendolen.
- Slide 12
- Setting The story takes place, according to Wilde, in London in
the present. However, the setting changes from the city to the
countryside of London, and Wildes present was the 1890s (the play
was published in 1895).
- Slide 13
- Motifs and Symbols Motif = recurring structure or literary
device. Symbol = recurring objects, characters, figures, colours.
Motifs include (1)puns, (2) inversion, (3) death and (4)the dandy.
What examples can you recall from the play that reveal these
motifs? Discuss how they are significant. Symbols include the (1)
double life, (2) food, (3) fiction and writing. What examples can
you recall from the play that reveal these symbols? Discuss how
they are significant.
- Slide 14
- MOTIFS Puns In The Importance of Being Earnest, the pun, widely
considered to be the lowest form of verbal wit, is rarely just a
play on words. The pun in the title is a case in point. The
earnest/Ernest joke strikes at the very heart of Victorian notions
of respectability and duty. Gwendolen wants to marry a man called
Ernest, and she doesn't care whether the man actually possesses the
qualities that comprise earnestness. She is, after all, quick to
forgive Jack's deception. In embodying a man who is initially
neither earnest nor Ernest, and who, through forces beyond his
control, subsequently becomes both earnest and Ernest, Jack is a
walking, breathing paradox and a complex symbol of Victorian
hypocrisy. In Act III, when Lady Bracknell quips that until
recently she had no idea there were any persons whose origin was a
Terminus, she too is making an extremely complicated pun. The joke
is that a railway station is as far back as Jack can trace his
identity and therefore a railway station actually is his origin,
hence the pun. In Wilde's day, as in the England of today, the
first stop on a railway line is known as the origin and the last
stop as the terminus. There's also a whole series of implicit
subsidiary puns on words like line and connection that can refer to
either ancestry or travel. Wilde is poking fun at Lady Bracknell's
snobbery. He depicts her as incapable of distinguishing between a
railway line and a family line, social connections and railway
connections, a person's ancestral origins and the place where he
chanced to be found. In general, puns add layers of meaning to the
characters' lines and call into question the true or intended
meaning of what is being said.
- Slide 15
- Motifs - Inversion One of the most common motifs in The
Importance of Being Earnest is the notion of inversion, and
inversion takes many forms. The play contains inversions of
thought, situation, and character, as well as inversions of common
notions of morality or philosophical thought. When Algernon
remarks, Divorces are made in Heaven, he inverts the clich about
marriages being made in heaven. Similarly, at the end of the play,
when Jack calls it a terrible thing for a man to discover that he's
been telling the truth all his life, he inverts conventional
morality. Most of the women in the play represent an inversion of
accepted Victorian practices with regard to gender roles. Lady
Bracknell usurps the role of the father in interviewing Jack, since
typically this was a father's task, and Gwendolen and Cecily take
charge of their own romantic lives, while the men stand by watching
in a relatively passive role. The trick that Wilde plays on Miss
Prism at the end of the play is also a kind of inversion: The trick
projects onto the play's most fervently moralistic character the
image of the fallen woman of melodrama.
- Slide 16
- MOTIFS: Death Jokes about death appear frequently in The
Importance of Being Earnest. Lady Bracknell comes onstage talking
about death, and in one of the play's many inversions, she says her
friend Lady Harbury looks twenty years younger since the death of
her husband. With respect to Bunbury, she suggests that death is an
inconvenience for othersshe says Bunbury is shilly-shallying over
whether to live or to die. On being told in Act III that Bunbury
has died suddenly in accordance with his physicians' predictions,
Lady Bracknell commends Bunbury for acting under proper medical
advice. Miss Prism speaks as though death were something from which
one could learn a moral lesson and piously says she hopes Ernest
will profit from having died. Jack and Algernon have several
conversations about how to kill Jack's imaginary brother. Besides
giving the play a layer of dark humour, the death jokes also
connect to the idea of life being a work of art. Most of the
characters discuss death as something over which a person actually
has control, as though death is a final decision one can make about
how to shape and colour one's life.
- Slide 17
- Motif - The Dandy To the form of Victorian melodrama, Wilde
contributed the figure of the dandy, a character who gave the form
a moral texture it had never before possessed. In Wilde's works,
the dandy is a witty, overdressed, self-styled philosopher who
speaks in epigrams and paradoxes and ridicules the cant and
hypocrisy of society's moral arbiters. To a very large extent, this
figure was a self-portrait, a stand-in for Wilde himself. The dandy
isn't always a comic figure in Wilde's work. In A Woman of No
Importance and The Picture of Dorian Gray, he takes the form of the
villains Lord Illingworth and Lord Henry Wootton, respectively. But
in works such as Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The
Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde seems to be evolving a more
positive and clearly defined moral position on the figure of the
dandy. The dandy pretends to be all about surface, which makes him
seem trivial, shallow, and ineffectual. Lord Darlington and Lord
Goring (in Lady Windermere's Fan and An Ideal Husband) both present
themselves this way. In fact, the dandy in both plays turns out to
be something very close to the real hero. He proves to be deeply
moral and essential to the happy resolution of the plot. In The
Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon has many characteristics of
the dandy, but he remains morally neutral throughout the play. Many
other characters also express dandiacal sentiments and views.
Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell are being dandiacal when they assert
the importance of surfaces, style, or profile, and even Jack echoes
the philosophy of the dandy when he comes onstage asserting that
pleasure is the only thing that should bring one anywhere. For the
most part, these utterances seem to be part of Wilde's general
lampooning of the superficiality of the upper classes. The point is
that it's the wrong sort of superficiality because it doesn't
recognize and applaud its own triviality. In fact, Cecily, with her
impatience with self-improvement and conventional morality and her
curiosity about wickedness, is arguably the character who, after
Algernon, most closely resembles the dandy. Her dandiacal qualities
make her a perfect match for him.
- Slide 18
- SYMBOLS - The Double Life The double life is the central
metaphor in the play, epitomized in the notion of Bunbury or
Bunburying. As defined by Algernon, Bunburying is the practice of
creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while
seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and
responsibility. Jack's imaginary, wayward brother Ernest is a
device not only for escaping social and moral obligations but also
one that allows Jack to appear far more moral and responsible than
he actually is. Similarly, Algernon's imaginary invalid friend
Bunbury allows Algernon to escape to the country, where he
presumably imposes on people who don't know him in much the same
way he imposes on Cecily in the play, all the while seeming to
demonstrate Christian charity. The practice of visiting the poor
and the sick was a staple activity among the Victorian upper and
upper- middle classes and considered a public duty. The difference
between what Jack does and what Algernon does, however, is that
Jack not only pretends to be something he is not, that is,
completely virtuous, but also routinely pretends to be someone he
is not, which is very different. This sort of deception suggests a
far more serious and profound degree of hypocrisy. Through these
various enactments of double lives, Wilde suggests the general
hypocrisy of the Victorian mindset.
- Slide 19
- Symbol - Food Food and scenes of eating appear frequently in
The Importance of Being Earnest, and they are almost always sources
of conflict. Act I contains the extended cucumber sandwich joke, in
which Algernon, without realizing it, steadily devours all the
sandwiches. In Act II, the climax of Gwendolen and Cecily's spat
over who is really engaged to Ernest Worthing comes when Gwendolen
tells Cecily, who has just offered her sugar and cake, that sugar
is not fashionable any more and Cake is rarely seen at the best
houses nowadays. Cecily responds by filling Gwendolen's tea with
sugar and her plate with cake. The two women have actually been
insulting each other quite steadily for some time, but Cecily's
impudent actions cause Gwendolen to become even angrier, and she
warns Cecily that she may go too far. On one level, the jokes about
food provide a sort of low comedy, the Wildean equivalent of the
slammed door or the pratfall. On another level, food seems to be a
stand-in for sex, as when Jack tucks into the bread and butter with
too much gusto and Algernon accuses him of behaving as though he
were already married to Gwendolen. Food and gluttony suggest and
substitute for other appetites and indulgences.
- Slide 20
- SYMBOLS: Fiction and Writing Writing and the idea of fiction
figure in the play in a variety of important ways. Algernon, when
the play opens, has begun to suspect that Jack's life is at least
partly a fiction, which, thanks to the invented brother Ernest, it
is. Bunbury is also a fiction. When Algernon says in Act I, More
than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read, he
may be making a veiled reference to fiction, or at least reading
material perceived to be immoral. In Act II, the idea of fiction
develops further when Cecily speaks dismissively of three-volume
novels and Miss Prism tells her she once wrote one herself. This is
an allusion to a mysterious past life that a contemporary audience
would have recognized as a stock element of stage melodrama.
Cecily's diary is a sort of fiction as well: In it, she has
recorded an invented romance whose details and developments she has
entirely imagined. When Cecily and Gwendolen seek to establish
their respective claims on Ernest Worthing, each appeals to the
diary in which she recorded the date of her engagement, as though
the mere fact of having written something down makes it fact.
Ultimately, fiction becomes related to the notion of life as an art
form. Several of the characters attempt to create a fictional life
for themselves which then, in some capacity, becomes real. Wilde
seems to regard as the most fundamentally moral those who not only
freely admit to creating fictions for themselves but who actually
take pride in doing so
- Slide 21
- Theme What points about life does Wilde seem to be making?
Consider: (A) the kinds of decisions characters made, their reasons
for making them, and the consequences of doing so. (B) the
conflicts and how they are resolved. (C) what the main characters
learn in the course of the play. (D) the significance of the plays
outcome. Act 1 Name a theme, how does it fit into this Act? Another
theme, how does it fit? Act 2 Name a theme, how does it fit into
this Act? Another theme, how does it fit? Act 3 Name a theme how
does it fit into this Act? Another theme, how does it fit?
- Slide 22
- Group work on themes- all 5! To better understand the themes
and to provide evidence and conclusions about Wildes ideas discuss
each theme in a group. Complete the following tasks. 1. Make a
topic statement about the theme show evidence that it is your
opinion and designed to build an argument. 2. Give 3 examples from
specific places in the play which relate to the theme and your
argument about the theme. 3. Analyse each example what does it mean
to the audience, what symbolic of deeper meanings does in also
infer or suggest. How does it link to similar examples of other
crafting techniques in the play which have the same effect. 4.
Finish with a conclusion sum up how well you think Wilde has
conveyed his theme through his examples / crafting of the play. YOU
HAVE 30 MINUTES
- Slide 23
- Themes Satire on earnestness and triviality in the Victorian
period in England (late 19 th Century) woven throughout several
themes: 1. Decadence: Wildes belief in art for arts sake applied to
life and society, also embraced by several of the characters in the
book through which Wilde simultaneously propels the idea and
reveals the ridiculousness of it: the term also has to do with self
indulgence, illustrated throughout the play (Algernon eating
everything, the idea of Bunburying, etc.)
- Slide 24
- Themes 2. Marriage: deliberately following British literary
tradition of Austen and others in centering work on marriage, but
satirising Victorian views surrounding it, showing how little it
was based on love and how much on maintaining or improving social
status; the subject of many of the most witty epigrams in the play
(mainly lines by Algernon, Lady Bracknell, and Cecily); using
superficiality of a name being a barrier to marriage to show how
equally ridiculous it is for birthright to be a barrier to marriage
since an individual has little control of either their name or
their birthright.
- Slide 25
- Themes 3. Society : satirises Victorian society in general, and
twists facets of it in some cases, such as where Algernon comments
about lower classes setting the example when traditional Victorian
views would have said the opposite; earnestness in a way refers to
the earnestness of characters such as Lady Bracknell who take
society too seriously; Lady Bracknell can be examined as the
epitome of Victorian female societal views, and Algernon as quite
the opposite.
- Slide 26
- Themes 4. Morality: this subject, like other important: issues
such as marriage and death, is treated with absolute triviality in
the play as part of Wildes satire; many of Algernons epigrams
strike us as funny because of the irony between the moral code we
are accustomed to and the ridiculous morals he espouses.
- Slide 27
- Themes 5. Honesty ; treated sometimes trivially and other times
quite seriously, becomes an ironic theme at the end when Jack turns
out to have been honest all along though he had thought himself
never to have been entirely truthful; Jack, Algernon, Cecily and
Gwendolen turn out to have been earnest after all, not about
society as is Lady Bracknell, but about following their own
ambitions.
- Slide 28
- Point of View / Narrative Voice As it is a play, Wilde reveals
the story to an omniscient audience who the characters are not
aware of. The audience is given all the clues to understand the
mix-up long before the characters figure it out, allowing the
audience to enjoy the dramatic irony of seeing the ridiculousness
of the characters while the characters take themselves so
seriously. TONE: The time period affects the tone in that it was a
period of Decadence in France and England. The concerns of the
characters are highly trivial and self-indulgent, and the whole
thing is satiric in its portrayal of their superficial
entanglements. Overall, the tone is humourous, ironic and satiric.
IRONY: The play is full of irony, but where it comes to its climax
is in the interrelations revealed at the end between the characters
and in Jacks real name being Ernest, representing the idea that he
has been earnest all along in seeking the ambition of his heart
rather than bowing before society.
- Slide 29
- Comedic Conventions Exaggeration Incongruity (something that
seems out of time, place or character) Anticipation Deus ex machina
Ambiguity Non Sequitur Epigrams
- Slide 30
- Tasks for Act 1 1) Up to the arrival of Lady Bracknell: How are
the characters of Algernon and Jack/Ernest created for the
audience? What is the effect of the interchange between Algernon
and Lane? How is Wilde ridiculing the conventions of class
structure in this interchange? Give examples of different types of
humour and how they work (quote and comment) 2) Draw up a list of
statements made about marriage by different characters and comment
on the impressions given. 3) A trivial comedy for serious people
list words/phrases where trivial events are treated with overblown
seriousness. Identify comic methods. 4) How are women in Act 1
shown to have the upper hand? (Explore more than simply what
happens on stage.) 5) What ideas do you gain about society from
your reading of the first Act? Find quotations relating to status,
behaviour and morality, and culture. Use the play/stage directions
in Act 1 to sketch the layout /design of the set as you imagine it
to look. Imagine you are directing a production of this play. How
would you position Algernon / Lane and their movements in the
opening scene?
- Slide 31
- Extension work Things you can do to read more widely and gain
more insight into the play and the writer. a) Read Oscar Wildes
other works A Woman of No Importance, and An Ideal Husband. Also,
his novel, A Picture of Dorian Gray b) Read criticisms and
biography work some titles are Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage,
The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde. Oscar
Wilde: A Biography and many moresearch through the public library
and online. c) Cliffnotes online and various other sources (Spark
Notes). Enotes.
- Slide 32
- Do now: KEY VOCABULARY Find the meaning of each of the
following terms which relate to the purpose of The Importance of
Being Earnest. Record the meaning and think of examples from modern
texts, novels, stories, films, tv or song. Farce Satire Irony
Trivial
- Slide 33
- Next SHARED READING OF TEXT In your allocated groups of 4/5,
read from page 9 to the end of Act 1. As you read, pause and record
(i.e. Task 3 on your sheet) words/phrases where trivial events are
treated with overblown seriousness. Identify comic methods. EXIT
PASS 3,2,1 RiQ what have you learned about how Wilde treats trivial
versus serious topics in Act 1.
- Slide 34
- Marriage Marriage: deliberately following British literary
tradition of Austen and others in centring work on marriage, but
satirising Victorian views surrounding it, showing how little it
was based on love and how much on maintaining or improving social
status; the subject of many of the most witty epigrams in the play
(mainly lines by Algernon, Lady Bracknell, and Cecily); using
superficiality of a name being a barrier to marriage to show how
equally ridiculous it is for birthright to be a barrier to marriage
since an individual has little control of either their name or
their birthright. How does Wilde present his views on marriage?
(consider style, tone, language, dialogue, stage / drama / comedic
conventions, characterisation, setting, point of view eg audience
response )
- Slide 35
- Marriage Here are a number of things which Victorian society
placed importance on, especially in determining prospects for
marriage. a) Birth order b) Legitimacy c) Parentage d) Family
heritage e) Family wealth f) Social class g) Christening h)
Gender
- Slide 36
- Act 1: Task 5 What ideas do you gain about society from your
reading? Find quotes relating to. Status. Really, if the lower
orders dont set us a good example, what on earth is the use of
them? They seems, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral
responsibility. Behaviour. I believe it is customary in good
society to take some slight refreshment at five oclock Morality.
Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that? Culture. NEXT:
How has Act 1 established the rising action, story development,
conflicts and complications to follow in subsequent Acts (2 and
3)?
- Slide 37
- Foreshadowing 1. Algy calls Jack Ernest, already foreshadowing
of complications ahead (A1) 2. Gwendolens refusal to love anyone
but a man named Ernest foreshadows conflict in her relationship
with Jack. 3. Revelation of Jacks parentage being unknown
foreshadows a possibility for surprises about relations later on.
4. Algys comments about wanting to meet Cecily foreshadows his
visit. 5. Jack and Algys conversation about women calling each
other sister foreshadows what will really happen when Cecily and
Gwendolen meet. 6. Algy copies down Jacks country address and tells
Lane hell be Bunburying, again foreshadowing his visit to Cecily.
7. Jacks comment that Algys Bunburying will get him into a scrape
foreshadows the complications that arise in Act II. 8. Prism
mentions a lost manuscript, foreshadowing her involvement in
whatever will turn up at the end. 9. Cecilys refusal to love anyone
but a man named Earnest foreshadows conflict in her relationship
with Algernon. 10. Lady Bracknell knows Prism and questions about
lost baby, foreshadowing again Prisms involvement in the
mystery.
- Slide 38
- Exit Pass Make 3 predictions about what is to happen in the
next Act. Give reasons and point to evidence in Act 1 to support
your comments. 1. 2. 3.
- Slide 39
- Drama Terminology Game Your group are aiming to apply the TERMS
to a section of the play (Act II). Cut and paste the terms onto the
A3 poster, put an example / quotation from Act II next to it.
Discuss the terms and their examples as you go. Winning group will
have the most number of terms with examples on their poster. To
finish: look up the definitions of the remaining Drama Terms and
record these on your poster.
- Slide 40
- Tasks for Act 2 work in pairs 1) Explore how the country
characters are different to the town characters through: - Language
- Occupations / activities - Attitudes to each other - Social class
2) How is the theme of deceit developed in this Act? 3) Collect
examples of matched language /stylistic patterns for the 6 paired
characters. How are similar patterns revealed in the action of the
play? 4) How do running jokes contribute to the comedy of this Act
(German; food; education; writing)? 5) What attitudes towards
religion appear in this Act? Consider christening; church services;
relevance of religion to daily life. 6) Compare Lane, Merriman and
Miss Prism as employees and as comic characters. What do they bring
to the play, which would otherwise be missing?
- Slide 41
- Well-made play: A very structured and rigid plot and a climax
that takes place very close to the end of the story, with most of
the story taking place before the action of the play; much of the
information regarding such previous action would be revealed
through thinly veiled exposition. Following that would be a series
of causally-related plot complications.plotclimaxexpositioncausally
A recurrent device is the use of letters or papers falling into
unintended hands, in order to bring about plot twists and
climaxes.plot twists The majority of well-made plays are comedies,
often farce.
- Slide 42
- Summary and response to A2 Act 2 opens in the Garden at the
Manor House where Cecily is watering flowers and Miss Prism is
calling her for a lesson in German grammar. This sets the scene for
the country characters Surely such a utilitarian occupation is
rather Moultons duty than yours? The Act finishes with Jack
insisting Algernon leave, Why dont you go?, and Algernon replying
that he hasnt finished his tea yet, there is still one muffin left.
Summarise this Act, paying particular attention to your OWN
personal response, (you must evaluate / judge / express opinion) of
the Act Wilde has created.
- Slide 43
- This homework task is due on Tuesday next week. Research ONE
other book/play Oscar Wilde wrote. What makes his writing so good?
Are there any similarities between this and TIOBE? Include
pictures, quotes from him and from other sources.
- Slide 44
- Tasks for Act III work in pairs 1) In the battle of the sexes,
which side, if any, do you consider wins? Give evidence. 2) How is
humour enhanced through comic timing and patterns in this Act? 3)
Continue notes on the use of inflated language when used for
trivialities (refer to subtitle of play A Trivial Comedy for
Serious People). 4) What links are there between social attitudes,
money and marriage? 5) How does the third act fulfil the needs of
the well- made play?
- Slide 45
- PLAN response to this essay question. The Importance of Being
Earnest has been described as a timeless play. How do you account
for its continuing success?
______________________________________________________ AS
Literature essays *4- 8 paragraphs *Topic sentences *Detailed and
well-developed explanations of point of view (yours as well as
recognising those of other experts and critics) *Direct and precise
referencing / quotation, examination / exploration and critical
analysis of ideas. *Relevance to essay topic (tie-backs and
linking) Use language of drama techniques and conventions Examine
the effect of playwrights craft on the audience Recognise
difference between audience of the day (1899) and today Appreciate
intentions and purpose of playwright Write in 3 rd person (as an
authority) but express own evaluations
- Slide 46
- Topic Sentences Wildes exaggeration of trivial objects and
issues add to the comedic effect of this timeless play. The use of
this successful plays witty dialogue and epigrams appeals to
audiences over time. The depth of Wildes comedic conventions allow
audiences to reinterpret the timeless play differently as knowledge
and life experiences accumulate.
- Slide 47
- Essay Question 1. In The Importance of Being Earnest there is a
tension between the artificial behaviour dictated by society and
the natural way in which people wish to behave. How far do you find
this a valid comment on the play? 2. For what dramatic purposes
does Wilde use a) food and b) concern for property in The
Importance of Being Earnest? 3. The Importance of Being Earnest has
been described as a timeless play. How do you account for its
continuing success? 4. For Wildes original audiences, the
overturning of gender roles within The Importance of Being Earnest
was funny because it seemed so unlikely. What sources of humour
might a modern audience find? 5. Discuss the implications of class
differences in the success of The Importance of Being Earnest as a
comedy.
- Slide 48
- Essay Questions continued 6) How are Victorian attitudes to
marriage and respectability explored in The Importance of Being
Earnest? 7) How do the country characters cast light on the
pretensions of society as exposed in The Importance of Being
Earnest? 8) What does the hidden character of Lord Bracknell add to
our understanding and enjoyment of the play? 9) How does Wilde use
satire to explode the social world he writes about in The
Importance of Being Earnest? 10) How far would you agree with the
view that The Importance of Being Earnest is a play without a
moral, existing for its own sake, for its own perfection,
communicating no message?
- Slide 49
- Essay questions cont 11) How far do you agree with Wildes
description of The Importance of Being Earnest: The first act is
ingenious, the second beautiful and the third abominably clever?
12) Humour, like drama, arises from conflict. How far is this true
in The Importance of Being Earnest? 13) How far do you agree that
the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest wear masks that
cover real feelings, so preventing the audiences engagement with
them on an emotional level? 14) How important are ideas of
parentage and family in The Importance of Being Earnest?
- Slide 50
- 1. Don't change horses until they stop running. 2. Strike while
the wasp is close. 3. It's always darkest before .Daylight Saving
Time.. 4. Never underestimate the power of .termites. 5. You can
lead a horse to water but How? 6. Don't bite the hand that looks
dirty. 7. No news is impossible 8. A miss is as good as a Mr. 9.
You can't teach an old dog new maths 10. If you lie down with dogs
you'll stink in the morning... 12. The pen is mightier than the
..pigs. 13. An idle mind is . the best way to relax 14. Where
there's smoke there's .pollution. 15. Happy the bride who...gets
all the presents. 16. A penny saved is ..not much. 17. Two's
company, three's the Musketeers. 18. Don't put off till tomorrow
what you put on to go to bed. 19. Laugh and the whole world laughs
withyou, cry and you have to blow your nose. 20.There are none so
blind as Stevie Wonder.. 21. Children should be seen and not
spanked or grounded. 22. If at first you don't succeed ..get new
batteries. 23. You get out of something only what you See in the
picture on the box 24. When the blind lead the blind get out of the
way. 25. A bird in the hand is going to poop on you. 26. Better
late than Pregnant
- Slide 51
- Epigrams from Wilde truth, lie, funny, serious? Or sarcastic?
In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital
thing. Misfortunes one can endure. But to suffer for ones own
faultsah!there is the sting of life. Fashion is merely a form of
ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it ever six
months. Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience. The only
difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a
past while every sinner has a future. Bigamy is having one wife too
many; monogamy is the same. Religion is the fashionable substitute
for belief. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to
remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can
be taught. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever
they go. A true friend stabs you in the front. We are all of us
living in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of
nothing. To love yourself is the beginning of a lifelong affair!
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except
genius. But what is the difference between literature and
journalism?...Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
That is all. Ones real life is often the life that one does not
lead. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Why was I born with such contemporaries? When the gods wish to
punish us, they answer our prayers. Only dull people are brilliant
at breakfast. Work is the curse of the drinking classes. It is
absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either
charming or tedious. Experience is the name everyone gives to their
mistakes. Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. Only the
shallow know themselves. A little sincerity is a dangerous thing,
and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. There is nothing in the
world like the devotion of a married woman. Its a thing no married
man knows anything about. One must have some sort of occupation
nowadays. If I hadnt my debts I shouldnt have anything to think
about. Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much. It
is very easy to endure the difficulties of ones enemies. It is the
successes of ones friends that are hard to bear. Nothing succeeds
like excess. Women have a much better time than men in this world.
There are far more things forbidden to them.
- Slide 52
- Themes class list Marriage Deception Gender Education Morality
Wealth Social Status Class divide Religion Hypocrisy Decadence
Womanhood Sincerity/Earnestness Identity / Illegitamacy Triviality
(of eg death) Humour Country versus City HOMEWORK: Categorise this
list into 5 or 6. Many of them are related. For each category write
a brief description of the theme as you understand it. Due next
lesson.
- Slide 53
- Essay question - collaborate In The Importance of Being Earnest
there is a tension between the artificial behaviour dictated by
society and the natural way in which people wish to behave. How far
do you find this a valid comment on the play? A) Analyse the
question B) Brainstorm to generate lots of ideas / examples /
opinions C) Choose your key points Prepare an outline of ideas and
examples for a timed essay on Thursday 19 th March (Period 5)
- Slide 54
- In The Importance of Being Earnest there is a tension between
the artificial behaviour dictated by society and the natural way in
which people wish to behave. How far do you find this a valid
comment on the play? (a) Wilde ridicules social pretensions in
Victorian society the double identity is a motif used to show the
conflict between how people WANT to behave and how the MUST behave
according to conventions of the time. (b) The main plot which
provides the central conflict - Jack and Gwendolens pursuit of
marriage and the obstacles of his name, her mother and his birth
serve to emphasise the absurdity of Victorian values. (c)
Commentary on the upper and lower classes and their places in
society. (d) Roles of the female characters the power, control and
manipulation they perform under the thinly veiled disguise of
etiquette and good manners (e) Rivalry between country and city
life
- Slide 55
- Character Analysis Cloze Tests Female Characters Country
Characters Aristocracy Male Characters City Characters Servants
Under each of these headings write your impressions / describe
these types of characters from what you understand about their
representation.
- Slide 56
- The names of the characters John (Jack) Worthing Algernon
Moncrieff Reverend Canon Chasuble Lady Bracknell Gwendolen Fairfax
Cecily Cardew Miss Prism Merriman Lane What does each name lead you
to expect of the character?
- Slide 57
- Characters Do now: Design a diagram which shows the
inter-relationships between all characters in this play. Use arrows
with labels to explain the relationships.
- Slide 58
- Female Characters Gwendolyn, Cecily, Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism
1 st Dimension (a)What they look like? Costume elements (b)What
they act like? Acting style, stage directions, interactions with
others (c) What they say? Quotes, subjects, topics they refer to,
language, epigrams 2nd and 3 rd Dimensions (a) What others say
about them? (b) What / Who in society they represent? (c)
Inferences you can make about their character /nature from their
speech/behaviour? (d) Who they are related too and their
relationships with others? (e) Position they ultimately end up in?
Does this character reveal any themes in particular?
- Slide 59
- Male Characters Jack/Ernest, Algernon, Rev. Chausable,
Lane/Merriman 1 st Dimension (a)What they look like? Costume
elements (b)What they act like? Acting style, stage directions,
interactions with others (c) What they say? Quotes, subjects,
topics they refer to, language, epigrams 2nd and 3 rd Dimensions
(a) What others say about them? (b) What / Who in society they
represent? (c) Inferences you can make about their character
/nature from their speech/behaviour? (d) Who they are related too
and their relationships with others? (e) Position they ultimately
end up in? Does this character reveal any themes in
particular?
- Slide 60
- Do you agree with the following statements concerning the
motives of Wildes characters? Algernon does not want to be
restrained by social and family obligations. He has invented a sick
friend so that he can do what he wants when he wants! Cecily has
invented an imaginary lover because she is a bored, romantic
teenager who dreams of a more exciting life away from the
countryside. Jack uses his unreliable brother so that he can play
at being both a responsible and serious guardian in the countryside
and a riotous party- going young man when in London. In the case of
Jack and Cecily, which persona reflects their true personality? For
all three characters, what do their imaginary lives suggest about
the society in which they live?
- Slide 61
- Class debate: Moot : Parents should have a role in choosing
their childrens husband/wife. Prepare an argument FOR this moot.
AFFIRMATIVE Prepare an argument AGAINST this moot. NEGATIVE
- Slide 62
- Extension Apply literary and critical theory to the play.
Michael Foucalt Aestheticism Queer theory Other?