Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
Ans. The farce is a play for the theatre, full of ridiculous situations intended to make people laugh. The main characteristics of farce’ are the dependence in it of character and dialogue upon more situations. This situation moreover, is of the most exaggerated and impossible kind, depending not on clever plot construction, but upon the coarsest and rudest of improbable incongruities. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
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Except in the very flimsiest of such pieces, of course, it is rare to find a play that depends upon nothing but farcical elements. But we can roughly mark the preponderance of those characteristics in the dramas presented before us under this title. It is quite evident that Farquhar and Vanbrugh are more farcical than Congreve, The Taming of the Shrew’ and The Merry Wives of Windsor are more farcical than Twelfth Night’. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
Importance of being earnest as a farcical comedy
In these plays, the character is deliberately sacrificed to the situation, nearly always of a rough and tumble’ type. Horseplay rouses our laughter in them more than the comedy of characters or manners. True farce, however, always puts its stress on the comic, or rather the absurd, the almost incredible situation, and lets characters fit into it as they will. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
The farceur is chiefly concerned with the building up of a succession of lively dialogue. The more rapidly he can pile absurdity upon absurdity without completely alienating our common sense, the more brilliantly successful he is. The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a farce. The play is a comic masterpiece. It reveals in its improbability and absurdity. It is consistently farcical in tone, characterization, and plot.
A baby mislaid in a hand-bag at a London railway station, and the completely arbitrary desires of young ladies to marry men with the name Emest are the mainsprings of the plot. “The Importance of Being Earnest’ Wilde invented a new type of play, and that type was the only quite original thing he contributed to the English stage. In form, it is facing, but in spirit and treatment, it is a comedy. Yet it is not farcical comedy The importance of Doing Earnest is a psychological force, the force of ideas.”The play consists of plenty of farcical situations.
The importance of being earnest as a farcical comedy
The discovery of Jack’s double-identity is based on a trial cigarette-case episode Jack’s effort to kill his imaginary brother ‘Earnest is highly farcical. The effort of Jack and Algernon to rechristen themselves as Ernest with the help of Dr. Chasuble is another instance of force. Algernon’s eating all the cucumber sandwiches intended for his aunt is highly absurd and farcical. The quarrel between Cecily and Gwendolen in Act II is highly childish and absurd. Equally absurd is the quarrel between Jack and Algernon on the questions of eating the muffins.
The story of Jack’s hand-bag origin is as absurd as it is improbable. The hand-bag episode in the third Act leads to a farcical situation when Jack mistakes Miss Prism for his unwed mother and proceeds to embrace the spinster, Jack’s frequent assertions and denials about having a brother is highly absurd and farcical. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
Cecily’s romantic attachment to the name of Emest to the extent of herself writing has supposed love letters to her and falling in love with him even three months before she meets him is highly absurd and farcical. Lady Bracknell’s interrogation of Jack, his replies and her assessment of the border on the absurd. The quarrel between Cecily and Gwendolen caused by their ignorance of the double identity of Jack verges on the farce.
The absent-mindedness of Miss Prism to the extent of losing the baby left under her care by putting it in her handbag and her novel in the perambulator is not only inexcusable but also highly absurd and farcical. The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a true farce and such it lays stress on the comic, or rather absurd, the most incredible situations as detailed above. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
All the characters in the play are deliberately sacrificed to the farcical situations they are forced to land on. As a farseer, Wilde is chillily concerned with the building up of a succession of lively dialogue. In this, he more rapidly piles absurdity upon absurdity by kindness the intellect all the time by providing side-splitting laughter. The amusing unsuccessful proposal is a stock situation in farce.
The proposal of Jack to Gwendolen is highly farcical irrespective of Lady Bracknell’s presence or absence on the stage. She insists upon a regular oral proposal from her suitor and considers her mother’s intrusion untimely as ‘Mr. Alyernon’s proposal to Cecily. The efforts of Jack and Algernon to make their sweethearts accept their real names border on the farcical because of the strange logic of the women. Thus we find.
The importance of being earnest themes
The Importance of Being Ernest’ is a true farce in which the characters and the plot are subordinated the interest of farcical situations. In it absurd and the improbable from a fantastic combination to provide a rich comic fare. Wilde says that this play was “written by a butterfly for butterflies”. In writing this play, his chief aim was to provide unalloyed entertainment. So he exploits all the characteristics of farce to provide a pure comedy for his audience. Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
Examine the Importance of Being Earnest as a farce
