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The Importance of Comedy
The soaring success of the British Industrial Revolution and the climax of the British Empire brought a rich sense of culture and elegance to the British upper class. Pomp and grace filled the lives of the elevated citizens, and their problems stemmed not from finding the source of their next meal or properly taking care of their children, like many of the lower class at the time, but from what parties they attended, and the elegance of their dress. A sense of style over substance begins to take hold of society as a whole, and takes its place above all other social mottos. Oscar Wilde pokes fun at this time of over indulgence and vanity with his play The Importance of Being Earnest, and uses the six styles of comedy to satirize the time period.
Spontaneity brings shock to comedy. Inverted logic turns words of phrases upside down, reversing the expectations of the reader, and gives them an unsuspected outcome. A good example of inverted logic comes when Gwendolen asks Algernon to turn his back, but “As it is somewhat of a private matter, [he] will of course listen” ( Wilde 29), showing the shallowness of the dialog held between the upper class. This shallowness floats along the surface of a lot of problems for this period’s upper class. The importance of style over substance marks the demise for many a story from this era. The play has many accounts of this lack of depth. Wilde uses another style of comedy, paradox, to explore this phenomenon deeper.
Paradox draws readers into the writing, hinting to them that a bizarre turn lurks near, only to pull the truth out at the last moment, taking a seemingly contradictory statement and drawing truth from it. Lady Bracknell speaks about Algernon saying “he has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?” (81) At the beginning of the statement, the reader gets the impression that Algernon has nothing to offer in his shallowness. But, Bracknell pulls the statement around and makes his current state desirable. Style over substance rears its ugly head again. Wilde also uses puns in his plays to bring comedy to these sad situations.
A pun: a play on words created by using a word or phrase that has two different meanings or by using two different words or phrases with the same sound. When Lady Bracknell speaks to Cecily about her age, she confides in her that “no woman should ever be quite accurate about her age” (83), an idea commonly used to make the woman sound younger, but in this case it means older, since Cecily already has youth. Again, all this falls in the shallow ways of the times. The actual age of an individual does not matter, the age they appear, or wish to appear matters. The physically obsessed mindset claims another victim. Wilde also transports his comedy though another vessel, that of epigrams.
Wilde’s witty epigrams give this play a lot of its comedy. These brief, cleverly expressed statements in prose or verse come quickly and surprise the reader with a smart remark. When asked about his hair, Algernon says it comes naturally “with a little help from others” (61). Denying his naturally curly hair, but saving face enough so that he does not loose any worth. Another fine example of the importance of vanity, ability and purpose does not matter, appearance of ability and purpose matters. Wilde also uses parodies of current culture to poke fun at the subject matter.
Parody denotes the humorous mocking of literary works. Where the other styles can bring humor out of just a simple turn of phrase, parody takes another piece of literature and uses allusions from it to produce humor. A good example or parody occurs when Jack dresses for Ernest’s funeral, because ”to be in deep mourning for a man who is actually staying for a whole week with you in your house” (51). All this parody’s the melodramas of the nineteenth century, similar to the soap operas of today. Such a strange predicament has no place in real life, but finds a comfortable authenticity in this world of lies and stories. Though all these styles mark merely parts of the play, satire cover it as a whole.
Satirical writing ridicules the faults of individuals or of groups, in this case it holds up the upper class of Victorian England. But it makes fun not just to jest, but to correct the flaws and shortcomings that it points out. Satire reeks from the entire play, The Importance of Being Earnest¸ and its dialogue merely employs the five other styles, just to spice things up a little. But satire makes up the brunt of it. The final line sums up the satire for the entire play, in it Jack realizes the “vital Importance of Being Earnest” and the pointlessness of the glamour they once strove for (93). The great pun in the title comes out here too, in that the reader found the name Ernest used throughout the play, but no one ever achieved true earnestness. Truly, this places the play on the podium of an epic statement on the standings of society in question.
Through the six styles of comedy, Oscar Wilde successfully comments on the shallowness of the Victorian upper class in his The Importance of Being Earnest. A bright light shines on their style over substance attitude, and the flaw will not go unnoticed thanks to this work. When the mere appearance of success will suffice, the reader sees the futility of trying to live this lifestyle, and just how foolish those that do look. The satire in this play produces both a hilarious look at the ridiculousness of the upper class, and a serious message about the short comings of such short sighted expectations.
Work Cited
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest: and four other plays. Ed. George Stade. New York: Barnes & Nobel Classics, 2004. 29-93.
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