PETAL NOT PEE

P-oint
E-vidence
T-echnique
A-nalyse
L-anguage

How is Act 1 Comedic?

• mistaken identity (11)- 'you have always told me it was Ernest' 'but this isn't your cigarette case' allows character to live two different lives, one responsible (country) the other lacks responsibility (town)
• town vs country: 'Ernest in the town and Jack in the country' (12)
• inversion: 'Divorces are made in heaven' (9)
• repartee: witty insults about marriage etc (9)
• eccentric sides to characters: 'I play with wonderful expression... sentiment is my forte' (1) hyperbolic language, exaggerated- SATIRE. 'I am greatly distressed Aunt Augusta about there being no cucumbers' bathos. Jack- 'Darling!', bordering ridiculous
• Lady Bracknell about Mr Bunbury: 'I think it's high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or die' SATIRE (disconnected)

Class Notes- Lesson 2

Neil Bartlett states that Wilde's play was 'the finest flower of English campness'

• 'ever since I have met you I have admired you' (17)
• 'I play with wonderful expression... sentiment is my forte' (7) eccentric behaviour
• 'Gwendolene! Darling!' (48)
• play revolves around marriage and love- feminine/ 'camp' topics
• setting= aesthetically pleasing, luxurious 

Genre

• Comedy of manners/modernist play- arguments as to which depending from what angle you look at it
• idea of double/secret life was a recurrent theme in late Victorian England writing
• Treads a series of tightropes- between experimental drama and commercial success, convention and subversion propriety and outrageousness (dictonomy)

A02- Structure

• all comedies consist of same basic structure
• Tripartite (3 parts)
• Exposition - complication - resolution 

TIOBE:

1. features a set of characters overcoming adversity to achieve a happy ending (classical comedy)
2. hidden identities are revealed, class differences are resolved, families are reunited at the end
3. Earnest is also a satire- makes fun of its characters, most of whom are members of the aristocratic class
4. Wilde exaggerates the upper classes shallowness and frivolity to show the corrupt morals they provide as examples 
5. Wilde is witty and funny, his humour relies on absurd characters and situations, whose lack of insight causes them to respond to these situations in inappropriate ways

A01- Language

Motif- recurring element of significant symbolism

Protagonist- first major character with a major particular view

Antagonist- opposes the protagonist 

Bathos- taking an elevated form of tragedy and descending it into the ridiculous

Status quo- established/current state of affairs

Beaus- relaxed, attractive, self-confident men

Fops- dandy men, pay attention to the way they dress and their appearance

Affection- a form of pretense in behaviour   

Trigram- short and witty saying at the start of a text

Repartee- witty banter

Theories Of Laughter

Superiority theory:

• one laughs at something as they feel superior, e.g laughing t someone slipping on a banana skin. 
• Originated from 17th century- writer Thomas Hobbes
• Has social and political dimension seen as way of confirming hierarchies in society

Relief theory: 

• laughing when there is a build up of tension of some kind, when something is repressed or we feel awkward or anxious about something
• originates from Freud-ideas of repression and anxiety
• explores social tensions and laughter is a kind of release for build up of energy or anger in society

Incongruity theory:

• laugh at mismatched ideas or elements, juxtaposition of incompatible things
• high and low class being brought together as one
• 18th century- focus on skill and wit