How far do you agree that The Important
of Being Earnest can only be referred to as a satire?
The Importance of Being
Earnest can not only be viewed as a Satire as there are many different comedic
genres within the play. Wilde’s play can also be seen to contain elements of a
Farce, the Comedy of Manners, Commedia Dell’Arte and it could also be interpreted
as a Classic comedy. Throughout all the play within the setting, language and
characters presented clearly match a wide variety of comedic genres.
The Importance of Being
Earnest can be seen as a satire because there are many different conventions of
a satire that are within the play. The characters are extremely satirical, with
their language and attitude. Chasuble is a good example of this, he is a
minister, yet he mocks the church. ‘My sermon on the meaning of the manna in
the wilderness can be adapted to almost any occasion, joyful, or, as in the
present case, distressing’ This mocks the church as he doesn’t change his
sermons for his occasions, he just performs the same sermon each time, which
shows he may not care about his religion as much as he should. This is
satirical because the audience expects a Priest to be of the highest class and
be extremely calm whereas Chasuble seems to be quite out going and expressible.
He is the complete opposite of what he should be, which is satirical because it
is not what the audience expects. The setting of the play can be seen as having
conventions of a satire with in it with the town vs. country theme. The town
vs. country binary opposition is purposely put into the book to show two
different kinds of people, people like Miss Prism who have no understanding of
the outside world, outside of the country and Jack, who is the complete
opposite, being able to live in the town and the country, to get a better view
of the world to have more experience. The language used within The Importance
of Being Earnest makes the play very satirical. The use of puns, witticisms,
epigrams and bathos shows this. All throughout the play, Lady Bracknell uses
wit and comical tone, the way that she cuts into people’s sentences shows this
very well.
As well as being a Satire,
The Importance of Being Earnest can also be seen as a Comedy of Manners in many
different ways. The most obvious way it fits into the generic conventions of a
Comedy of Manners is the characters within the play. In a Comedy of Manners
characters are described to be ‘smart, socially insulated people’[1],
which is obviously quite true. This is proven by Miss Prism, she is socially
insulated because the things she has been teaching Cecily are very much set
just in the house, she isn’t teaching her about the world outside the country
as Jack does that, he is the exception within the characters that does not fit
into the Comedy Of Manners genre because he has experienced the town and the
country and travels in-between them then shares his experiences with Cecily, he
is the opposite of insulated.
Within this play, there are
features of it being a farce. A Farce has typically exaggerated characters;
Lady Bracknell’s character is an example of this because she is extreme is
every way. An example of this is when she finds out Cecily has money and she is
suddenly very interested in her “A moment Mr Worthing. A hundred and thirty
thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardrew seems to me a most attractive
young lady, now that I look at her”. She is extreme when it comes to decisions;
she is either one or another. Wilde has done this to mock the upper class to
make upper class people only thinking about money and staying within the upper
class because at this time in England being in the upper class was the most
important thing. This can be because Oscar Wilde has been seen to be a Marxist,
which would come through in his writing, to mock the upper class. The
Importance of Being Earnest can also be seen as a Farce by the improbably
situations the characters are put in, the situations the characters have to
overcome are extremely exaggerated for the comedy within the play. These
situations are sorted out in the denouement very quickly in the last scene,
which shows the comedy within the play because the audience will find it funny
that the characters are shown to be upset about the most silliest things all
throughout the play, but then all the problems are solved or sorted within the
space of a few minutes. This is funny because this shows that none of the
problems were very serious to start with and the characters have been bothered
about nothing throughout the entire play. The use of wit in the play can be
seen as features of a Farce as well, the first time we see wit is in the first
scene of the play when Jack and Algernon are talking about Jack/Ernest’s cigar
case ‘Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered especially
for Aunt Augusta. [Takes one and eats it], this shows the wit of the
conversation that they have between them because Algernon is stressed about
Aunt Augusta coming to his house and Jack is mocking him by doing the opposite
of what he says. This is returned later in the play when Jack is stressing
about the girls and Algernon is eating muffins. These are both places within
the play that the audience is expected to laugh at the characters as comic
relief, which is used within the genre of Farce.
There are hints of Commedia
Dell’Arte within The Importance of Being Earnest, although we cannot say that
it can be fully in this genre because there are many conventions within this
genre that The Importance of Being Earnest does not conform with. The use of the style of characters
personalities can show elements of Commedia Dell’Arte because a convention in a
Commedia Dell’Arte is there are a pair of ‘young lovers’, within The Importance
of Being Earnest, there are two sets. This can be split up so that Jack and
Gwendolen are the primary younger lovers and Cecily and Algernon are the
parallel lovers, they are still young lovers but not as important within the
play. These are called the inamorata and are in most Commedia Dell’Arte plays.
There is also an ‘Il Capitano’ within the play, in the form of the character
Algernon, Il Capitano is ‘a cowardly, braggart, pompous solider, whose boasting
exceeds his deeds’, this explains the character of Algernon very well because
Algernon is extremely cowardly towards his love for Cecily, ‘I have dared to
love you wildly’.
A Classic comedy is another
genre that The Importance of Being Earnest conforms to. To be a classic comedy,
the play needs to include ‘the rising action; that is, the sorts of strategies
the agent of action generates in order to win’[2].
This can be interpreted so that the agent of action is Jack and what he needs
to win is the consent to marry Gwendolen. To do this, there are four things
that need to be done so that the denouement can happen. A romance needs to be
pursued, which in The Importance of Being Earnest, three relationships are
pursued, Jack and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily and finally, Miss Prism and
Chasuble. The second strategy that needs to be in the play is a trick is
played, this can be that Gwendolen and Cecily are tricked by Algernon and Jack
that both their names are Earnest. The ‘Green world’ needs to be visited for
the play to be a classic comedy, and in The Importance of Being Earnest, it is
visited. The ‘green world’ in the play is the Country. The play starts off in
the town and then changes to the country in the second act of the play; this is
where everything happens in the play, the climax, the resolution and the
denouement. After everything is resolved, the characters go back to the town.
This is used as a binary opposition and contrast within the play with the town
and the country.
In conclusion, The Importance of
Being Earnest cannot only be seen as a satire. There are conventions within
other genres of comedy that are within the play. Although there are hints of
satire within the play, there are also features of classic comedy, a comedy of
manners, a Commedia Dell’arte and mostly a Farce. I do not agree with the
statement made because there are just too many places within the play where it
is not only satirical it is another genre of comedy as well.
