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Mastery Of Epigram And The Aud - Paper

Mastery Of Epigram And The Aud


Critics of the play refer to Wilde's "acity and polish of his wit". Illustrate this mastery using examples which you have enjoyed from the play.
According to Collins English Dictionary wit is "the talent or quality of using unexpected associations between contrasting or disparate words or ideas to make a clever humorous effect", it is more intellectual than straightforward humour which can include slapstick. An epigram is "a witty, often paradoxical remark, concisely expressed". The Importance of being Earnest is a play overflowing with both epigrams and wit. The title itself is a play on the words Ernest and earnest. There are so many examples of Wilde's "acity and polish of his wit" ...

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truth, love/marriage, diary, death, education, illness, Society, ... (Maybe too many groups this way, could perhaps cut them down).

Examples: too many: to be winnowed:

Play on words:

Title: The Importance of Being Earnest

I.5:5 Algernon: "As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte." (Play on the word pianoforte.)

I.12:161 Algernon:"You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest looking person I ever saw in my life." (Play on Ernest and earnest)

II.67ish. Gwendolen: "Mamma, whose views on education are remarkably strict, has brought me up to be extremely short-sighted, it is part of her system; so do you mind my looking at you through my glasses?" (Short-sighted - not looking towards the future and needing to wear glasses)

Plain Wit:

I.33:611 Algernon: "I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest ...

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If he should get married he will try to forget that he has done so. To this Jack replies:

I.8:79 Jack: "The Divorce Court was specially invented for people whose memories are so curiously constituted". Algy's reply (9:82) is an example of an opposite:

I.14:212 Jack: "That ... is the whole truth pure and simple"' Alg: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

I.18:297 To Jack's remark : "You're quite perfect, Miss Fairfax." Gwendolen: "Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions." (Outwards ?)

I.20:344 Lady B.: "... Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others."

I.27:496 Lady B: ...

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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 9/6/2005 02:59:29 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 2064
Pages: 8

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