The protagonist often has a shadow - a character similar in many ways to the protagonist but often an opposite. In Comedies, a war between 'good' and 'evil' is taking place as a backdrop to the story but the battle is played out as a farce and eventually, the protagonist comes to some kind of resolution, often marrying and thus rejoining the society in which she lives. Thousands of examples of such comedies exist: in Shakespeare, or as Restoration farces, comedies of manners, television sit-coms, and so on.
This idea of Gwendolen having a substantial amount of power over a man effectively challenges Victorian standards - women were given absolutely no power as it was thought they could not manage it: they were denied the vote until , as it was thought that men and women were to have separate spheres, women domestically and men socially.
But that is exactly why the play works as a comedy. Wilde creates humour in a contemporary context by showing a strong woman having physical power over a weaker man and additionally handling such power confidently. Though such a topic may have sparked controversy amongst an audience, it would also have provoked laughter. At the time the play was written a woman of the aristocracy, as of any class in society, was expected to do as she was told without complaint.
They find everything in the name and love for the name. The boys prefer the name Earnest but they lack seriousness. It is a satire on the society that gives priority to appearances and surfaces.
It is hypocrisy of the concerned people. The dialogue used in the play is funny and witty. The clever exchange between the characters are beautiful on the surface and hollow inside. Furthermore, characters like Cecily and Gwendolyn provide ruthlessness and practical sense, to remain in firm control of their partners.
Therefore, comedy of humours plays a big part in socialising the play, which helps the audience to realise the main traits or humours of the characters in the play. Another way in which The Importance of Being Earnest is only a comedy of manners is through mistaken identity. This plays a massive role in the play as order is restored in the end by mistaken identy, which leads everyone to discover the importance of being Earnest.
This means that he can please himself with one identity and please others, meaning Gwendolyn, as she adores her Earnest, in another. It is important to have two identites as you gain a wider social class and gain more connections, as Wilde explores how it is important to have many social connections.
As having connections also helps to resolve the disorder. Additionally, Algernon also has another identity called Bunbury, which he overuses the term alot. Also both Algy and Jack use their other identities to get themselves out of situations, as they both decide to kill off their other self. However, they use the most absurd ways to kill their other identities. Also, marriage being one of the main themes throughout the play definitiely plays a key role in both deaths, as Algy and Jack are both desperate to get married to their partners.
Additionally, The Importance of Being Earnest is not only about comedy of manners, as it is also a farce. This too is something that creates humor in the play because an aristocratic young man attaches too much importance to his clothes.
It must be noted here that unlike traditional comedy where indulgence in amorous affairs and pathos and miseries related to it used to create comedy, Wilde, employ variety of contemporary socio-cultural contexts to extract comical situations. His target is not the follies associated with love but posing and pretensions of the society.
Furthermore, Wilde does not aim at reforming the society, his purposes is to create laughter by highlighting the social follies. Lady Bracknell is the liveliest character in the play.
Unlike traditional comedy where pair s of lovers and their actions and activities produces comical situations, Wilde utilizes an older non-lover character to produces humorous situations. Beside that she too is indulged in the foibles and follies of her society. She claims to have a taste for music, but she would like her nephew to make the selection of numbers to be played at the party. In other words, her taste of music is only a pretense.
But this is only a minor humorous paradox. Her suspicious nature and her mercenary looks remain pivotal in creating humor. Miss Prism amuses us by her literary pretensions. She once wrote a three-volume novel and she lays boast about it. It is quite possible that Wilde, apart from providing rich comic fare to his audiences, wanted also the serious people among them to derive some food for thought. Wilde has posed a trifler like conventional trifler who portrays love-affairs and follies affiliated with it in a comic manner but Wilde is a trifler with a capacity of thinking.
Unlike traditional comedy, comedy in The Importance of Being Earnest is derived from satirical attack on social snobbery, class consciousness and shallowness of certain member of the society and it fulfills all the parameters of a successful comedy.
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