The Importance of Being Earnest

Dramatic irony is in speeches or a situation of drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play. For instance when Judge Danforth and Elizabeth Proctor were talking; Danforth: "We are given to understand that at one time you dismissed your servant, Abigail Williams...Why did you dismiss Abigail Williams?" Elizabeth:"She dissatisfied me; And my husband" (Act IV). This quotes shows dramatic irony when Elizabeth lies to protect Johns reputation, but what she does not know is that John himself has already confessed to adultery. Thus both of their reputations are damaged, John’s for adultery and Elizabeths for

Dramatic irony is the type of irony that informs the reader of a certain fact that one or more characters in the story may not know. This is quite evident in Young Goodman Brown and A Cask of Amontillado, because of the lack of knowledge that the

In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde revealed that animalistic traits can tint a character’s intellectual attributes. All of the characters possess an overwhelming desire which seems to diminish their morality. Wilde uses Jack Worthing’s animalistic behaviors to reveal that his animal self is damaging his intellectual self. The play is presented to show that the characters retain an exaggerated pleasure with food, which shows their pleasures in inanimate objects. Every character in the play is drawn into lustful relationships, thus mutilating their psychological self. By embracing their animalistic traits the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest begin to blemish their intellectual character which inhibits their overall

Irony is a very big part of a story, because it can create new elements in a story. Some of these elements may include humor and theme. "The Ransom of Red Chief" is a great example for this.

William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story about two lovers who are from two disputing families, and their eventual suicides. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony throughout the play to create tension for the audience and foreshadow the ending. Dramatic irony is when the words or actions of characters in a story have a different meaning to the reader than to the characters. This is because the reader knows something that the characters do not. Romeo and Juliet’s death could have been prevented if the characters in the story weren’t so ignorant of their situations, and often times the reader recognizes this.

"Irony is a device that protects him (the artist) from the pain of his experience so that he may use it objectively in his art(Susquehanna. "New Critical")." In The Glass Menagerie, it is ironic how Tom speaks badly of his father and his leaving home but in the end he leaves home just like his father, the man "in love with long distances (Williams 30)''. The fact that Amanda wants what is best for her children is ironic because she worries so much over it that she doesn't realize what is best for them.

One of the many types of irony used to demonstrate the characters’ actions is verbal irony. The court scene in Act III shows an example of verbal irony. Mary Warren and John Proctor are being questioned in affiliation to Elizabeth’s possession of any poppets. Parris was trying to validate the fact that maybe they were uninformed of her custody of these, that maybe she could have hidden her poppets.(The Crucible Verbal Irony 1) In reply to Proctor, Parris says, “We are here, Your Honor, precisely to discover what no one has ever seen.”(Miller 104) He is simply meaning the court is trying to come upon the poppets that allegedly Elizabeth had hidden in her house, that no one has ever

Food is the world’s safe house. Primarily, food is what keeps the body in working order. Behind the scenes, food creates an industry that is incomparable to any other. From diners to fishermen, and from bakeries to slaughterhouses, food is known by all. Oscar Wilde takes this universal knowledge of food to create the compelling social satire known as “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Wilde cleverly brings readers into a new world of secrecy, fantasy, and power through the need to eat. With the onset of the “New Woman” era, Oscar Wilde uses food to introduce his humourously repulsed opinion on the freedom of women, while alluding to the struggle of being accepted in this previously unheard of society.

Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. Willy thinks that

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, there is a lot of humor that can be found. Specifically, developed behind the characters in this play that display many instances of irony and how important it was to fit into the “status quo” of this time period. There are specific behaviors from the characters of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon that portray Wilde’s opinion of society during the Victorian Age. The attitude of these characters is snobbish and their manners display double standards and superiority. The play’s use of mockery and irony of these satirical situations is meant to publicly ridicule the self- loving attitude of the upper class while exposing their true absence of intelligence which causes their absurd social behaviors

-Dramatic Irony is when the words and actions of the characters in a work of literature are known to the audience or reader, but they are not known to certain characters in the story. The reader or audience has a greater knowledge of many of the characters themselves.

Oliver Parker’s (2002) film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is sadly completely consumed by the romantic comedy style, masking Wilde’s key concerns and detracting from important comic elements of the play. This can be observed through the varying representations of characters, the film’s lack of contextual jokes, the more prominent sub-plot between Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism, the addition of music and the way in which dialogue, while remaining true to the play, has lost meaning in the film.

Dramatic Irony Definition: Dramatic Irony is a literary term that defines a situation in the play where the reader knows more than the character does.

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest the setting is Victorian England, which is pertinent because of the social rules that play a role in the play, such as how a woman should behave. Oscar Wilde’s main goal while writing this play was to critique the upper class citizens in a comedic light. He achieved this through writing his characters as people who didn’t quite follow the rules, but could still keep up their appearances when need be. The character Cecily Cardew is an example of a character who can pass as a respectable noble when they try but that personality they show is in fact a fake. In truth, Cecily’s character is by no means innocent but she is charming and clever in ways she can hide that fact. Her character is not interested

One thing that Jack and Algernon have in common is that they both have these false faces. Algernon’s alter ego Bunbury is a version of himself used in the country but he uses Ernest to marry Cecily. The story deals with Ernest, this immorally imaginary man that both Cecily and Gwendolyn become engaged to, it exemplifies the irony within the name. Most of the irony comes from this character. One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Gwendolyn said “No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces