Normally I will be posting the writing prompts to Blackboard only, but there have been some problems with Blackboard this week (I am unable to upload anything tonight, for example), so I am posting this first set of prompts here.
Please write a one-page response to The Importance of Being Earnest based on one of the following prompts. As I mentioned in class today, when you respond to a prompt, you don’t have to answer it exactly. It is meant to spur your thought process, not dictate your response. You certainly don’t need to quote the prompt or use its exact language.
1. In class today, I asked you to consider what it is that makes Earnest a great play (that is, if it is great; you might argue that it is not). Certainly the characters are flat, or "stock," and the plot is contrived with very unbelievable turns. Earnest has justifiably been called a "farce," which is a comedy with improbable events, mistaken identities, slapstick and physical humor, thinly-veiled sexual references and, more often than not, a god-from-the-machine ending where mistaken identities are worked out, someone inherits a great deal of money, etc. The form of the play, then, does not make it great, nor do its characters. I want you to convince me that The Importance of Being Earnest is, or is not, a great play. This will obviously require you to define "greatness" and then show how the play does, or does not, meet the requirements you set forth.
2. In his preface to our edition, Michael Gillespie argues that the play offers us "considerable insights on the human condition." Do you agree? If so, point to places where you think Wilde is particularly insightful. Your response might also apply these insights to contemporary events/circumstances (although this is not mandatory). I have in mind what Jeff said in class today, namely that in some ways the play seems very contemporary. I would be happy to read a response that focuses on this aspect.
3. Analyze the play's title beyond the obvious earnest/Ernest pun. Is it a well-chosen title? Does it work beyond the wordplay? Alternatively, you might consider Wilde's subtitle for the play, "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." Meaning?
4. How and where does Wilde deal with sexuality in the play? What do these instances reveal about the nature of sexuality in Victorian society?
5. Wilde was a prominent figure in the aesthetic movement. In brief, he believed that art was its own justification and did not bear the responsibility of moral instructiveness. Does The Importance of Being Earnest live up to his credo of "art for art's sake"? Or does it have a "moral" of some kind?
6. In what way is the scene where Cecily and Gwendolen have tea a microcosm of the entire play? In what way does Wilde (hilariously, it must be said) use his stage directions to enhance the scene?
Whatever you write, DON'T be clever. I'm sick to death of cleverness. But do be earnest. See you on Monday. Until then, I'm off to see dear Bunbury...
-D
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I meant to post this earlier . . .
ReplyDeleteTo start this query off, I’ll start by admitting to the fact that I’ve read only two works of Oscar Wilde’s: “On the Importance of Being Earnest” and The Picture of Dorian Gray. But after a comment by Jeph, it struck me just how “similar” these pieces can be. Jeph mentioned “bunburying” as being, in essence, a scapegoat for everyone’s less acceptable practices or a chance to be someone they aren’t (or the part of them they’d rather not attribute to themselves).
Could The Picture of Dorian Gray and other works of Wilde’s be any different? In The Picture, Dorian laments the inability to live as he wishes forever; eventually he will grow old, his riotous living will take its toll on his body, and he will go the way of all the earth. He fervently desires and then makes a wish that the Picture would take on all his infirmities.
In essence, he wishes he had a scapegoat.
And then the curse comes along, and the story continues.
Though the term “bunburying” doesn’t feel quite right for Dorian Gray’s far darker tone and theme, it seems to strike remarkably similar chords. Dorian Gray wants to hide his lusts away from society, only the actions of his less “gentlemanly” actions are transferred to a Picture, while the characters from Earnest were transferred to separate “identities.”
In both stories though, they must eventually face the consequences for their actions.
Great points. In a sense, AN IDEAL HUSBAND is the anti-Bunbury play, and therefore (remembering what Wilde said about the opposite of a truth also being true), very much a play about Bunburyists. The dramatic situations of the play test the character (one may say identity) of men and women who are extrememly rigid in their principles. Sir Robert Chiltern is being blackmailed into accepting a canal scheme that he knows is a sham, and the audience is left to wonder if this principled man will, in fact, change his identity in order to preserve his outward reputation. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteI am so facinated by Oscar Wilde and these comments. I need to read more Wilde.
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