By Oscar Wilde

 It is a play written in three acts  The setting is London, England and the English countryside, late 1890s  It is a comic play intended to explore and satirize love and false identity among the upper classes

 Classic style of comedic drama set forth by Aristotle: exposition initial incidents rising action climax resolution (denouement)

 Born in Dublin, Ireland, 1854  Traveled widely, known for flamboyant behavior  Wrote a novel The Picture of Dorian Gray which was controversial because it addressed corruption and outward appearance  Wrote a number of plays such as Lady Windermere’s Fan and An Ideal Husband  W as ruined and jailed for “immoral conduct”  D ied in Paris, 1900, with the famous lines “either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”

 It was a time of great change in England  New wealth created a class of “idle rich” that he parodies in the play  Darwin and “survival of the fittest” were prominent ideas. “Social Darwinism” suggested that the rich were somehow fitter and better than the poor  The play mocks social snobbery

 Meant to “mirror the manners, not reform the morals, of the day.”  Satirizes a class or set of people  People and situations are absurd, yet they are human  Comedies, in general, end happily and often with at least one marriage.  Comedies probe human behavior, but not as deeply or seriously as tragedies do.

 Love (and its somewhat frivolous nature)  Illusion and Reality: confused identities, misleading appearances, general mayhem  Satirizing the wealthy leisure classes: Do they really worry about cucumber sandwiches?

 Puns (like the multiple meanings of “earnest”)  Aphorisms (brief, clever statements that make wise observations about life)  Epigrams (witty sayings which are quite silly)  Diction (careful choice of words, paying attention to connotation)

 Parallelism: corresponding incidents  Situational irony  Dramatic irony  Exaggeration  Incongruity  Double-entendre  Deus ex machina

 John (Jack) Worthing  Algernon Moncrieff  Lady Bracknell  Gwendolen Fairfax  Cecily Cardew  Lane  Merriman  Reverend Chasuble  Miss Prism