Comedic techniques in the importance of being earnest.
In the play, Jack, after inventing the name Earnest, and lady Gwendolen falls in love and want to get married. When Jack asks for a hand in marriage from Gwendolen mother, Lady Bracknell, he is turned down because Lady Bracknell knows that Jack was conceived in a handbag at a train depot. Lady Bracknell finds it unnecessary for her daughter to get married to an orphan while there were many noble men around. "You are not down on my list of eligible young men," Lady Bracknell replied to Jack (Wilde). In the play, Lady Bracknell is presented as a snob and overprotective mother. She ironically pocks her nose in other people's business especially when the issues concerns marriage. In this example, comedic element and humor is created through satire and ridicule. This is because there was not way Jack could have changed his life to become noble in the eyes of Lady Bracknell to be granted hand in married for Gwendolen.
The comedic elements that have been explained from The Importance of Being Earnest show that that author strives to express real life situation using comedic devices. The development of comedic elements in the play creates humor through the way the audience can relate events in the play to real life situations. There are many instances where the author uses direct humor. For example, that author creates humor through playing on words, reversing sayings, mocking marriages and aristocracy, satirizing women, and others. The author talks of "The truth is rarely pure and never simple" while the actual saying is "The truth is pure and simple." The author also talks of "It is simple washing one's own clean linen in public" instead of "It is simple washing one's dirty linen in public."
There are many humorous devices in the play The Importance of Being Earnest. Through studying the comedic elements and how