...“Wilde empowers his female characters but also undermines them”. To what extent do you agree with this view? Wilde’s comedy of manners play, The Importance of Being Earnest, holds a satirical outlook on Victorian life. Wilde uses both satire and farce in his play written and set in 1895 to depict a slightly exaggerated version of society as it was, with all its forms of hypocrisy, double standards and repression of women. Wilde chose to invert the usual gender roles in Victorian literature by portraying the women with a position of power and influence in their relationships and the men as fairly passive. However, as Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff “Bunbury” about the women they love, they appear to dominate not only their facades but the women’s own lives and relationships. In addition, Wilde uses comedic effects throughout the play when presenting Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, allowing them to be seen collectively as foolish and incredibly naïve. Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness. Initially, we see that she is powerful, arrogant, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde's negative opinion of the Victorian upper-class, their power and conservative and repressive values. Lady Bracknell's authority and power are extended over each and every character in the play. Her decision about the suitability of both marriages in the play provides the conflict of the story. She tells her daughter quite...
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...How are Victorian attitudes to marriage and respectability satirised in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’? Oscar Wilde uses the play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ to mock and ridicule the attitudes and popular conceptions towards marriage and respectability of the upper class in his own time which he believed to be purely superficial. Through the use of controversial satirical caricatures- in particular Lady Bracknell - Wilde often exaggerates behaviour and language when addressing the topic of marriage to instigate humour. The comedy which is thus generated by Wilde’s epigrams, stereotypes and heavy irony invites the audience to laugh at the ridiculousness of their own attitudes in order to teach them a moral lesson. Marriage has always been subject to the whims of fashion, but in Wilde’s era the problem as he saw it, was that marriage appeared to have lost any connection with love. The societal rules and rituals which had to be followed for the arrangement of a marriage were necessary to sustain or improve an individual’s social position; eligibility was determined by a thorough interrogation of an individual’s name, wealth, family background and rank. However it could be argued that far from pushing the boundaries in making the audience understand their shallow values in relation to marriage and respectability one of the huge structural ironies of the comedy is that all characters marry their social equals- whether this is because Wilde thinks that they deserve each other...
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...The importance of being Earnest Values and attitudes of 1895 – The aristocratic Victorians valued duty and respectability above all else • Earnestness — a determined and serious desire to do the correct thing — was at the top of the code of conduct. Appearance was everything, and style was much more important than substance. So, while a person could lead a secret life, carry on affairs within marriage or have children outside of wedlock, society would look the other way as long as the appearance of propriety was maintained. For this reason, Wilde questions whether the more important or serious issues of the day are overlooked in favor of trivial concerns about appearance. Gwendolen is the paragon of this value. Her marriage proposal must be performed correctly, and her brother even practices correct proposals. Gwendolen's aristocratic attitude is "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing." The trivial is important; the serious is overlooked. • The tea ceremony in Act II is a hilarious example of Wilde's contention that manners and appearance are everything. The guise of correctness is the framework for war. Both women, thinking they are engaged to the same person, wage a civilized "war" over the tea service while the servants silently watch. When Gwendolen requests no sugar, Cecily adds four lumps to her cup. Although she asks for bread and butter, Gwendolen is given a large slice of cake. Her true feelings come out only in an aside that Cecily...
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...the brotherhood of man, and it was in the Communist Party. (This is America) 6. The mysteries of storm and the rain and tide were revealed. (Galsworthy) 7. Having set the tea, she stood by the table and said slowly: "Tea's ready, Father. I'm going to London." (Galsworthy) 8. By this time, quite a small crowd had collected, and people were asking each other what was the matter. (Jerome i(. Jerome) 9. There were several small losses: a spoon used for the baby's feeding, a pair of scissors. (Lessing) 10. He was professor of physics. (London) 11. A band of dark clouds lay across the sky, and underneath it was the last pale brilliance of the evening. (Murdoch) 12. "I have some luggage," he said, "at the Brumblehurst Station," and he asked her how he could have it. (Wells) 13. In the kitchen Bowen read the...
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...the Curriculum – Role of Curriculum Leaders Chapter 4 1 2 2 3 3 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 21 Learning and Teaching 4.1 Approaches to Learning and Teaching 4.1.1 Introductory Comments 4.1.2 Prose Fiction 4.1.3 Poetry i 21 21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced Assessment 5.3.2 Modes of Public Assessment 74 74 74 75 77 77 77 Quality Learning and Teaching Resources 104 6.1 Use of Set Texts 6.2 Use of Other Learning and Teaching Resources 104 108 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 109 Supporting Measures 7.1 Learning and Teaching Resource Materials 7.2 Professional Development 109 109 Appendix 1 Examples of Poetry Analysis 110 Appendix 2 Examples of...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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...[pic] Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка Издательство: М.: Высшая школа, 1977 г. В учебнике рассматриваются общие проблемы стилистики, дается стилистическая квалификация английского словарного состава, описываются фонетические, лексические и лексико-фразеологические выразительные средства, рассматриваются синтаксические выразительные средства и проблемы лингвистической композиции отрезков высказывания, выходящие за пределы предложения. Одна глава посвящена выделению и классификации функциональных стилей. Книга содержит иллюстративный текстовой материал. Предназначается для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков и филологических факультетов университетов. GALPERIN STYLISTICS SECOND EDITION, REVISED Допущено Министерством высшего и среднего специального образования СССР в качестве учебника для студентов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков |[pic] |MOSCOW | | |"HIGHER SCHOOL" | | |1977 | TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Предисловие к первому изданию……………………………………………………..6 Предисловие к второму изданию……………………………………………………..7 Part I. Introduction 1. General Notes on Style and Stylistics…………………………………………9 2. Expressive Means (EM) and Stylistic Devices (SD)………………………...25 3. General Notes on Functional Styles of Language……………………………32 4. Varieties of Language………………………………………………………..35 5. A Brief...
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...NEW EDITION HIGH SCHOOL English Grammar & Composition BY WREN & MARTIN (With New Appendices) REVISED BY N.D.V. PRASADA RAO S. CHAND Page i New Edition HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION By P.C. WREN, MA. (OXON) and H. MARTIN, M.A. (OXON), O.B.E. Revised By N.D.V. PRASADA RAO, M.A., D.T.E., Ph.D. Dear Students, Beware of fake/pirated editions. Many of our best selling titles have been unlawfully printed by unscrupulous persons. Your sincere effort in this direction may stop piracy and save intellectuals' rights. For the genuine book check the 3-D hologram which gives a rainbow effect. S. CHAND AN ISO 9001: 2000 COMPANY S. CHAND & COMPANY LTD. RAM NAGAR, NEW DELHI -110 055 Page iii PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION Wren and Martin's monumental work High School English Grammar and Composition now appears in two editions. One is a de luxe edition, illustrated in full-colour, and the other is an ordinary edition without illustrations. The material in the book has been further updated where called for. It has been felt necessary in particular to revise some material in the chapters dealing with adjectives, active and passive voice, articles and prepositions. Appendix I, which deals with American English, has been expanded. Appendix II has been replaced with a newer set of tests covering the important areas of grammar. It was in the year 1972 that the shrewd visionary Mr. Shyam Lai Gupta obtained the permission of Manecji Cooper Education Trust for the revision of this book...
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