1. Comedy of Manners

2. Purpose & History ●Making fun of well-bred, polite high society ●Greeks, Romans (Plautus, Terence) ●(Today: Spike Lee’s Chi-Rak, a remake of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata) ●Restoration/Neoclassical Period (17 th c.) ●Ex: Moliere’s Tartuffe, William Congreve’s The Way of the World, Richard Sheridan’s The School for Scandal

3. TV Contemporary Examples

4. Characteristics ●witty dialogue ●use of sarcasm or irony ●contrived situations ●critiques of society, especially marriage ●portrayals of class differences ●contrasts between urban and rural

5. The Importance of Being Earnest ●“This comedy is the fullest embodiment of Wilde’s lifelong assault on commonplace life and commonplace values.” -- Henry Popkin ●“It is, so to speak, a play that is pure play.” -- Sylvan Barnet

6. Wilde as OUTSIDER In what ways might we consider Oscar Wilde as an “outsider” in Victorian society?

8. Bibliography “Comedy of Manners.” Theatre Lit Wiki. Wikispaces Classroom, 2015. Kloeppel, Lise. “A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of The Importance of Being Earnest.” New York: Penguin, 2012. McDonald, Deanne. “What’s So Funny?: Examining the Popularity of Comedy of Manners.” Graduate Research Conference. Mankato, MN: Minnesota State U, 2010. Pierson, David P. “A Show About Nothing: Seinfeld and the Modern Comedy of Manners.” The Journal of Popular Culture, 34 (Summer 2000): 49–64. Wiley. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. Popkin, Henry. Introduction to The Importance of Being Earnest. By Oscar Wilde. New York: Avon P, 1965. Tidmarsh, Andrew. Genre: A Guide to Writing for Stage and Screen. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.