Verified Document

Physical Appearance And Sea Thesis

Related Topics:

¶ … Being Earnest

Of the four common traits that run through Wilde's work, the two most prominent in this play are decadence and absurdity. Decadence runs throughout the play in many ways, but especially with food. The fifth line of the play, and several subsequent ones, deal with the cucumber sandwiches for Lady Bracknell and the "eight bottles and a pint" of champagne that were consumed on a previous night. The material availability of everything the characters of the play desire allows the frustration and confusion of their non-material desire to be all the more comedic.

The decadence also applies to the characters' affections though; the girls are so used to getting what they want that they fall in love with men simply based on their name. This is the ultimate example of superficiality and decadence in this play, when personality ceases to matter in the shadow of a name.

This is also one of the biggest examples of the absurd. The fact that both Cecily and Gwendolyn have decided they will fall in love with a man named Earnest, and expect both Jack and Algernon to change their names to match those intentions, is topped only by the absurdity of each of these men first being willing to change their names, and then Jack's final discovery that his name is in fact Earnest. The unlikelihood and seeming un-reality of each step in this situation is completely absurd, but it is this absurdism that drives the play.

This strain can also be seen in the opening scene, as part of the same champagne discussion. Algernon asks Lane why the servants always drink the wine in bachelor's households. Lane absurdly and dryly misinterprets the question, saying "I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand." This itself devolves into an absurd discussion of marriage, the theme of the play.

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Physical Appearance and Sea
Words: 331 Length: 1 Document Type: Essay

As the narration will then unfold, he had not given up the features of humanity, as a human being himself. His submarine is wondering the seas of the world because it has also higher reasons than those of a personal revenge against crimes humans might have committed against the captain. Verne creates in captain Nemo a combination of a deeply suffering human being, a brilliant scientist, a restless adventurer

Physical Appearance and Sea
Words: 647 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Proposal

If a salesperson gets a commission from signing a new client but then does not make anything further from that client's long relationship with the company, there is little incentive for a salesperson to cultivate any kind of relationship. 4. Please specify the type of business that most closely describes your company. This question is designed to look for patterns within types of companies based on the way that they take

Dead Sea Scrolls
Words: 449 Length: 2 Document Type: Film Review

Turn of the Screw Henry James' Turn of the Screw is a psychological drama abut a governess who claims she sees ghosts. Whether this governess actually sees ghosts, or they are just a figment of her mind is never told for certain and it is up to the reader to draw their own conclusions. There have been many who have commented on this issue including Harold C. Goddard, Bruce Robbins, and

Social Pressure Conformity and the Physical Body
Words: 1828 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Society Deforms Our Psychical Self Social expectations place stress on the human mind and body as the issue of conformity can become a struggle for some. Various theories, such as Strain Theory and Social Learning Theory, acknowledge that society has an impact on behavior (Akers, Jennings), but artists through their work can show how societal expectations can also have an impact on the psychical self. Values, constraints, norms and conventions

Ecology/Caspian Sea Community Concepts the
Words: 3178 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

The climax community in this case occurs when the rate of inhibition on the comb reaches a point that the balance between the Beroe and the comb is equal, which in turn equalizes the zooplankton levels, which equalizes the phytoplankton, which equalizes the oxygen levels in the sea (Jeffress and Steimle, 1990). Finally, tolerance describes the invasion of a new habitat by one species independent of other species (Goldsmith, 1985).

Architecture Remarkably Similar in Their
Words: 2005 Length: 6 Document Type: Research Paper

The importance of the previous site to the locals is evidence in the fact that parts of that older building were "built into the terrace wall," ("Aegina, Temple of Aphaia (Building)"). The Temple of Portuna was built of different materials than the Greek temple, out of "tufa and travertine blocks which had been originally been coated with a fine layer of stucco," (Sullivan). What is significant from the context

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now