Essay
A* Comedy Comparison Exemplar Essay 2
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'Comedy is rooted in absurdity.' To what extent do you agree with this view? Incorporating The Importance of Being Earnest and the AQA Comedy Poetry Anthology.
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Comedy Comparison practice essay 2'Comedy is rooted in absurdity.' To what extent do you agree with this view?
Plan
YES; in Earnest, obsession with the name is absurd 'it has always been a girlish
dream of mine to marry someone of the name Ernest' and they marry
extraordinarily quickly, forgiven for their lie based on 'his voice alone inspires one
with absolute credulity', the premise of the obstacle to love (Lady Bracknell) is
baseless ('when I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind'), Jack is 'found
in 'a hand-bag' and as the ingenue he is a figure of ridicule (he is dressed in black of
'deepest mourning' to commemorate Ernest's death)
NO; satire is equally important to the comedy in Earnest, for example the superficial
marriages, the two-faced society 'the presence of the servants exercises a
restraining influence, under which both girls chafe', and of education 'education
produces no effect whatsoever...if it did, it would prove a serious danger to the
upper classes', and of the Church with the idiotic Chasuble who is 'constantly
christening' and uses the sermon every time
NO; the message is darker in Mrs Sisyphus, the speaker '(lies) alone in the dark'
feeling 'like Noah's wife when he hammered away at the ark, tinge of tragedy for
feminist readers as she finds her 'voice reduced to a squawk', the good life has been
lost 'what use is a perk...when you don't have the time to pop open a cork or go for
so much as a walk in the park' and no per cent is given to her
YES; The relationship is stereotypically amusing, the heroic task is reduced to
'pushing a stone' which is 'nearer the size of a kirk', the speaker's contempt is
ludicrous 'that feckin stone's no sooner up than it's rolling all the way down',
absurdity of human folly as the man continues regardless repeating 'musn't shirk'
thus demonstrating no more complex behaviour than an animal
YES; in Tam, he is presented as a hero in the epic form yet he's just a stupid
drunkard who 'is nae sober...frae November till October' according to his wife
(stereotypical exasperation), he finds himself at the Kirk Alloway church where he
comes across an 'unco sight': 'witches and warlocks in a dance', absurdity is
increased by the line 'there was ae winsome wench and wawlie' as Tam
differentiates between ugly and beautiful witches, it's absurd how he can't repress
and shouts out 'Weel-done, Cutty sark', ridden with folly
Response
The exploration of the absurdity of human folly in The Importance of Being Earnest,
Mrs Sisyphus and Tam o'Shanter is one of the key sources of comedy as the protagonists in
the three texts find themselves in humorously awkward situations as a consequence of their
folly in which readers and audiences can delight. Nevertheless, whether comedy is rooted in
absurdity is uncertain as social satire perhaps plays a more important role in Earnest, while
Mrs Sisyphus is arguably interesting due to the lack of resolution for the speaker which
stems from a real problem that many wives have to face.
Despite this, it is certainly a viable interpretation that Earnest is rooted in absurdity
given the very fact that Wilde inverts the moralistic upper-class world into one of frivolity
that ironically rewards immoral behaviour. For example, Algernon is a dandy who shuns all
social responsibility; he says that he has 'a business appointment' that he is 'anxious...to
miss'. The inversion here through Wilde's use of ellipsis emphasises how Algernon does not
act properly according to his aristocratic rank in the Victorian class system, yet he is
rewarded with a marriage to the rich and beautiful Cecily. Such a marriage is also rooted in
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