Unit 1: Drama Satires are comedies where society or politics are mocked and criticised.
Not every modern play falls neatly into the category of a tragedy or comedy. Many plays have elements of both comedy and tragedy, in which case they are referred to as tragi-comedy. Some plays defy any classification.
Te following extract from Oscar Wilde’s play Te Importance of Being Earnest is an example of comic farce.
Background information
Lady Bracknell, the mother of a young lady named Gwendolen, interrogates a young man called Jack to determine his suitability to marry her daughter. When Jack explains that he was found in a handbag abandoned in a railway station, Lady Bracknell is horrified.
LADY BRACKNELL . . . Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?
JACK I have lost both my parents.
LADY BRACKNELL To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of aristocracy?
JACK I am afraid I really don’t know. Te fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me . . . I don’t actually know who I am by birth. I was . . . well, I was found.
LADY BRACKNELL Found!
JACK Te late Mr. Tomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitable and kindly disposition, found me, and gave me the name of Worthing, because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.
LADY BRACKNELL Where did the charitable gentleman who had a first-class ticket for this seaside resort find you?
JACK [Gravely] In a hand-bag.
LADY BRACKNELL A hand-bag?
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