The Importance of Being Earnest

                                                     By Oscar Wilde(1854--1900)

I. Notes About Comedy

1. In a modern sense, comedy refers to any work generally intended to be humorous or cause laughter, especially in theatre.

2. A comedy of manners typically uses humor to satirize the behavior and mannerism of the usually upper class society. 

3. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts lifeful romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling  in love.

4. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone  and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. 

5. Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humour. 

II.  Facts about Oscar Wilde

  Oscar Wilde, a celebrated playwright and novelist was famous for his contempt for conventional values, and his belief in aestheticism — a movement that embraced the principle of art for the sake of beauty and beauty alone.    In 1891, his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, appeared and was attacked as scandalous and immoral. Over the next few years, he wrote four plays: Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest. 

The Importance of Being Earnest was an early experiment in Victorian melodrama. Part satire, part comedy of manners, and part intellectual farce, this play seems to have nothing at stake because the world it presents is so ostentatiously artificial. Below the surface of the light, trivial comedy, however, is a serious subtext that takes aim at self-righteous moralism and hypocrisy. 

Salome: A tragedy based on biblical story.    In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for John the Baptist, and causes him to be executed when John rejects her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up John's severed head and kisses it.    

( 《圣经》的莎乐美故事在英国戏剧家王尔德笔下改编成戏剧《莎乐美》。莎乐美是以色列希律王的继女，美丽绝伦的莎乐美公主因为对先知约翰一见钟情，向他表达了爱慕，想得到他的一个吻。没想到，先知毫不留情地拒绝了她。    在希律王宴会上，希律王答应只要莎乐美公主跳一支七面纱舞就满足她的所有愿望。莎乐美献罢舞，要求杀死约翰。王虽万般不愿，但还是命人将约翰斩首。莎乐美捧起先知的头，终于如愿以偿，将自己的红唇印在了先知冰冷的唇上。对着先知的头说：“你为什么不看看我。只要你看到我，你一定会爱上我…爱的神秘比死亡的神秘更伟大。”莎乐美是以这种血腥的方式拥有了约翰。因此，莎乐美也被视为爱欲的象征。)