Essay Plan 1

“Humour, like drama, arises from conflict”, to what extent is conflict the source of comedy in Ernest? Throughout the duration of the play, “The Importance of being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, conflict is a running theme which sparks a certain amount of comedy, however, it is debatable matter on weather conflict is the only source of comedy in the play. It becomes apparent throughout the play that conflict usually comes about in result of differences views on a matter, which is relevant to the play in the way in which few of the characters agree with each other’s opinions and reasoning. Furthermore, the comedy in the play tends to be soft, yet result in an overreaction on the characters behalf, further adding to the comical side of the play and the light heartedness of it all, yet it becomes questionable into weather comedy is caused by conflict, or weather conflict is presented during comedy, yet comedy is caused by the dramatic irony of the play. This further adds towards the reasoning into why “The importance of being Earnest” is recognisably one of the most noted comedies written.
To begin with, comedy arises through the conflict between characters. Namely, the conflict that lights up between Gwendolen and Cecily is a main source of comedy. This comedy comes through the confusion and dramatic irony of the scene, and how naïve the ladies act. The comedy originates from the fact that they both believe that they are engaged to Earnest, yet, dramatic irony becomes a leading aspect as Oscar Wilde has made it so that the audience are aware of the situation, and that, in fact, the girls are talking about different men, yet believe they are both talking about the same Earnest. This conflict becomes apparent in act two, page 46 when Cecily says “Mr Ernest Worthing and I are engaged to be married.” in reply to this, Gwendolen answering with “Mr Ernest Worthing is engaged to me” (page 46). This creates comedy through conflict as it shows how naïve the characters