39 pages • 1 hour read
Oscar WildeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
One of the play’s recurring motifs is the comparison between comedy and tragedy. Various characters analyze the human experience and categorize which parts fall into the genre of comedy and which parts fall into the genre of tragedy. This motif adds a metafictional element to Oscar Wilde’s work, as the literary text itself is a drama with both comedic and tragic elements.
One prominent example of the comedy and tragedy motif occurs during the banter between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Allonby. They compare the process of aging to both comedy and tragedy. Lord Illingworth first says, “I never intend to grow old. The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life” (40); Mrs. Allonby replies, “And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy” (40). The motif of comedy and tragedy helps to highlight what the characters find ironic—that people seem to become less mature as their physical form grows old.
Lord Illingworth later elaborates upon the relationship between comedy and tragedy. He says that “the world has always laughed at its own tragedies, that being the only way in which it has been able to bear them”; he further explains that “consequently, whatever the world has treated seriously belongs to the comedy side of things” (113).
By Oscar Wilde
An Ideal Husband
Oscar Wilde
De Profundis
Oscar Wilde
Lady Windermere's Fan
Oscar Wilde
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
Oscar Wilde
Salome
Oscar Wilde
The Ballad Of Reading Gaol
Oscar Wilde
The Canterville Ghost
Oscar Wilde
The Decay of Lying
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde
The Nightingale and the Rose
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
The Selfish Giant
Oscar Wilde
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Oscar Wilde