Comedy of Manners

Characteristics of Comedy

• Catharsis through laughter

• Natural laws suspended

• Comic premise

- highlight foolishness via incongruity and contradictions

Comedy of Manners: Definition

• Manner - The method in which everyday duties are

performed, with regards to societal conventions, and implies polite and well-bred behaviour

• Theatrical genre meant to satirize the manners and affectations of a certain social class

- Make audience question social conventions and roles

Characteristics of the Comedy of Manners

• “High comedy”

- focus on dialogue and wit

- dignified• Opposite of slapstick

- focus on physical theatre

- boisterous

- exaggerated

Characteristics of the Comedy of Manners

• Customs and practices similar to what audience is familiar with

- gossip

- superficiality and fashion

- social pretense and hypocrisy

- desire for excitement

Typical Characters

• Stereotypes of the time period

- their follies and deficiencies would

affect them in society• “Rakes”, “fops”, jealous husbands,

would-be wits, illicit lovers

Common Ideas

• Marriage as an economic contract rather than a manifestation of love

• Hidden identities

• Discoveries

• Reversals

• Similar to farces, but more realistic in nature

Costumes

• Reflect fashion of the time period

• Emphasis on costumes

- society stressing the importance of

appearances

- wealth enabled them to afford fine

clothing

Timeline

• 320 B.C. New comedy of Greeks (Menander)• 190-158 B.C. Copied by Plautus and Terence who were copied

during the Renaissance• 1598-1599 Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare), often

considered first comedy of manners • 1642-1660 Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell banned theatre,

considered it immoral• 1660 King Charles II restored English throne, and with it theatre• 1660-1700 Restoration Period - William Wycherly The Country Wife (1675) - William Congreve The Way of the World (1700) - Moliere Le Misanthrope (1666) and The School for Wives (1662)

Timeline

• 1700- 1770s Popularity of Comedy of Manners faded• 1770s-late 1800s Irish playwright Richard Sheridan and Englishman Oliver

Goldsmith revived the Comedy of Manners - Sheridan The School for Scandal (1777)

- Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer (1773)• Late 1800s Comedy of Manners experienced a revival by such playwrights as

Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) - Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892). • Early 1900s Noel Coward - Hay Fever (1925) - Blithe Spirit (1941) Harold Pinter - The Homecoming (1965)

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