Restoration Era of Theatre

&
The Comedy of Manners

1) Restoration Era, Charles I also was killed the first to be forcibly removed
from power and executed.

2) Oliver Cromwell, A Puritan (a type of very legalistic Christian) took over and
established the English Commonwealth, it lasted for 10 years

3) Cromwell and the rest of the Puritans believed that certain types of fun were
sins of overindulgence. Thus he banned, theatre, gambling, and many
other things.

4) Charles II (1630–1685, Eng.): Became King of England following the

collapse of the English Commonwealth and the restoration of the monarchy
(why it's called the restoration: because the English royalty was restored to the
throne).

5) Charles II was a big fan of theatre, he brought back the forms of entertainment
and playwrights chose to write in a style that Charles would like.

6) The events of point five lead to the creation of the Comedy of Manners, which
makes fun of England's upper class at the time.

7) Plays were about reasons for marrying (never good reasons though), the daily
lives of the upper class, and they were commentaries about the
wastefulness of the wealthy.

8) As time went on the world entered a long period of revolution and social change,
in the 1700s, philosophers and revolutionaries were changing the way
people thought. These ideas and people would cause events like the American
and French revolutions and it also caused comedy to go away for a few
years because the world was so serious.
9) The comedy of manners disappeared for many years but was revived nearly a
hundred years later in the Victorian era 1837-1901

10)Oscar Wilde- A very famous playwright, wrote “The Importance of Being

Earnest”

11) The Importance of Being Earnest follows the main characters of John “Jack”
Worthing and Algernon “Algie” Moncrief

12)Both men are seeking wives, Jack is in love with Gwendolyn

13)Gwendolyn only likes Jack because she thinks his name is Ernest The joke
is that the upper class were frivolous or specific in their wants, and because they
were rich, they were used to getting what they wanted.

14)Jack discovers that Gwendolyn will only marry him if his name is Ernest,
thus he tries to change his name to make her “happy”

15)Algie is a “Rake” the term for a playboy, he is broke and wants to marry rich.

16)Algie discovers that his friend “Ernest” is really named Jack.

17)Jack has a young lady whoat he takes care of named Cecily

18)Cecily hears stories of Jack's adventures in town but he tells her that all the
wild stories are about his “Younger Brother” Earnest, whom Cecily finds
attractive because she likes bad boys

19)Algie learns of Cecily and decides to try and impress her because if he
marries her, he can be wealthy again.

20)Jack and Algie argue about whether or not it would be good for either of them to
get married to their respective ladies. Jack accuses Algie of being a
good-for-nothing lazy man, Algie tells Jack that common romance is too
boring.

21)Both Gwendolyn and Cecily meet and believe they’re in love with the same
man, causing them to argue and Cecily even pranks Gwendolyn by serving
her tea with sugar and cake when Gwendolyn asks for neither, calling them
both “Out of Fashion” (anything that was pouplar)
22)Gwendolyn wants to be respected and fashionable at all times, she is a
commentary on people’s need to fit in with the world around them.

23)Jack and Algie both agree to change their names to Ernest so that both of
their ladies are happy (It's obviously ridiculous to change your name just to
marry someone)

24) The play ends with Jack learning that his given name is actually Ernest John,
meaning both his fake name and the name his adopted father gave him, are both
his actual names and he was somehow telling the truth the whole time, he also
learns that he’s been Algie’s younger brother all along.

25)Jack and Algie fight over Muffins while arguing about how to deal with Cecily
and Gwendolyn discovering that they both have been lying. (BONUS)

26)Character names in Comedy of Manners plays are jokes: in “The Importance

of Being Earnest” There is a character named Miss Prism and at the time a
“misprision” was a failure of duty, Miss Prism lost Jack as a baby and
committed a misprision act by not taking care of him as his nanny, thus the
name is a joke about her failure. (BONUS)

27)Algie discovers Jack’s cigarette case (lots of people had decorative cases with
engravings on them) and learns about Cecily because she gave it to Jack as a
gift. Her name is written with a letter that is engraved into the metal case
(Bonus)