Oscar Wilde’s Earnest Comedy
  1. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) and Aestheticism
    1. A Perfect Dandy
    2. Wilde’s Literary Career
    3. Wilde’s Downfall
  1. Character and the Essence of Comedy in The Importance of Being Earnest
    1. The Difference Between Comedy and Tragedy
    2. Who is Whom? The Characters and the Dramatis Personae
  1. Saying and Doing: Speech and Other Acts
    1. The Art of Doing Nothing, or Very Little
    2. J. L. Austin’s Speech Act Theory
    3. Proposing Marriage
    4. Other Acts, Mentionable and Unmentionable
  1. All’s Well that Ends Sincerely
    1. "How could you have ever doubted that I had a brother?"
    2. "It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?"