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Comedy of Manners and Its Features

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949 views3 pages

Comedy of Manners and Its Features

Uploaded by

suprabhatroy23
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A comedy is a play with a happy ending that makes the audience laugh.

A comedy
of manner is a type of comedy that deals with behaviour. It makes fun of the
follies, vanities, hypocrisies and weaknesses of people using satire. In other
words, a comedy of manners gives a satirical portrayal of the behaviour of a
certain group of people.

Although many people believe that comedy of manner was invented in the 18th
century, it had been used by Roman satirists many centuries ago. However, the
French playwright Moliere is the best-known playwright for the comedy of
manner. His popular plays like L’École des femmes, Le Misanthrope and Tartuffe
satirize the hypocrisy of the aristocratic class.

In English literature, the comedy of manner really flourished in the Restoration


period. In fact, the term restoration comedy is sometimes used as a synonym for
comedy of manner.

Comedy of manners often satirized the middle and upper classes of people,
especially the very audience that watched these comedies. These comedies often
targeted the sophisticated and complex code of conduct in the society which gave
more importance to appearance and outward behaviour, rather than true moral
characteristics. Lust, greed, materialistic nature of people, gossip and rumours,
hypocritical nature and false pretensions of the people were common subjects of
the comedy of manners. Areas such as marriage, love, adultery, fortune hunting
were also portrayed in these plays.

Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare can be considered the first
comedy of manners in England. William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, William
Congreve’s The Way of the World, Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal and The Rivals, Oscar Wilde’s
Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest are some of the
famous examples of comedy of manners.
Some of the important features of the 'Comedy of Manners' are as follows:

1. The action always takes place in London.

2. There is always a contrast between the rural and the urban.

3. The presence of at least one pair of very intelligent young lovers.

4. Witty dialogue is perhaps the most important feature of the Comedy of


Manners.

5. All the other aspects of the play are usually sacrificed for the sake of contriving
a situation which would give rise to 'witty' dialogue.

6. The appeal of the Comedy of Manners is to the intelligence of the


audience/reader and not to the emotions.

7. The 'witty' dialogue was usually obscene, for the theatres had just reopened
after the Restoration.

8. The woman characters in these plays were very emancipated and bold and
independent, unlike the heroines of the Sentimental dramas.
9. The institution of marriage was always held to ridicule. Both husbands and
wives openly expressed their dissatisfaction of their spouses.

10. These plays were mainly intended for the elegant and sophisticated audiences
of London city. Hence the characters were almost always from the upper class
society of London.

11. These plays portrayed the lifestyle of the idle rich of London city very
realistically.

12. The plays were mildly satirical-the playwright could not afford to hurt his
upper class audience.

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