Is being Earnest really that important?

Like a number of our short stories, The Importance of Being Earnest is overly concerned with the issue of identity. Should we take Wilde's discussion of identity seriously, or does his humor conceal critical ideas regarding how we know who we are?

I really enjoyed Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest. I could actually get the humor within the witt projected by each chacter. The language of the drama made it easy fro me to understand everything that the characters were saying. Where as in The Taming Of The Shrew, the Shakesperian language made it difficult for me to really get a full understanding on all the characters. The humor in that drama really wasnt funny to me. But I was able to laugh at The Importance of Being Earnest.

I think that deep down each one of us have bunburyist tendencies. We all take on many different roles which can make us act different around certain people or in different circumstances. When I go back to my home town, I often feel like a completely different person.I think that is just because I am outside of this Newark bubble that is UD. I do not beleive that I am like Jack because I am not trying to convince people that I am not really who I am in both places. It is just a different places that can give you different emotions which cna make you feel different. I believe that Wilde is just trying to put a twist on Jack's character. I do no think that he is trying to get the reader to analyze themselves and compare their bunburyist tendencuies to Jack's bunburyist lifestyle. It also adds more humor when Jack finds out that Gwendolyn,the girl he loves and wants to marry only wants to marry someone named Earnest. I do not believe this humor portrayed here should be taken seriously.

The Shrew is being tamed

Most of the humor in Taming of the Shrew is based on romantic conflict. Choose one of the many conflicts between two (or three) characters where romance is in the air. Looking at particular passages in the play, discuss how is humor generated by the situation and what sort of subtext that humor may or may not be concealing.

This is my first time actually reading "Taming Of The Shrew". I have watched some movies based on the novel (10 things I hate about you), and I knew what the book was about, but I've never actually read through it. I like it , but it's a little hard to follow, and some of the humor within it is hard to catch with the Shakespearean English.

One of the passages where humor is generated by the situation is when Katharina and Petruchio begin to bicker back and forth. There is humor in that fact that Pertruchio repeatedly refers to Katharina as "Kate" after shes corrects him by saying, " They call me Katharina". He knows that it eats at her, and is annoying but he does it anyway. From the start Katharina puts off this strong "independent woman", quick witted, sassy kind of persona. She is not used to dealing with men who are as quick to come back at her with the same attitude. She also tries to insult him by calling him a stool, and he comes right back with an "OK come sit on me then" comment. This conflict is just humorous to me because for once Katharina is getting a run for her money and she really doesn't know how to react to Petruchio's wittyness. This is a hint that Pertruchio is feeling something for Katharina. He enjoys the rise he gets out of her by getting under her skin.