Тask

The Importance of Being Earnest

Task 1

1. Get ready to speak about O.Wilde, his literary career, major works (plays in particular), style of writing.

2. Speak about decadent movement and major provisions of the “Art for Art’s Sake” theory, the way they are reflected in the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

3. Give definitions to the notions: hedonism, aesthetism.

4. Read the given extract from the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. The e-text and the tasks can be found at: bibl.tikva.ru/base/B1148/B1148Content.ptp (Практический курс английского языка 3 курс).

5. Summarize the plot of the whole play.

6. What is the genre of the play? Characterize the main features of this genre using the extract as an example.

7. Do ex. IX, X, XI (1-3).

8. Give definitions of the following devices:

bathos, bombast, cliché, paradox, pun, juxtaposition, stylistic inversion.

Find in the extract all possible examples of these devices + anadiplosis, aposiopesis. Explain the effect they make.