Comedy of Manners

Characteristics of Comedy
• Catharsis through laughter
• Natural laws suspended
• Comic premise
- highlight foolishness via incongruity
and contradictions
 Comedy of Manners:
Definition
• Manner
- The method in which everyday duties are
performed, with regards to societal
conventions, and implies polite and well-bred
behaviour
• Theatrical genre meant to satirize the manners
and affectations of a certain social class
- Make audience question social conventions
and roles
Characteristics of the Comedy
of Manners
• “High comedy”
- focus on dialogue and wit
- dignified
• Opposite of slapstick
- focus on physical theatre
- boisterous
- exaggerated
Characteristics of the Comedy
of Manners
• Customs and practices similar to what
audience is familiar with
- gossip
- superficiality and fashion
- social pretense and hypocrisy
- desire for excitement
 Typical Characters
• Stereotypes of the time period
- their follies and deficiencies would
affect them in society
• “Rakes”, “fops”, jealous husbands,
would-be wits, illicit lovers
 Common Ideas
• Marriage as an economic contract
rather than a manifestation of love
• Hidden identities
• Discoveries
• Reversals
• Similar to farces, but more realistic in
nature
 Costumes
• Reflect fashion of the time period
• Emphasis on costumes
- society stressing the importance of
appearances
- wealth enabled them to afford fine
clothing
 Timeline
• 320 B.C. New comedy of Greeks (Menander)
• 190-158 B.C. Copied by Plautus and Terence who were copied
during the Renaissance
• 1598-1599 Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare), often
considered first comedy of manners
• 1642-1660 Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell banned theatre,
considered it immoral
• 1660 King Charles II restored English throne, and with it theatre
• 1660-1700 Restoration Period
- William Wycherly The Country Wife (1675)
- William Congreve The Way of the World
(1700)
- Moliere Le Misanthrope (1666) and The School for Wives (1662)
 Timeline
• 1700- 1770s Popularity of Comedy of Manners faded
• 1770s-late 1800s Irish playwright Richard Sheridan and Englishman Oliver
Goldsmith revived the Comedy of Manners - Sheridan The School for Scandal
(1777)
- Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer
(1773)
• Late 1800s Comedy of Manners experienced a revival by such playwrights as
Oscar Wilde
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
- Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892). 
• Early 1900s
Noel Coward
- Hay Fever (1925)
- Blithe Spirit (1941)
Harold Pinter
- The Homecoming (1965)
Thank You