e.g. “Sir Robert Chiltern: Every man of ambition has to fight his
century with its own weapons. What this century worships is
wealth. The God of this century is wealth.”(206).
It is evident what weapons Sir R.Chiltern means. It is money and the way it is earned by is unimportant. The way of earning money may be different: bribery, blackmail, forgery and other immoral actions. Once Sir Chiltern achieved his aims at the cost of his honour-he sold the secrete information. He had not any regret for what he had done. He said that he had fought the century with his own weapon and won. And when his misdemeanour was revealed, he tried to save himself.
Another “immoralist” of the English society is Mrs.Cheveley.
e.g. “Nowadays, with our modern mania for morality, every one has
to pose as a paragon of purity, incorruptibility, and all the other
seven deadly virtues”(p.192).
“People are either hunting for husbands or hiding from
them”(p.181).
She also had achieved her aims by the immoral actions: bribery and blackmail.
Most of Wilde’s characters are true representatives of their society. They are Lord Darlington, Lady Bracknell and especially Lord Illingworth, a person with cynical attitude towards everything in the world, who does not value the sincere human relations, to whom love, friendship ,faithfulness mean nothing. This can be clearly seen from some of his remarks.
e.g. “Women love us for our defects”(p.142).
“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that
every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future”(p.140).
The most favoured subject for Wilde’s cynical comments is a woman and her position in the society of that time.
e.g. “Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humour in the
woman”(p.108).
“Women are pictures. Men are problems.
If you want to know a woman really means, which is absolutely a
dangerous thing to do-look at her, do not listen to her”(p.138).
“You women live by your emotions and for them”(p.137).
Thus, we can see that epigrams and paradoxes play one of the most important roles in Wilde’s plays. With the help of these stylistic devices Wilde reflects his own viewpoints on the society of his time, his opinions about life, love and friendship, men and women. His judgements are the sharp and biting remarks. They are used in the plainest and the most direct sense. Wilde does not conceal his inner feelings and thoughts about the decomposition of intellectual world and English society. These epigrams and paradoxes are short and laconic, and are not very complex that makes them easy for remembering. So, paradoxes and epigrams create the individuality of Oscar Wilde. Wilde is famous for his brilliant epigrams and the wittiest paradoxes.
IRONY and PUN
In irony, which is the very interesting item for consideration, subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon named. The essence of this stylistic device consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative qualification and vice versa.
According to professor Galperin I.R., irony is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realisation of two logical meanings- dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other.12
According to Professor Kukharenko V.A., irony is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning.13 So, like many other stylistic devices, irony does not exist outside the context. Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. What is funny must come as a sudden clash of the positive and the negative. In this respect irony can be likened to humour. But the function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence like that: “How clever you are, Mr.Hopper” (p.43), where due to the intonation pattern, the word “clever” conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification. The irony does not cause a ludicrous effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation and displeasure. Here are some examples of irony:
e.g. “Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely
improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful
idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society
should be.” (p.175)
“And in England a man who can’t talk morality
twice a week to a large, popular, immoral
audience is quite over as a serious politician.”
(p.210)
“All women become like their mothers. That is
their tragedy. No man does. That is his.” (p.300)
These examples show that irony is a mode of speech in which the opposite of what is said is meant. The speaker of the first example, Mabel Chiltern does not really think that it is good for London Society to consist of “beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics”. Wilde’s method of ironical usage is mostly direct: he speaks of the decomposition of people, their ideals and values. The effect of irony lies in the striking disparity between what is said and what is meant. This is achieved through the intentional interplay of two meanings, which are in opposition to each other.
e.g. “No woman should have a memory. Memory in a
woman is a beginning of dowdiness”. (p.144)
“My father told me to go to bed an hour ago. I
don’t see why I shouldn’t give you the same
advice. I always pass on good advice. It is the
only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to
oneself.” (p.197)
“I knew we should come to an amicable
agreement.” (p.194)
The context is one most important things when we use irony. The word “advice” is suggested for acceptance if it is good and for rejection if it is not good, but not for passing on it. In fact, Lord Goring, the speaker of this phrase, is a serious person, who knows that a good advice may be very useful. As for the last example, here the word “amicable” is contrary to the word “blackmail” with the help of which this agreement was achieved by Mrs. Chevely. Mrs. Chevely is an “immoralist” of English Society.
e.g. “People are either hunting for husbands or hiding
from them” (p.181)
“Oh, I like tedious, practical subjects. What I don’t
like are tedious, practical people.” (p.189)
The remarks of this “Lady” characterise her brilliantly. We can clearly see a scheming woman, an adventurer, who stops at nothing in gaining her filthy aims. She does not show her real face, she always disguises it. But her cynical remarks betray her. Another example of irony used by O.Wilde:
e.g. “Lord Goring: I adore political parties. They are
the only place left to us where people do not talk
politics”. (p.184)
The members of political parties must talk politics, it is their duty. They must be very serious and honest people and they must work for people’s well being, but instead of it they do not do anything for people. During their political parties they pronounce some absurd, cynical words and discuss rumours and gossips.
e.g. “Oh, we all want friends at times” (p.25)
Lord Darlington, saying this phrase, hides his love for Lady Windermere behind the word “friend”, but she does not accept his version of “friendship” in such kind and does not want to be with him. Oscar Wilde considers the word “friend” to have different meaning: people always need friends, not only for temporary period of time. The meaning of this word conveys a constant quality.
The specific, cynical quality of Wilde’s irony is manifested in his manner of writing. This device allows Wilde to reveal incongruity of the world around him and to show the viciousness of the upper - class society.
Pun is the next stylistic device used by Oscar Wilde in his plays.
According to Professor Sosnovskaya V.B., pun (paronomasia, a play on words) is a figure of speech emerging as an effect created by words similar or identical in their sound form and contrastive or incompatible in meaning.13
According to Prof. Galperin I.R., the pun is a stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase. It is difficult to draw a hard and fast distinction between zeugma and the pun. The reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realisation of two meanings with the help of the verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects. The pun is more independent. There need not necessarily be a word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers. This does not mean. However, that the pun is entirely free. Like any other stylistic device, it must depend on a context. But the context may be of a more expanded character, sometimes even as large as a whole work of emotive prose.14
Thus, the title of one of Oscar Wilde’s plays, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, has a pun in it. But in order to understand this pun we must read the whole play, because the name of the hero and the adjective meaning “seriously-minded” are both existing in our mind.
Pun is based on the effect of deceived expectation, because unpredictability in it is expressed either in the appearance of the elements of the text unusual for the reader or in the unexpected reaction of the addressee of the dialogue.
However playful is the effect of pun, however intricate and sudden is the merging of senses in one sound complex, in a truly talented work this unit of poetic speech shares equally with others in the expression of the author’s message. It is a vehicle of the author’s thought not a mere decoration. Pun is one of the most favoured devices of Oscar Wilde. In his comedies there are about twenty examples of pun. In this Chapter we will try to analyse some of them. For Wilde pun is one of the most effective means used for creating wit, brilliancy and colourfulness of his dialogues for criticism of bourgeois morality. At the same time the puns serve for showing the author’s ideas and thoughts.
e.g. “Lord Goring: My dear farther, only people who
look dull ever get into the House of Commons,
and only people who are dull ever succeed
there”.(p.257)
“Lord Darlington: Ah, nowadays we are all of us
so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay
are compliments. They are the only things we
can pay.”(p.24)
These examples show that the play on words has a great influence on the reader. The speech of the hero becomes more vivid and interesting. The sound form of the word played upon may be either a polysemantic word:
e.g. “Lady Caroline: I believe this is the first English
country-house you have stayed at, Mrs.Worsley?
Have you any country? What we should call
country? Hester: We have the largest country in
the world.”(p.95);
or partial (complete) homonyms, as in the following example:
e.g. “Algernon: You look as if your name was Ernest.
You are the most earnest-looking person I ever
saw in my life”. (p.286)
In this example there are two meanings of the word played upon in the pun: the first – the name of the hero and the second – the adjective meaning seriously-minded.
In case of homonym the two meanings of one word are quite independent and both direct. These two meanings of the pun are realised simultaneously and in the remark of one and the same person. Such examples are comparatively rare in Wilde’s plays. Most of Wilde’s puns are based on polysemy. Such puns are realised in succession, that is at first the word appears before a reader in one meaning and then -–in the other. This realisation is more vivid in dialogues, because in such cases the pun acquires more humorous effect as a result of misunderstanding. In many cases the addressee of the dialogue is the main source of interference. His way of thinking and peculiarities of perception can explain this. Rarely the speaker himself is the source of interference (for example, if he has a speech defect). Almost all Oscar Wilde’s puns based on polycemy are realised in dialogues, in fact the remark of the addressee.
e.g. “Lady H.: she lets her clever tongue run away with her.
Lady C.: is that the only Mrs. Allonby allows to run
away with her?” (p.99)
In this example the pun is realised in the remark of the second person. The first meaning of the expression “to run away with” – is “not to be aware of what you are speaking”, and the second meaning is “to make off taking something with you”. The first meaning is figurative and the second is direct. In some cases the pun is realised in the remark of one and the same person, as in the following examples:
e.g. “Mrs. Allonby: the one advantage of playing with fire is
that one never gets even singed.
It is the people who do not know how to play with it
who get burned up”.(p.100)
Here the first meaning of the expression “to play with fire” – “to singe” is direct, and the second “to spoil one’s reputation” is figurative.
e.g. “Jack: as far as I can make out, the poachers are the
only people who make anything out of it.” (p.297)
The first meaning of the expression: “to make out” – “to understand” is figurative, and the second – “to make benefit from something” is direct.
But there are such examples, when pun is realised in the remark of the third person and in this case it is he (she) who is the main source of interference:
e.g. “Lady C.: Victoria Stratton? I remember her perfectly. A
silly, fair-haired woman with no chin.
Mrs. Allonby: Ah, Ernest has a chin. He has a very
strong chin, a square chin. Ernest’s chin is far too square.
Lady S.: But do you really think a man’s chin can be
too square? I think a man should look very strong and
that his should be quite square.” (p.115)
As a rule, when two meanings of the word are played upon, one of them is direct, the other is figurative, which can be illustrated by some of the above mentioned examples. So, we can see, that irony and pun also play the very important role in Wilde’s plays. The effect of these stylistic devices is based on the author’s attitude to the English bourgeois society. Thus irony and pun help Wilde to show that majority of his heroes are the typical representatives of the bourgeois society: thoughtless, frivolous, greedy, envious, mercenary people. They call themselves “Ladies and gentlemen”, but with the help of these stylistic devices Wilde shows that intelligence is their mask. Credit must be given to Wilde for being brilliant in his witticism. A play upon contrasts and contradictions lies at the basis of author’s sarcastic method in portraying his characters. The dynamic quality of Wilde’s plays is increased by the frequent ironical sentences and puns. These stylistic devices convey the vivid sense of reality in the picture of the 19-th century English upper-class society.
Wilde’s realism with its wonderful epigrams and paradoxes, brilliant irony and amusing puns initiates the beginning of a new era in the development of the English play.
EPITHET
Epithet is another stylistic device used by Oscar Wilde.
According to Prof. Galperin I.R., Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterise an object and pointing out to the reader and frequently imposing on him.15
According to Prof. Sosnovskaya V.B., Epithet is an attributive characterisation of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively nouns or verbs.16
e.g. “I tell you that had it ever occurred to me, that such a
monstrous suspicion would have entered your mind, I
would have died rather than have crossed your life.”
(p.64)
Epithet on the whole shows purely individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the object spoken of, it describes the object as it appears to the speaker. Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object, both existing and imaginary. Its basic features are its emotiveness and subjectivity: the characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself.
e.g. “Mabel Chiltern is a perfect example of the English type
of prettiness, the apple-blossom type”. (p.175)
“It means a very brilliant future in store for you”.(p.97)
“What an appalling philosophy that sounds!” (p.179)
“But I tell you that the only bitter words that ever came
from those sweet lips of hers were on your account,
and I hate to see you next her”. (p.80)
According to these examples, we can say that Epithet is a word or word combination which in its attributive use discloses the individual emotionally coloured attitude of the writer to the object he describes. It is a form of subjective evaluation. It is a description brief and compact which singles out the things described.