As you know, the exam board stipulates that all essay titles must be in by 30th (I think) January. It is time to begin making notes of any ideas that occur to you regarding intertextual links, whether it be between characters, themes, language, staging, humour or anything else.
One comparison that struck me as I was reading through 'Earnest' could be the stage directions and set description in Act 2 of 'Earnest' and in Scene 1 of 'Arcadia'. Might be worth a look. On this note, one area which all of you could do with improving is your knowledge of genre, i.e. theatre and stagecraft. Have a scout around for information online.
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Relationships and would-be relationships; alter-egos: Lady Croom and Septimus/Byron; Ernest.
Paradox and misunderstanding in Arcadia and Earnest. Accidents determining truth. Letters read by those not intended to be readers; letters unread and burned. Control and determinism; chaos. Audience knowledge and dramatic irony.
The matriarch: Lady Croom versus Lady Bracknell. Come on! get cracking, people!
Why the aristocracy? It has never represented more than 5% of the population so why do both playwrights determine that social and scientific advancement should be conceived within the gentry's womb? Neither Wilde nor Stoppard were blue-blooded - Wilde was an Irish Catholic and Stoppard a Polish immigrant - so why on earth did they attach such significance to a class of people who neither represent them nor the audience who would be sympathetic towards their ideas? Stoppard in particular who was writing at a time of extreme disaffection with the toffs' arbitrary autonymy? How would each play be different amidst a different backdrop?
How about the role of the 'piano in both Earnest and Arcadia? For example, Algernon playing in Earnest and the use of the 'piano in Arcadia. It is in another room in both works. In Earnest Algernon plays it very badly and when he realises Lane is listening says how he's not accurate but he plays with great expression. In Arcadia, the 'piano music coincides with the scene direction of 'a light change to evening', so it seems in both pieces the 'piano creates a topic of conversation and a change of atmosphere and/or how the character is portrayed; in Earnest, it shows a contrasting trait of Algy.
Maybe the role/idea of doubles in Arcadia, Wuthering Heights and Earnest.
In all three there are similar, or contrasting characters. The two Catherines, and their relationship with Hareton or Heathcliff. The two Earnests, and the complications this creates. Hannah/Chloe and Thomasina, and Bernard and Septimus – and their relationships. The two Chaters, and the confusion about Septimus and Byron being the same person. The doubles create plotlines (as in Earnest), but they also give us an insight to the other half of the double, eg, by looking at the relationship and verbal fights between Hannah and Bernard, we also have an insight to Thomasina and Septimus’ relationship.
I thought you could compare Cecily and Thomasina as both are growing up and losing their innocence as they are taught more and embark on romantic attachments.
Also you could compare Septimus with Miss Prism as both are not quite as perfect as they first seem; Miss Prism left a baby in a handbag and Septimus has his various affairs and threats of duels.
Both plays also have two plot line, arcadia with the 2 time periods and IofBE has the the town and the country. In both plays the two plot line are interwoven.
All excellent possibilities. Building on Sadie's point, the importance of the country and the country house as a retreat - an Arcadia - where the truth can be revealed, as opposed to the city where meanings are obfuscated by the relentless pursuit of acclaim and recognition is something which can be compared in both the drama texts. Why is the moment of truth revealed in the pastoral setting of Earnest and Arcadia? Chater complains about the seating plans in London's litterati circles and Lady Bracknell has concerns over seating plans at the restaurant when she dines with Ernest. Society and civilisation, facades and shameless, duplicitous self-promotion abounds in both texts. For that matter, does Wuthering Heights go one step farther by suggesting that the country, the disorganised anarchic state, breeds too much freedom from the shackles of the urban refuge where ghastly crimes can be committed and legitimised through an unrestricted rule of law? There are philosophers who debate this ferociously, in particular Thomas Hobbes - namechecked in Arcadia - whose Leviathan, centred on the premise of the Divine Right of Kings, in order to allay the threat of anarchic self-government (Natural Law - check it on wikipedia) of the kind let loose in WH.
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