Traditionally, drama has been an outlet for the extraordinary; only recently, with more modernist works, has the focus shifted to more ordinary lives. Greek tragedy follows the fall of a noble protagonist; by comparison, domestic tragedy as in Arthur Miller's All My Sons revolves around ordinary people tested by crisis. Meanwhile, comedy is often centered on an "everyman" character, or at least an extraordinary parody. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest takes the latter approach, and the characters that appear within it are bold and subversive. In Miller's tragedy, the Kellers are presented in every respect as normal, while both the male and female characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are extravagant, abnormal. Each of these character models is ideal for the drama that playwrights wish to create, as they are shaped by the conventions of the tragic or comic genre. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the opening captions of All My Sons, the Keller family is described in great detail to establish a sense of normalcy. The house is "two-story tall" and "nicely painted," and there is patio furniture in the yard, creating a first impression that is representative and not exemplary of a typical American family. However, this sense of the ordinary is counterbalanced by a somewhat terror-like sense. There are some details in the set design that add a pervasive unease to the overall atmosphere; the courtyard is "enclosed" and claustrophobic, and the plants are "out of season." By enclosing space in this way, Miller can convey the feeling of boredom and displacement so characteristic of modernist writers. These themes make the Kellers seem more accessible to the audience and therefore, despite the subtle departure from flawless normality, more ordinary. These elements of the set design also suggest Joe Keller's inevitable moral predicament: he feels trapped by his past mistakes and simultaneously longs for and resents his isolation, as conveyed by the "cut-off" yard. What Joe Keller is revealed to have done – sending away faulty plane parts that resulted in the deaths of twenty-one pilots – is explicitly decreed morally repugnant by those around him. Yet the audience is not allowed to distance itself from Joe, despite his proclamations that "a man's in business," which is supposed to set him apart. The set and the sense of normality it conveys are always present in the background as a constant visual reminder of how typical the Kellers are. Therefore, Joe's mistakes spill over onto the audience, who are forced to question their own contributions to an exploitative economic system. The sheer ordinariness of Miller's main cast is integral to his attempt to raise these questions, as the audience can substitute any other suburban, middle-class family in their place, and in this way realize the responsibility we should have for each other for the other. Joe and Kate Keller have the burden of family responsibility placed on them, characterized as they are by their roles as parents. These labels are ordinary and identifiable and are at the heart of the emotional drama of the work. Kate and her conflicts center on her maternal role, and the neurotic need for the mother can be seen in her. She is fixated on the fate of her son Larry, believing he is missing, and her mental abstraction leads to physical ruin; she has to ask for "an aspirin" and is prevented from peaceful sleep by dreams of him "flying overhead." When George visits, she respondsbringing him "grape juice" and worrying about his weight, quickly and easily slipping into the role of his parent. As she coddles everyone on stage, including herself and her disappointment (“Why can't it be?” she cries despite all evidence to the contrary), the ordinary role she plays is twisted into something almost sinister, and generates a sense of suffocating discomfort. Miller uses ordinary people to create unusual feelings in his audience, showing how these natural needs – family belonging, money, reputation – can be perverted in a similar way to what Kate does with her maternal role. Even as she teeters on the edge of what appears to be an imminent mental collapse, it's actually Joe who ultimately cracks under the pressure, which is something of a shock. Joe Keller, as a physically "stolid" character and father figure, is supposed to be strong but emerges as the weakest of the cast through his escape route through suicide. In addition to characterizing himself as a "businessman," he places himself firmly in the paternal role and declares that if there's anything bigger than family, "I'll put a bullet in my head." Strongly associating himself with the duties of a father, his lack of moral principles when it came to shipping defective engine parts is made even more distressing. At the climax of the play, he utters the line "I guess they [the pilots] were all my sons", and then retreats inside to shoot himself. He failed in his father's responsibility by leading to the death of both his firstborn Larry and his other figurative children, those who in the larger society rely most on his support and protection. Miller, by having his ordinary characters fail in their ordinary roles, inspires an additional sense of pathos and moral rectitude in his audience. In comparison, Jack and Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest defy convention and appear as extraordinary and farcical figures. While probably to some extent "ordinary" due to the fact that viewers of the time were predominantly upper class as the two heroes are, Wilde makes no attempt to make the pair relatable or normal. They take upper-class frivolity to the extreme, as both are devout "Bunburyists" - men who fabricate intricate lies so they can lead two separate existences and escape their duties. Jack's backstory is also a pastiche of the Victorian appetite for melodrama, as it follows the classic trope of the disadvantaged orphan, exemplified through the prop of the "purse" found in the "Victoria Station cloakroom." Algernon, on the other hand, appears as a stereotypical dandy, defined through his love of fine indulgences such as music, clothes, and, above all, food. Algernon's extraordinary appetite is the source of a recurring joke, first as he eats an entire plate of cucumber sandwiches and then pretends there never were any, and then devours a stack of muffins in an "absolutely ruthless manner". The two men behave in almost everything exceptionally, and almost on impulse as they are driven to increasingly extreme behavior to cover up their previous deceptions, such as being renamed with a different name. The extraordinary nature of the protagonists is at the center of the drama of The Importance of Being Earnest and its comedy. Their slapstick behaviors push the boundaries of storytelling and create opportunities for Wilde's satirical sense of humor. The female characters in Oscar Wilde's work are even more out of the ordinary, especially for their time. In an age when the female sex was supposed to be submissive and compliant, Wilde's women dominate. Lady Bracknell is a strong and commanding presence, expressing her condemnatory opinions on a variety of topics,,.