Semantics in The Importance of Being Earnest

As seen from the title, this isn't going to be a typical show review. It is probably an amazement for myself, that I have not read the script of this famous play before.

Nonetheless, that being so, it called for an even greater surprise, as I analysed how Oscar Wilde actually constructed his play with a grand assembly of lines which exploited the use of implicatures. It was semantics at work! A quick glance of the lines in the first act would throw up numerous examples of how the Maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner, as defined in Grice's Logic and Conversation, were being flouted to express the true meaning of the characters' words.

Such as:

Algernon. Got nice neighbours in your part of Shropshire?
Jack. Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.
Algernon. How immensely you must amuse them! [Goes over and takes sandwich.] ......

Such is the beauty of natural language and the ability of human beings to exploit the figures of speech, that this play continues to be such a classic a hundred years on. Well, it sounds crazy to be thinking about semantics while watching a play but I simply can't help thinking about it, since our semantics group had such a vibrant discussion about it this afternoon!