الفهرس 
Chapter One: IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
This thesis seeks to present a detailed survey of one of the significant concepts in drama, i.e. wit. It discusses traditional assumptions about wit and suggests a social perspective which relates it to the value system of society. Moreover, it introduces a study of Oscar Wilde and Tom Stoppard’s plays which focuses on how this relationship between wit and value system is tackled in the plays of the two playwrights respectively.
Chapter One “Introduction” is a debate on the problems of defining wit as a technical device. It concludes that a lot of definitions degrade the importance of wit by limiting it to decorative amusement and disregarding its ability to deal with serious thematic aspects of literary texts. Furthermore, dealing with wit sometimes versus humour, occasionally versus judgment and, in some cases, versus fancy and imagination devalues the role which wit plays in literary discourse. So, the definitions of wit are juxtaposed towards formulating a perspective of wit focusing on its social role. Wit could be utilised as a subversive tool against absolutes or as a means of consolidating them. Thus, the role of wit surpasses its being an aesthetic tool; it is a tool of changing or stabilising the status quo.
Furthermore, the analysis of the concept of value system proves that when values are considered as absolute and transcendent, value system becomes unchangeable and inevitably determines what is right or wrong in society. In contrast, when values are regarded as relative, value system becomes susceptible to change. In this sense, wit could be socially effective in two different ways. On the one hand, it could be a satirical disguise by which the playwright camouflages his subversion of the status quo. On the other hand, the use of wit could negate the necessity of change. The playwright could utilise wit to propagate the notion that considering values as disputable or variable threatens social stability.