The Importance Of Beint Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde, a comedy of manners on the seriousness of society in either three or four acts (depending on edition) inspired by W. S. Gilbert's Engaged.[1] It was first performed for the public on February 14, 1895 at the St. James' Theatre in London.

It is set in England during the late Victorian era, and its primary source of humour is based upon the main character Jack's fictitious younger brother Ernest. Jack's surname, Worthing, is taken from the town where Wilde was staying when he wrote the play.

Wilde's plays had reached a pinnacle of success, and anything new from the playwright was eagerly awaited. The press were always hungry for details and would pursue stories about new plots and characters with a vengeance. To combat this Wilde gave the play a working title, Lady Lancing. The use of seaside town names for leading characters, or the locations of their inception, can be recognised in all four of Wilde's society plays.

Contents

[hide]

1 Plot

2 Characters

3 Translations

4 Four-act version

5 Possible in-jokes

6 Trivia

7 Film versions

8 Adaptations

9 References

10 External links

[edit]Plot

Algernon, an aristocratic young Londoner, pretends to have a friend named Bunbury who lives in the country and is frequently in ill health. Whenever Algernon wants to avoid an unwelcome social obligation, or just get away for the weekend, he makes an ostensible visit to his "sick friend." In this way he can feign piety and dedication, while having the perfect excuse to get out of town, avoiding his responsibilities. He calls this practice "Bunburying."

Algernon's real-life best friend lives in the country but makes frequent visits to London. This friend's name is Ernest Worthing...or so Algernon thinks. But when Ernest leaves his silver cigarette case in Algernon's rooms, Algernon finds an inscription in it: "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack".

The original production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 with Allan Aynesworth as Algernon (left) and George Alexander as Jack (right)

This forces Ernest to disclose that his own visits to the city are also examples of "Bunburying," much to Algernon's delight. In the country, "Ernest" goes by the name of Jack (which he understands to be his real name), and pretends that he has a wastrel brother named Ernest, who lives in London. When honest Jack comes to the city, he assumes the name, and behaviour, of the profligate Ernest. In the country Jack assumes a more serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward, the 18-year old heiress Cecily.

Jack himself wishes to marry Gwendolen, who is Algernon's cousin, but runs into a few problems. First, Gwendolen seems to love him only because she believes his name is Ernest, which she thinks is the most beautiful name in the world. Second, Gwendolen's mother is the terrifying Lady Bracknell. Lady Bracknell is horrified when she learns that Jack was adopted as a baby after being discovered in a handbag at a railway station. In her opinion it is absolutely below the standards of her daughter to "marry into a cloakroom and form an alliance with a parcel", as she puts it.

Meanwhile, Jack's description of Cecily has so appealed to Algernon that he resolves to meet her, in spite of Jack's firm opposition. Algernon decides to visit Jack's house in the country, in the guise of the mysterious brother "Ernest." Thus Algernon-as-Ernest is able to meet Jack's ward, Cecily, who has for some time imagined herself in love with Ernest -- Jack's non-existent, scapegrace brother. As such, Cecily is soon swept off her feet by Algernon. In parallel, however, Jack, having decided to give up his Bunburying, has announced the tragic death of his brother Ernest to Cecily's governess Miss Prism, and Prism's secret admirer the Reverend Chasuble. Thus, by the time the two "brothers" meet, one is dressed in mourning for the other.

New confusion is created by the arrival of Gwendolen, who has fled London and her mother to be with her love. When she and Cecily meet for the first time, each indignantly insists that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". Once Lady Bracknell in turn arrives, in pursuit of her daughter, she and Jack reach stalemate as she still refuses to countenance his marriage to Gwendolen, while he, in retaliation, denies his consent to the marriage of Lady Bracknell's penniless nephew Algernon to his heiress ward Cecily.

The impasse is broken, in deus ex machina fashion, by the reappearance of Miss Prism. As she and Lady Bracknell recognize each other with horror, it is revealed that, when working many years previously as a nursemaid for Lady Bracknell's sister, Prism had inadvertently lost a baby boy in a handbag. When Jack produces the identical handbag, it becomes clear that he is Lady Bracknell's nephew and Algernon's older brother.

Only one thing now stands in the way of the young couples' happiness, in view of Gwendolen's continued insistence that she can only love a man named Ernest - what is Jack's real first name? Lady Bracknell informs him that he was named after his father, a general, but cannot remember the general's name. Jack looks eagerly in a military reference book and declares that the name is in fact Ernest after all, and he has all along been telling the truth inadvertently.

As the happy couples embrace in turn (including also Prism and Chasuble), Lady Bracknell complains to Ernest, "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality." "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta," Ernest replies, "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest."

[edit]Characters

John ("Jack") Worthing (Ernest): In love with Gwendolen. Bachelor. Adopted when very young by Thomas Cardew.

Algernon Moncrieff (Algy): First cousin of Gwendolen. Bachelor. Nephew of Lady Bracknell.

Lady (Augusta) Bracknell.

Hon. Gwendolen