The Importance of Being Earnest

Subtitle: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Play by Oscar Wilde, first performed in London’s St. James’ Theatre on the 14th of February 1895, after Wilde had reduced the script to have only three instead of four acts. The story focuses on the two main protagonists John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff whilst also featuring Lady Bracknell, several Ernests, Miss Prism and a handbag. Even though the play was very popular, it also marked Wilde’s final play before his imprisonment and consequent exile.

Plot Summary

The play revolves around John Worthing (whose nickname is Jack) and Algernon Moncrieff, two bachelor gentlemen and friends. Jack, who usually lives in the countryside, pretends to have an eccentric brother named Ernest who lives in the city and whom he uses as an excuse to escape from his countryside responsibilities in order to visit London regularly. Consequently, he is known as Ernest by his city friends. Similarly, Algernon, who lives in the city, pretends to have an invalid friend named Bunbury in the countryside whom he frequently visits in order to avoid regular dinners with his aunt, Lady Bracknell. Both men use disguises to woo women: whereas Jack—alias-Ernest tries to win Gwendolen Fairfax’s affection whenever he is in London, Algernon is interested in Jack’s ward Cecily Cardew and wants to visit her in the countryside.

Jack/Ernest and Gwendolen’s engagement is intercepted by Lady Bracknell—Gwendolen’s mother—due to the fact that he was adopted and his real parents are unknown, which makes his heritage dubious. Despite this, Jack/Ernest and Gwendolen meet up secretly at the former’s countryside manor. Algernon uses this opportunity to meet Cecily, posing as Jack’s brother Ernest and proposing to her, which Cecily accepts. When Gwendolen arrives at the manor, both she and Cecily argue with each other because they both claim to be engaged to an Ernest Worthing—a misunderstanding cleared up by Jack afterwards. Upon both women discovering that neither of their husbands-to-be are actually called Ernest—an aspect that was paramount to both, seeing as their main attraction to the men was due to the name Ernest—they are angry and break off the engagements. Jack and Algernon are adamant on being christened Ernest and try to reconcile with the two ladies, but Lady Bracknell arrives at the manor, insisting on taking Gwendolen back. Here she happens to meet Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism, whom she recognizes as having been a nursemaid to her sister’s family. Miss Prism had taken out Algernon’s long-lost older brother for a walk in a perambulator one day and never returned. It is revealed that Jack was said baby whom Miss Prism had accidentally placed inside a large handbag and left at Victoria Station, where Jack’s adoptive father, Thomas Cardew, picked him up, and that his actual name is Ernest John Moncrieff, for he had been named after his and Algernon’s father. The play ends with both Jack—now actually Ernest—and Algernon happily united with their respective lovers.

About the Play

The play satirizes Victorian customs and moralities, being full of irony and witticism (Reinert 14). For example, it is commonly argued that The Importance of Being Earnest had a queer undertone—especially due to the ‘dandy’ characters Jack and Algernon (Lalonde 660). Furthermore, it is claimed that Wilde added in this queer sub-text in order to criticize the homophobia of 19th-century England whilst also alluding to his own homosexuality (664). However, this argument has likewise been contested due to the heteronormative intentions and outcome within the play (664). Nonetheless, the play is seen to invert gender-normative roles that were common during the 19th-century, as, for example, with Lady Bracknell, who is associated with the public sphere, whereas her husband, Lord Bracknell, is mostly at home (Bastiat par. 6). This is part of the “separate sphere debate” which was common during Wilde’s time and which declared that women belonged to the private, men to the public sphere (par. 6). The characters are distinguished by their hypocrisy and word play and find themselves in “absurd and exaggerated situations” (par. 5), which all add to the overall humour of the play (cf. Poague 251; Reinert 14-18).

Sources

Bastiat, Brigitte. “The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde: Conformity and Resistance in Victorian Society.” Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, no. 72, 2010. OpenEdition Journals, doi.org/10.4000/cve.2717. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.

Lalonde, Jeremy. “A ‘Revolutionary Outrage’: The Importance of Being Earnest as Social Criticism.” Modern Drama, vol. 48, no. 4, 2005, pp. 659-676. Project MUSE, doi.org/10.1353/mdr.2006.0032. Accessed 6 Nov. 2020.

Poague, L.A. “The Importance of Being Earnest: The Texture of Wilde’s Irony.” Modern Drama, vol. 16, no. 3/4, 1973, pp. 251-257. Project MUSE, doi.org/10.1353/mdr.1973.0062. Accessed 6 Nov. 2020.

Reinert, Otto. “Satiric Strategy in The Importance of Being Earnest.” College English, vol. 18, no. 1, 1956, pp. 14-18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/372763. Accessed 6 Nov. 2020.

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Edited by Manfred Pfister, Reclam, 1990.