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Transcript

The Importance of Being Earnest

Jessica Sweet

Claire Lash

Millie Sievers

Melissa Baldwin

Setting

Plot Synopsis

  • 1890s
  • Act I- Algernon Moncrieff's flat in Half-Moon Street, W.
  • Act II- The garden at the Manor House, Woolton
  • Act III- Drawing-room at the Manor House, Woolton

Act I

-Algernon Moncrieff’s home

Act II

-The Garden at Jacks country home

Act III

-The Drawing room in Jacks country home

Characters

Quotes and Citations

Title and its Significance

  • Act I- "The room is luxurious and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room" (Wilde 27).
  • Act II- "A flight of grey stone steps lead up to the house. The garden, an old fashioned one, full of roses" (56).
  • Act III- "Drawing-room at the Manor House. Gwendolen and Cecily are at the window, looking out into the garden" (91).

"When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses people" (Wilde 29).

Themes

"I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal" (30).

The title of this play is "The Importance of Being Earnest." Earnest is a term meaning to show sincerity or seriousness.

The title is ironic because Jack and Algernon both pose as men named Earnest because the women they love will only marry someone with that name. Once Jack discovers who is birth parents are he learns that is given name actually was Earnest.

"I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didn't write them down, I should probably forget all about them" (57).

  • Lane
  • Jack
  • Algernon
  • Cecily
  • Lady Bracknell
  • Miss Prism
  • Chasuble
  • Merriman
  • Gwendolen

"I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone" (45).

"I do not think that even I could produce any effect on a character that according to his own brother's admission is irretrievably weak and vacillating" (57).

  • Love
  • Fake Identity
  • Ignorance is bliss
  • Desire for wealth
  • Be yourself
  • Jealousy
  • Deception
  • Finding yourself

"For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you" (41).

Literary Criticism

Personal Responses

  • Parker, David. "Oscar Wilde's Great Farce: The Importance of Being Earnest." Modern Literature Quarterly 35.2 (June 1974): 173-186. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Ed. Scott T. Darga. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.

“The Importance of Being Earnest does not tackle problems of moral conduct in the way that most plays do. In it, Wilde expresses a comic vision of the human condition by deliberately distorting actuality and having most of the characters behave as if that vision were all but universal.”

  • Beerbohm, Max. "A review of The Importance of Being Earnest." A Review of The Importance of Being Earnest in Around Theatres. Vol. 1. Knopf, 1930. 240-243. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.

"A classic must be guarded jealously. Nothing should be added to, or detracted from, a classic."

  • Schmidt, Arnold. "An essay for The Importance of Being Earnest." Drama for Students. Detroit: Gale. Literature Resource Center. Web.

"The status of the nineteenth century's educated women remained grim, however, with few occupational outlets other than teaching. Miss Prism, Cecily's governess, combines two common female occupations."

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