The Importance of Being Ernest - Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Ernest is ostensibly a play about four young people becoming two engaged couples, with a splash of farcical mistaken identity along the way, but it can also be read as an expression of gay identity and expereince in Victorian England. For those of you who haven't read it (and you should,) a bit about the plot. It was first published in 1899 and apparently Wilde said of it "It hhas as its philosophy ..... that we should treat all the trivial things in life seriously, and all the serious things in life with sincere and studied triviality." Algernon and Jack are two well ... more

'The Importance of Being Earnest' is a fast paced, quaint little comedy that runs through many of the pretensions of the Victorian social elite in regards to marital eligibility in quick succession. All of Wilde's work deals with morals, ethics and social conventions and this is no exception. However, the major difference with this particular piece in contrast to his others is that it borders on the ridiculous in regards to the superficial level it touches upon without any real discussion or critique of social values. The characters are downright comical and theatrical in nature and all ... more

The Importance of being Ernest boasts one of the silliest plots I have ever heard of. Basically it involves two men pretendig to be other people called Ernest in order to woe the women they love. There are other complications such as the matter of one of them oly being a foundling etc, but in the main that's it. Luckily Oscar Wilde is a genius and his play is full of extremly funny lines and puns. The situation is victorian and so some of the humour relise on a basic knowledge of victorian social convention but this doesn't detract from the play. The characters are all very convincing, and ... more

Set in the upper class environment during the Victorian period, this may put people off from reading it. But actually it is quite easy to read once you get into the formality of late Victorian speech, which really adds to the imagery of the play. It is hilarious in a subtle manner and I love the argument between the two women. Two upper class women argue and throw insults at each other at such level of elegance it truly is amazing how they could have restrained themselves from ripping each other to shreds. In a way this play is sort of pointless in a way that the guys are pretending to be ... more

This is one of the funniest things to ever come on the English speaking stage. It is a work of genius and has incessant and unrivalled humour. The word play is evident from the title down to the most unimportant lines uttered by the butler. The scenario is a comedy of errors and the intrigues and misunderstandings on the stage produce comic scene after comic scene. The Algernon figure is the archetype of a fin de siecle dandy and the presentations of women, though funny, they hold the power and the intellect. This is pure genius, you cannot afford to not read it. ... more

The Importance of Being Earnest is a gentle introduction to the world and words of Oscar Wilde. He captivates his audience from the first line, and creates vivid and interesting characters intended to entertain, inspire and envigorate. Wilde uses words as his tools not only to create a piece of highly entertaining and humerous fiction, but also to make the reader or audience think about what is being said. A particularly amusing example of this involves the character to whom the play owes its title: Ernest, or Jack as he is christened. Jack spends his life in the city, to avoid the stifling ... more

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play of supreme intellectual merit. While it is wonderfully, at times breathtakingly funny, Wilde’s method is such that the apparent nonsense of the play transports the answers to some of the burning questions of the Victorian era in a manner that is both perfect and absurd. Wilde’s humour flippantly deals with such intense subjects as materialism, personal identity, the artifice (or indeed the truth) of the mask, and on a more esoteric level; the Nietzschian notions of descent, progeny, and the Freudian ideals of androgeny, a subject matter which Joyce ... more

This is, arguably, the greatest comedy written of all time. Oscar Wilde's acute critique on the upper classes towards the end of the Victorian era is complemented tremendously by the clever wit both in language and in plot. The play is simply laid out, it is set in three Acts, each act being in a different scene. The first Scene is in a London flat, the second in the hertfordshire country garden, and the third in the same place of residence but in the drawing room. The plot is famous and very complicated to explain. But to tell you would be a crime because Wilde's conclusion is so clever and ... more

Absaloutly amazing, my friend and I did the tea scene with cecily and gwendolin for a duolouge competition, and we came first with flying colours! An absaloute must for everyone, esp. actors. Charater list: * John ("Jack") Worthing: In love with Gwendolen. Bachelor. Adopted when very young by Thomas Cardew. * Algernon ("Algy") Moncrieff: First cousin of Gwendolen. Bachelor. Nephew of Lady Bracknell. * Lady (Augusta) Bracknell. * Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax: daughter of Lady Bracknell. * Cecily Cardew: granddaughter of Thomas Cardew and ward of Jack Worthing. Lives at Jack's country house in ... more