Transcript Document 7247927

The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Characters:
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•John/Jack Worthing (aka Ernest Worthing):
•Protagonist, seemingly responsible and respectable
young man with home in the countryside – friend of
Algernon – discovered in a purse as a baby and
adopted – guardian of Cecily – Jack’s in love with
Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen – when Jack goes into
the city he is known as Ernest
•Algernon Moncrieff:
•Friend of Jack – lives in the city, and uses his fake
friend “Bunbury” who he claims is ill as an excuse to
get out of social engagements – smart, sharp-witted,
makes many humorous epigrams – takes a liking to
Cecily
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
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Characters:
•Lady Bracknell:
•Algernon’s aunt and mother of Gwendolen – she is
snobby, and she married well and expects her daughter
to do the same – she is both cunning and narrow
minded
•Gwendolen Fairfax:
•Lady Bracknell’s daughter and Algernon’s cousin – she
is in love with Jack (who she knows as Ernest) – she is
pretentious and cares about superficial issues of high
society, like the way she cares about her husband’s
name
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Characters:
•Cecily Cardew:
•Lives in Jack’s home as his “ward,” after her
grandfather (the man who adopted Jack after finding
him as a baby in a purse) died and left Jack in charge of
Cecily – Cecily loves Ernest, Jack’s fake brother, because
Jack makes Ernest sound like a “bad boy” and Cecily is
fascinated with wickedness – she is the least
stereotypical of all the characters in the play
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Algernon and Jack may
look like proper young
Victorian gentlemen.
But each—
unknown to
the other—
is leading a
double life.
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Algernon has invented a sickly friend named
Bunbury.
When Algernon wants to
escape his social
obligations in London, he
“goes Bunburying.”
That is, he pretends to
visit the ailing Bunbury
in the country.
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Jack’s situation is even more complicated.
A wealthy bachelor,
he lives an upright
life in the country.
He wants to set a
proper example for
Cecily, his young
ward.
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
But Jack wants to have
some fun too.
So he invents a wild
brother named Ernest.
When Jack wants to go
to London, he pretends
he has to bail Ernest out
of trouble.
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
In London, Jack
pretends to be the bad
boy Ernest.
Are you confused yet?
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Imagine how “Ernest’s”
fiancée, Gwendolen,
feels when she learns
he is really someone
else!
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
Imagine how Cecily feels when she finally
meets the charming Ernest,
but he turns out to be
Ernest’s—or rather,
Jack’s—friend Algernon!
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Introduction
The confusion and misunderstandings are all part
of the fun.
Will Gwendolen marry
Jack even though he is
not Ernest?
Will Algernon win the
hand of the beautiful
Cecily?
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
“Life is far too
important a thing
ever to talk
seriously about.”
—Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
Oscar Wilde liked to make fun of
upper-class Victorian society.
In this play he pokes fun at
• strict Victorian
social rules
• the shallowness
of the idle rich
The Importance of Being Earnest:
Background
Play is a comedy, and a satire of the uptight,
prudish
principles of the Victorian Era using
The
stereotypical Victorian characters (1800s)
Some of the ideas Wilde is trying to poke fun at
and criticize include:
• Victorian ideas surrounding marriage – notice
how Lady Bracknell is mostly concerned with
“class” and “money” when she’s considering Jack’s
marriage to Gwendolyn
•Victorian social expectations – just to have fun
and be themselves, Algernon and Jack have to
invent a facade!
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
Wilde also pokes a bit of fun at himself.
Like Wilde, Algernon
and Jack are dandies.
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
In Victorian times only men could be dandies.
An authentic dandy
• enjoyed fine clothes and
expensive habits
• used refined language
• spent most of his time
socializing
• lived to have fun
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
A well-bred Victorian woman, on the other hand,
was modest and reserved.
Few kinds of
enjoyment were
open to her
outside the home.
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
Moreover, to achieve the
fashionable 18- to 20inch waist,
The Importance of Being Earnest: Background
her corset often was so
tight that she could
barely breathe!
The Importance of Being Earnest: Terms
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Puns: the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to
emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications,
or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but
different in meaning; a play on words.
Examples:
• Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut
off? He's all right now.
• It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just
didn't have the balls to do it.
•Ernest = a man’s name, while earnest = honest,
truthful
The Importance of Being Earnest: Terms
hi
Epigrams: short, witty, memorable statements
(often epigrams are puns)
Examples:
•The way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.--Oscar
Wilde
•You can observe a lot just by watching.--Yogi Berra
•God answers knee-mail.-- Unknown
The Importance of Being Earnest: Terms
Farce: humorous stories written for the stage or film in
which the situations become so entangled and complicated
that the ending is often just meaninglessly tacked on, or
it’s even a trick – these types of endings are referred to as
deus ex machina where a person or thing suddenly
appears “out of the blue” to help resolve the seemingly
impossible situation
Examples:
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Producers by Mel Brooks