Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

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Oscar WildeThe Importance of Being Earnest

• Fabio Pesaresi

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Dramatis Personae

Jack Worthing
? Ernest
? lover
Gwendolen Fairfax
? cousin
Algernon Moncrieff
? Banbury
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Country City

• Jack (Ernest)
• (Banbury) Algernon
• Cecily Gwendolen
• Miss Prism Lady Bracknell

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The proposal

• Jack proposes to Gwendolen
• She accepts, because she can only love someone
  whose name is
• Ernest !!!

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The interview

• Lady Bracknell asks Jack
• about his house,
• his habits
• his parents

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Jacks origin

• Mr Thomas Cardew
• found Jack
• in a handbag
• in the cloakroom at Victoria Station

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In the countryside

• Miss Prism and Cecily studying
• Miss Prism goes to see Dr Chasuble
• Algernon (Ernest) arrives

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Jack in mourning

• Announces that his brother has died
• Surprised by the presence of Algernon
• Tells him to go away
• Goes to Dr Chasuble to be christened with the
  name of Ernest

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The proposal

• Algernon-Ernest
• proposes to
• Cecily who says
• We have been engaged for three months

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Cecily

• I love you because you are so wicked
• and because I always wanted to marry someone
  whose name is
• Ernest !!!

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Gwendolen

• meets Cecily
• they become friends
• They discover they are both engaged to
  Ernest Worthing
• They quarrel
• They quarrel with the two men

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Reconciliation

• The men try to make peacewith the two young
  women
• They announce they are going to be rechristened
  that afternoon

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Lady Bracknell

• Forbids marriage between Jack and Gwendolen
• Asks about Cecily and gives consent to marriage
  with Algernon (she is rich!)
• Jack forbids the marriage

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Recognition

• Miss Prism was the governess at the house of Lady
  Bracknells sister
• She lost the baby Jack

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New situation

• Jack is Algernons elder brother
• his real name is..
• Ernest

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Commentary

• Comedy of manners complicated plot, full of
  intrigue
• Nonsensical play
• Satire
• Shallow characters (no depth)

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• Wilde creates an entire world, frivolous and
  light
• Witty language
• Elegant manners

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Misapplied logic

• Lady Bracknell
• Lets go. We have already missed five, if not
  six, trains. To miss many more might expose us to
  comment on the platform

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Misapplied logic

• Jack
• I have lost both my parents.
• Lady Bracknell
• Both? That seems like carelessness!

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Misapplied logic

• Algernon I must take the first train on Monday
  morning. I have a buisiness appointment I am
  anxious to miss.
• Cecily Couldnt you miss it anywhere but in
  London?
• Algernon No the appointment is in London

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Paradox

• Lady Bracknell
• You have a town house, I hope?
• A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature like
  Gwendolen could hardly be expected to live in the
  country.

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Paradox

• Gwendolen
• on her father who is not very famous in society
• I think that is quite as it should be. The home
  seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man.

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Sparkling language

• Algernon,
• about a recently widowed lady
• I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief

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Sparking language

• Jack, about Lady Bracknell
• a monster, without being a myth,
• which is unfair!

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