The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde

1
The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
2
D na
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction

• Characters
• 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 Jacks in love with Algernons 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

3
G h
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction

• Characters
• Lady Bracknell
• Algernons 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 Bracknells daughter and Algernons 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 husbands name

4
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction

• Characters
• Cecily Cardew
• Lives in Jacks 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,
  Jacks 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

5
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction
Algernon and Jack may look like proper young
Victorian gentlemen.
But eachunknown to the other
is leading a double life.
6
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.
7
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction
Jacks 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.
8
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.
9
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction
In London, Jack pretends to be the bad boy Ernest.
Are you confused yet?
10
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction
Imagine how Ernests fiancée, Gwendolen, feels
when she learns he is really someone else!
11
The Importance of Being Earnest Introduction
Imagine how Cecily feels when she finally meets
the charming Ernest,
but he turns out to be Ernestsor rather,
Jacksfriend Algernon!
12
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?
13
The Importance of Being Earnest Background
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk
seriously about. Oscar Wilde
14
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

15
The Importance of Being Earnest Background

• Play is a comedy, and a satire of the uptight,
  prudish principles of the Victorian Era using
  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 shes considering Jacks
  marriage to Gwendolyn
• Victorian social expectations just to have fun
  and be themselves, Algernon and Jack have to
  invent a facade!

The
16
The Importance of Being Earnest Background
Wilde also pokes a bit of fun at himself.
Like Wilde, Algernon and Jack are dandies.
17
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

18
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.
19
The Importance of Being Earnest Background
Moreover, to achieve the fashionable 18- to
20-inch waist,
20
The Importance of Being Earnest Background
her corset often was so tight that she could
barely breathe!
21
s
The Importance of Being Earnest Terms

• 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 mans name, while earnest honest,
  truthful

22
hi
The Importance of Being Earnest Terms

• 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

23
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 its 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