The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde - So You Haven't Read
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Published 2022-06-08
Jack Worthing, an upstanding socialite, victorian gentleman, and a perfect moral citizen! That is until he gets to London where Jack lets loose and becomes Earnest! The unruly brother that tears around the city. However, Jack's double life will inevitably become VERY complicated as his loved ones begin to discover his duplicity.
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All Comments (21)
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"To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable." - Lady Bracknell, one of the most savage one-liners against the aristocracy ever.
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"Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?" "I can. For I feel that you are sure to change."
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"I mean, my name is Matt but that doesn't mean I'm a small rug" is honestly the funniest line in the episode.
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I like the film adaptation’s ending better, where Jack claims to be christened Earnest, but it turns out he’s actually named after his real father, Jack. And when Lady Bracknell protests that Jack is displaying triviality, he says “on the contrary Aunt Augusta, I’ve only just realized the vital importance of being Earnest”, and that word play is, for me, a masterstroke.
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“Big Boinking Oscar Wilde, father of over 100 illegitimate children and author of the best selling pamphlet: “Why I like To Do It With Girls”, and we had him sent up the river for being a Whoopsie” -Edmund Blackadder
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Finally a book I’ve actually read This was a weird one. Loved when he faked his fake brothers death
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Literally watched this in my AP Lit class. It was.... a weird experience.
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Lady Bracknell saying, “A handbag?!?” generally defines the overall motif of the play when performed - it can be quiet horror, pompous arrogance, histrionic, etc.
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"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple."
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My college roommate and I wrote a modern version in the form of a screenplay where Earnest/Jack assumed a new identity when he got to College to hide from his super religious parents. Algernon figures this out, goes to Earnest’s rich parents home, and holds his secret as blackmail while he trows a wild party. The first half was an adaption of the play but then devolves into an 80s party movie complete with double identity, romance, and hijinks.
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"My name is Matt, but that doesn't mean I'm a small rug" Too late, it's part of EC canon now.
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I remember Wilde being the first author I read in english and this play in particular with its constant wordplay was one of the best of those early reading, it's just hilarious. The wordplay between Earnest and Ernest while simple is what convinced me to reread it multiple times in case I missed some of the subtleties. I already loved Wilde from translated short stories but this play really made me fall in love with the english langage.
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The fact that Doyle praised Wilde as an author towering over him even after he was convicted, speaks a lot to Wilde's talent as a writer.
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Related reading: Jekyll and Hyde. In the actual book Hyde is less a new person than a disguise that lets Jekyll get away with doing all the things he feels would ruin his reputation. Very much is the same space regarding the hypocrisy of upper clas society in particular.
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Honestly I did not love The Importance of Being Earnest but just in case anyone else falls in that camp and is thinking of writing off Oscar Wilde, I found The Picture of Dorian Gray to be utterly magnificent.
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I think a great addition to this series would be : So you haven't read Tirant lo blanc. It is a classic of medieval literature and a shining pearl of Catalan literature.
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I wonder how many people have shipped Jack and Algernon before the plot twist.
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I saw the play at my local theater maybe two years ago. I loved it. It's one of my favorite comedies to this very day. One of my friends played Gwendolen and one of my brother's played Jack/Earnest and they were both fantastic!
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My favourite play ever!😍 That said, there's quite a few things I won't forgive Victorian society and destroying Oscar Wilde is one of them!
