| The
Importance of Being Earnest
Wilde was
a great dramatist but his plays
have been called in turn superficial, unreal,
satirical, witty, elegant, stylish, mediocre,
farcical, delightful, barren, delusive.
These definitions
cannot be generalized, since there's a remarkable
difference between his early plays and the last
ones.
Even the
so called "society plays"
are not alike: while the first three plays are
more sentimental and melodramatic,
in keeping with the Victorian audience's expectations,
The Importance of Being Earnest
seems, on the other hand, much more brilliant
and unconventional.
Sentimentalism
and melodrama have been dropped and replaced by
frivolous and somewhat absurd situations.
The
language is sparkling and rich in witticisms,
epigrams, paradoxes and nonsensical sallies.
No
moral judgement but only unobstrusive
satire of upper-class English
people.
PLOT
The
plot turns on a misunderstanding
resulting from the lies of two
upper-class young men, John Worthing
(also known as Jack) and Algernon Moncrieff.
As
an infant, Jack was found in a black leather handbag
in a cloakroom at Victoria Station by Mr.
Thomas Cardew, a wealthy old gentleman
of a very charitable disposition, who adopted
him and gave him the name of Worthing
because he happened to have a first-class ticket
for Worthing (a seaside resort of Sussex) in his
pocket at the time.
Before dying, Mr.
Cardew, in his will, made Jack guardian to his
grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew.
Jack now is living
in the country, but he often goes to London on
the pretext of visiting a fictitious brother,
Ernest. While in London (where
everybody knows him as Ernest)
he falls in love with Gwendolen Fairfax,
whose mother, Lady Bracknell,
opposes their marriage on the grounds of John's
origins.
 |
Algernon,
in his turn, lives in London, but he often
goes to the country on the pretext of visiting
a fictitious invalid friend, Bunbury.
In the country he falls in love with Cecily
Cardew, Jack's ward.
 
Misunderstandings about identity cause
funny and misleading situations, but all
ends well to everybody's satisfaction.
|
|
Oscar
Wilde 
