The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that was written by Oscar Wilde. The story focuses on two men who both go by the name Ernest, and their interactions with Algernon Moncrieff. The main crux of the story surrounds them pretending to be someone else so they can carry on their love affairs without being caught. The play was written in 1895 and is seen as an important representation of the genre known as farce. The story has been adapted for film, television, and several times on the stage.
The story takes place in Victorian-era England. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin but eventually moved to London where he became a successful poet and playwright. The Importance of Being Earnest is one of his best known works, along with The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Happy Prince, and The Duchess of Padua. While The Importance of Being Earnest is considered Oscar Wilde’s greatest work by many critics, the play was famously criticized by Winston Churchill when it first opened at a theatre in London.
The critic stated that it “seems to have been written in a hurry before breakfast” and claimed that the play was “a failure. ” The criticism did not affect Oscar Wilde’s career however, The Importance of Being Earnest has continued to be performed all over the world. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish writer who is considered one of the most important figures in English literature. Many modern-day authors count Oscar Wilde as an influence, including Haruki Murakami and Ayn Rand.
The Importance of Being Earnest is his best-known work, but he was also famous for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Happy Prince, and The Duchess of Padua. He is considered one of the most prolific writers in history, with several hundred short stories, poems, and plays to his name. The Importance of Being Earnest has been adapted for film several times, including a 1952 version starring Michael Redgrave as Algernon Moncrieff and the 1999 version which stars Rupert Everett as Jack Worthing. The story was also made into a popular television drama in 2002 which aired on BBC Two.
The play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde is told primarily through dialogue between characters to explain the circumstances that drive the action forward. The language used within the play follows very formal rules; when Wilde originally submitted The Importance of Being Earnest for publication in 1895 he included two Latin epigraphs: from Ovid and one from The New Testament. The play itself contains numerous literary devices, both in the form of direct and indirect allusion to other works, e. g.
The Importance of Being Earnest makes a direct reference in three acts to Henry James’ The Turn of The Screw, although there is a suggestion in The Daily Chronicle on December 4th, 1895 that Oscar Wilde was also referring obliquely in Lear’s dialogue with Cordelia when he says ‘nothing will come between us’ to Hamlet (Act 3 Scene 1), or that Act 5 Scene 5 lampoons Shakespeare by having Cecily say that her love for Gertrude has made her like Ophelia; also, Alleyn states “I am Lord Illingworth”; Prospero’s character and The Tempest (which may also be alluded to in Algernon’s line about knowing “the Open Sesame to the Warped Shutters of The Heart”); The Importance of Being Earnest is full of literary allusions, with most references being contemporary.
The play makes reference to Bunbury and Mr Bunbury three times; two such references are made by Lady Bracknell. The name Bunbury is a reference to White Rabbit’ character in Alice through the Looking Glass , who often leaves home saying he will go to a certain place known as Bun-Bun which turns out not to exist. Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing both referring to ‘bunburying’; they use this excuse for their frequent absences when in reality they are meeting their lovers, Cecily Arbuthnot and Gwendolen Fairfax.
The title The Importance of Being Earnest is particularly significant in relation to the allusions made by Lady Bracknell who has many references to Latin maxims throughout the play, often with an air of pretension. The use of ‘Earnest’ was a literary joke by Oscar Wilde, ironically considering that it is used for two men who are both pretending to be someone else in order to escape from their dull respectable lives into more interesting ones. The play also contains many literary devices such as imagery, irony and metaphor although it is written predominately in prose form rather than verse form, which serves to highlight certain techniques within the language such as paradox and the occasional use of rhyme.
The dialogue is used effectively to further the characters’ introduction, e. g. The opening scene sees Algernon arrive with a “bright green” parasol which is symbolic of his young and fastidious character; he carries it throughout all four acts. The play opens with him declaring that “a new sensation has been added to my life. ” Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest was first performed on 14th February 1895 at St James’s Theatre in London, England. The first production of The Importance of Being Earnest was directed by John Gielgud in 1952, who played the part of Jack Worthing this time; he later went on to play the part of Algernon Moncrieff. The play was first performed on Broadway in New York on 10th February 1895 and had a total of 1109 performances before it closed on 19th August 1903.
The original production of The Importance of Being Earnest featured Allan Aynesworth as Jack Worthing, Charles Cartwright as Algernon Moncrieff, Evelyn Millard as Gwendolyn Fairfax, Mabel Russell-Jones as Cecily Cardew and Laura Cowie as Lady Bracknell. The Importance of Being Earnest has been adapted for various types of media including television drama in 2002 which aired on BBC Two. The play has also been adapted into film several times most notably as The Importance of Being Earnest in 1952, The Importance of Being Earnest in 1972 and The Importance of Being Earnest in 1992. The play has also been adapted as a musical several times the first being The Boys From Syracuse which had a world premiere at the Opera House, Boston on 9th December 1939.
The first London production of The Boys from Syracuse opened on 16th May 1941 at The St Martin’s Theatre and featured William Harrigan as Algernon Moncrieff, Frank Puglia as Lane and Joan Carroll as Cecily Cardew. In October 1950 director Milton Katselas staged The Boys from Syracuse for the Pittsburgh Playhouse with Louis Biancolli playing Jack Worthing, John Hunter playing Algy Moncrieff and Patricia Landis playing Gwendolyn Fairfax. The most recent adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest was an Opera which premiered at The Santa Fe Opera in August 2007. The music for the opera was composed by David Portner and the libretto written by Nicholas Wright using the original play by Oscar Wilde as its basis rather than any of the film versions of The Importance of Being Earnest.
The first performance on Broadway of The Importance of Being Earnest took place on 10th February 1895 at St James’s Theatre, New York City. The cast list for the original production featured actors such as Cairns Lord (Lane), Jeanette MacDonald (Cecily Cardew), Lillian Russell (Lady Bracknell), Charles Richman (Ernest Worthing) and Thelma Wilson (Gwendolyn Fairfax). The first production of The Importance of Being Earnest featured Allan Aynesworth as Jack Worthing, Charles Cartwright as Algernon Moncrieff, Evelyn Millard as Gwendolyn Fairfax, Mabel Russell-Jones as Cecily Cardew and Laura Cowie as Lady Bracknell. The play was first performed on Broadway in New York on 10th February 1895 and had a total of 1109 performances before it closed on 19th August 1903.