The Importance of Being Earnest in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jun 05, 2019 Josh Caporale rated it it was amazing

Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" is pure genius! Perhaps the characters in this play are absolutely ridiculous meatballs and all of them are overdone, over the top, and unbelievable, but they are meant to be that way as a point that Wilde is proving about the triviality of Victorian England during the late 19th century.

In this play, we follow Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, first as Jack visits Algernon in order to propose to his cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. In order to do so Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" is pure genius! Perhaps the characters in this play are absolutely ridiculous meatballs and all of them are overdone, over the top, and unbelievable, but they are meant to be that way as a point that Wilde is proving about the triviality of Victorian England during the late 19th century.

In this play, we follow Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, first as Jack visits Algernon in order to propose to his cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. In order to do so, though, he must get the approval from her mother, the demanding Lady Bracknell. Jack takes on the role of his "brother," named "Ernest," upon his visits and correspondence with Algernon, which creates a bind with Gwendolen, as she would only accept someone with the name of "Ernest," even if it means Jack having to Christen himself as "Ernest Worthing."

This is just the first act. In the second act, we learn about Jack's family, including the girl he has taken as his own in Cecily Cardew and her teacher figure, Miss Prism. Here, Algernon takes on the role of Jack's "brother," Ernest Worthing, which he uses to impress and win Cecily's hand for marriage. Like Gwendolen, Cecily could only hold romantic interest in a man by the name of "Ernest." When everything comes together and everyone ends up in one place, trouble occurs and a search for a truth is in demand, leading up to a conclusion where we learn more and more about the characters at hand.

Every major character in "The Importance of Being Earnest" wants what they want, how they want it. They are self-centered, self-indulgent, bubbleheaded, and have a radioactive sense of values, but that is exactly how Oscar Wilde wants to portray them. This play in a demonstration of how the people of this class, time, and situation are in a circumstance where they value the things they value, in this case marriage to their loves for the men and a man named "Ernest" for the women, symbolic for a great handful of critically induced items. The characters often find themselves in a situation where they need to escape to "Bunbury," used as a particular person, a type of person, a place, and a verb (Whew!). While it has been cryptic of Wilde's homosexuality and while Wilde's homosexuality can be seen in a few instances within the play, I can see where "Bunburying" can come into play within this play, but Jack and Algernon were both very passionate about Gwendolen and Cecily, respectively, that an alternate, same-sex relationship seems unlikely. I am also not sure at what point "buns" became a slang term for "buttocks."

This is the third time that I read this play, as I read it for British Literature II, Irish Literature, and now for an upcoming Literary Gladiators discussion. This was Wilde's last play that he wrote and had performed, as friction between his male lover's father led to his exposure of indecent exposure that led to his imprisonment and eventually his death. This has been deemed his greatest play and while I cannot judge this thesis having not read his other plays, this does set the mark high in my mind. I also watched the 2002 film adaptation where Colin Firth played Jack and Rupert Everett played Algernon and I enjoyed it and set it as a basis of the images I have of each character (though I would imagine Algernon should be heavier with all of the food he eats).

This is definitely going to encourage me to read more plays and read the rest of Oscar Wilde's plays.
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Apr 30, 2023 Laura (Reading is a Doing Word) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-trad-and-modern, play, 2023-read

This was a quick and lighthearted read as part of #12PlaysIn12Months
There are biting witticisms about the society of the time.
Everyone is a combination of fickle, false and deceitful but mostly in an amusing and inoffensive manner.
Algernon Moncrief and Jack Worthing both masquerade as "Ernest" in their respective playgrounds of country and town.
Cecily and Gwendolyn are both convinced they can only marry a man called Ernest, each believing their beloved to be so called. When worlds collide, chao ...more

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May 06, 2020 Tasnuva rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

Oscar Wilde’s perverse sense of cynicism, wit, and humour have never failed to amuse me. If there were any play I would be excited to see, it would be this one!

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