The Importance of Being Earnest The Life of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde October 16, November 30, 1900 (Dublin Ireland) “Men become old, but they never become good.”

Family  A wild father-William Wilde –Ear and Eye doctor –Father of three children while unmarried –Started a hospital at his own expense explicitly for the poor.  A wild mother-Jane Elgee –Revolutionary poet during the Irish potato famine –A Keen linguist who knew all the major European languages

Family Three brothers and sisters three stepbrothers and stepsisters. Emily Oscar’s youngest sister died at ten. Oscar was only thirteen. Kept a locket of his departed sister containing her hair with him from then on.

Mother and Father

Education  Attended Portora Royal school and excelled at the classics and at drawing.  Attended Trinity College in Dublin then Magdalene College at Oxford.  Did very well in both earning top honors in Greek and excelling at the classics.

Tragedy Strikes  Oscar’s father died April 19 th 1876 leaving his family financially strapped  What did Oscar do? He stayed in college and continued to excel.

A Wife and Success!  Oscar Married Constance Lloyd in 1884, Oscar was 30 and Constance was 26.  During the next sixteen years Oscar was very fruitful.  He published The Picture of Dorian Gray his only novel and “The Importance of Being Earnest”, as well as many other plays.

Work  In 1881 Oscar published his first collection of poetry entitled Poems.  Oscar also lectured in America in 1881 originally scheduled for 120 days but Oscar like America and stayed 260 days.  During his time in America Wilde met with Walt Whitman and Henry Longfellow.

Home in London  Oscar Wilde’s home in London from

Death. The last few years of Oscars life were spent aimlessly wondering around Europe Oscar died of Meningitis due to complications from an ear infection in 1900 (Paris). Oscar Wilde’s Grave Cimetière de Bagneux graveyard outside Paris

Context  The Importance of Being Earnest was written in  This was during the Victorian Era which ran from the mid 1830’s-1901, during which time Queen Victoria had the throne.  Marked by the height of the Industrial Revolution.  During this time photography emerges as well as modern Architecture.  Social Realism and Impressionism are the current artistic movements.

 Oscar met Bosie Douglas in 1891 and the two were great friends until Oscar’s death.  Oscar was sent to prison for gross indecency and was sentenced to two year hard labor.

Eviction Scene Henry Thaddeus (1889)

Portrait of an Artist’s Mother, James Whistler (1871)

Important Things  Aestheticism- A movement that embraces art for the sake of beauty and beauty alone.  Oscar Wilde dressed flamboyantly, and had a contempt for traditional values.  Wilde perfected the Victorian Melodrama or Sentimental Comedy.  Earnest is a Comedy of Manners.  A Dandy is a character who pays excessive attention to the dress and is morally superior. This character is largely autobiographical for Wilde.

Characters  John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing, J.P. - The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. In Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate, Jack is known as Jack. In London he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. The initials after his name indicate that he is a Justice of the Peace.  Algernon Moncrieff - The play’s secondary hero. Algernon is a charming, idle, decorative bachelor, nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest.

Characters  Gwendolen Fairfax - Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest.  Cecily Cardew - Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness.

“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.” One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.   An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement.

Epigrams  A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal  Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.  Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing  Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Character  Lady Bracknell - Algernon’s snobbish, mercenary, and domineering aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. When she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to eat downstairs with the servants. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.  Miss Prism - Cecily’s governess. Miss Prism is an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. She highly approves of Jack’s presumed respectability and harshly criticizes his “unfortunate” brother. Puritan though she is, Miss Prism’s severe pronouncements have a way of going so far over the top that they inspire laughter.  Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D. - The rector on Jack’s estate. Both Jack and Algernon approach Dr. Chasuble to request that they be christened “Ernest.”

Key Facts  full title · The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People  author · Oscar Wilde  type of work · Play  genre · Social comedy; comedy of manners; satire; intellectual farce  language · English  time and place written · Summer 1894 in Worthing, England  date of first production · February 14, In part because of Wilde’s disgrace, the play was not published until  tone · Light, scintillating, effervescent, deceptively flippant  setting (time) · 1890s  setting (place) · London (Act I) and Hertfordshire, a rural county not far from London (Acts II and III)

Key Facts  protagonist · John Worthing, known as “Ernest” by his friends in town (i.e., London) and as “Jack” by his friends and relations in the country  major conflict · Jack faces many obstacles to his romantic union with Gwendolen. One obstacle is presented by Lady Bracknell, who objects to what she refers to as Jack’s “origins” (i.e. his inability to define his family background). Another obstacle is Gwendolen’s obsession with the name “Ernest,” since she does not know Jack’s real name.

Key Facts  themes · The nature of marriage; the constraints of morality; hypocrisy vs. inventiveness; the importance of not being “earnest”  motifs · Puns; inversion; death; the dandy  symbols · The double life; food; fiction and writing