The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

I. Introduction A.Wilde’s life 1. “wonderfully over-educated” 2. “I have put my talent into my writing and my genius into my life.” 3. “And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not? And I don’t like that. It makes men so very attractive.”

I. Introduction (continued) B.The Times (1850—1900) 1. loss of meaning a. Science and religion b. Relativity of truth

I. Introduction (continued) C.Art for Art’s Sake Movement When people started to lose faith in the meanings of things, many thought that art need not “mean” anything or teach anything. Somehow, in its beauty art contains eternal truth.

I. Introduction D.Satire and Farce 1. Satire—using exaggeration to help humor make people laugh at their own weaknesses 2. farce--a comedy which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication

II. Themes A.Illusion vs. reality: satirizing the concept (Victorian) that appearance is all important 1. Victorian mask 2. the mask of art 3. Wilde’s personal mask

II.Themes B.Superficiality of Society 1. Emphasis on money, class, appearance 2. In this play, all that is trivial (names, money, profiles, clothes) is important and all that is important is trivial

B. Superficiality of Society 3.The theory that Western society has lost its soul, its purpose, its sense of wonder 4.The characters themselves (“smooth appearances with inner emptiness”) 5.The immorality of middle-class morality

C. Four Main Topics Satirized 1.Class 2.Marriage / love

C. Four Main Topics 3.Art 4.Truth

III. Techniques 1.puns—language and menaing are fluid (Earnest, “false impressions,” Bunbury “exploded”, etc.) 2.epigrams—short witty saying, usually structurally balanced 3.Paradox 4.Inversions—saying the opposite of what is expected (and telling the truth)

IV. Conclusion A.Wilde’s wit, his love of life and culture, and his generosity of spirit energize Earnest B.Why is The Importance of Being Earnest great? 1. Its wit and charm 2. Its gentle reminding us of society’s inanities, absurdities, and deceptions and it teaching us to laugh at them and to feel less alone