Name: The Importance of Being Earnest
Author: Oscar Wilde

Overview

The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde’s short stage comedy about two young men who invent the name Ernest to escape their duties and win the women they love. It is a fast tangle of courtship, country visits, a severe aunt, and lies that get harder to keep straight.

The plot is silly on purpose, but the language is precise. Wilde lets nearly everyone treat manners, money, and marriage as if they were a game with terrible stakes. Lady Bracknell is the great obstacle, yet the play also laughs at the young couples and their dreamy rules for love.

This is an easy classic to begin with, especially read aloud. The jokes move quickly, and the play is short. Some of its class rules and social codes need a little patience, but the main pleasure is simple: hearing smart people make nonsense sound completely proper.

Is This Book for You?

Yes, if...

You like comedies built from lies, mistaken identity, courtship, and a joke that keeps getting worse.
You enjoy sharp dialogue, especially when a proper face hides an absurd idea.
You want a short play that is lively on the page and even better with a few voices around it.

No, if...

You want deep realism or characters who learn much from their mistakes.
You dislike jokes that depend on coincidence, class rules, and people refusing to say the obvious thing.
You need a romance to care more about feeling than a perfectly timed line.

Summary

Jack Worthing uses the name Ernest in London, where he courts Gwendolen Fairfax. In the country, he is Jack, guardian to Cecily Cardew. His friend Algernon learns about this double life and copies it. He visits Cecily while posing as Jack's wild brother, Ernest. Cecily has already decided she loves this imaginary man.

Both women insist they can marry only a man named Ernest. Jack and Algernon plan to be christened Ernest, but Lady Bracknell blocks Jack's match because he was found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station. The two men also clash over Cecily, while the women quickly compare notes and discover that each has been deceived.

The handbag solves the puzzle. Miss Prism admits that years earlier she left a baby in it at the station. Lady Bracknell recognizes him as the child of her late sister. Jack is Algernon's older brother, and records show that his real name is Ernest John. With his family and name settled, Lady Bracknell accepts the matches. Jack finally understands the title's joke.

Notable Quotables

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.”

Get a Copy

Physical Digital