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Click the above images to get Video explanation for the Play, Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
B.A English Literature
[2nd Year, 3rd Semester]
British Literature
UNIT 3: Drama
3.1. Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde
About Author:
Oscar Wilde, in full Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, (born in Dublin in 1854 and died in 1900 in Paris) was Irish wit, poet, and dramatist. Wilde published his fairy tales in two volumes, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891).
Some of his major works are The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel) (1891), The Ballad of Reading Gaol (poem) (1896), Intentions (critical essays) (1891), his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892).
Wilde wrote his last play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), in three weeks during a family holiday at a seaside resort. Subtitled as “A Trivial Play for Serious People.”
He was imprisoned from 1895–97 because of involving homosexuality. His long soul-searching letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, written in 1897.
About Play:
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London. Wilde was satirizing and puncturing the hypocrisy and artificiality of Victorian society.
The scenes in the play:
ACT I : Algernon Moncrieff’s Flat in Half–Moon Street,
London.
ACT II : The Garden at the Manor House, Woolton,
Hertfordshire, England.
ACT III : Drawing–Room at the Manor House, Woolton,
Hertfordshire, England.
Major Characters:
John (Jack) Worthing:
The central figure of the play, he loves Gwendolen and
wishes to marry her but cannot secure the approval of her mother, Lady
Bracknell. When he is in the city, he goes by the name of Ernest; when he is in
the country, he goes by the name of Jack, which he believes is his real name.
Jack does not know his personal history; he was discovered as a baby in a
handbag in Victoria Station. He is the legal guardian of Cecily Cardew, who lives
in the country and knows him only as Uncle Jack.
Algernon Moncrieff:
He lives in the city and is a good friend of Jack’s - though at the beginning of the play he thinks that Jack’s name is Ernest. Algernon lives in an expensive flat in a prestigious part of London. Algernon invented an invalid friend named "Bunbury" because it was his way of coping and escaping with his social obligations in reality. He is the nephew of Lady Bracknell. When he learns about Jack’s attractive “niece” Cecily in the country, Algernon goes out to visit her. He falls in love and proposes to Jack's ward, Cecily, while posing as Jack's wicked younger brother, Ernest.
Lady Bracknell:
The perfect symbol of Victorian earnestness — the belief
that style is more important than substance and that social and class barriers
are to be enforced. Lady Bracknell is Algernon's aunt trying to find a suitable
wife for him. A strongly opinionated matriarch, dowager, and tyrant, she
believes wealth is more important than breeding and bullies everyone in her
path. Ironically, she married into the upper class from beneath it. She
attempts to bully her daughter, Gwendolen.
Miss Gwendolen Fairfax:
Lady Bracknell's daughter, exhibiting some of the
sophistication and confidence of a London socialite, believes style to be
important, not sincerity. She is submissive to her mother in public but rebels
in private. While demonstrating the absurdity of such ideals as only marrying a
man named Ernest, she also agrees to marry Jack despite her mother's
disapproval of his origins.
Cecily Cardew:
Jack Worthing's ward, daughter of his adopted father, Sir
Thomas Cardew. She is of debutante age, 18, but she is being tutored at Jack's
secluded country estate by Miss Prism, her governess. She is romantic and
imaginative, and feeling the repression of Prism's rules. A silly and naïve
girl, she declares that she wants to meet a "wicked man." Less
sophisticated than Gwendolen, she falls in love with Algernon but feels he
would be more stable if named Ernest.
Minor Characters
Miss Prism:
She serves an important role in the play but it is not
apparent. She is a novelist. When Jack was a child, she replaces him with the
manuscript of her novel. Dr. Chasuble loves her. Oscar Wilde has introduced
Miss Cicely Cardew through Miss Prism. Thus, she helps in the discovery of
Jack’s true parentage at the end of the play.
Reverend Canon Chasuble, D.D.:
The rector on Jack’s estate. Both Jack and Algernon approach
Dr. Chasuble to request that they be christened “Ernest.” Dr. Chasuble
entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism. The initials after his name
stand for “Doctor of Divinity.” Oscar Wilde has chosen this character because he
also wants to satirize the religious class along with society.
Lane:
He is Algernon’s manservant. He appears at the start of the
play when Jack and Algernon wait for Lady Bracknell and her daughter. Lane is
the only person who knows about Algernon’s practice of “Bunburying.”
Merriman:
He is a butler at the Mansor House, Jack’s estate in the
country.
Summary:
ACT I :
Algernon Moncrieff’s Flat in
Half–Moon Street, London:
The play begins in the flat of
Algernon Moncrieff, an upperclass English bachelor. He is visited by his friend
Jack Worthing -- though Algernon and everyone else in London know Jack as
"Ernest." Jack says that he has come to town to propose to Gwendolen
Fairfax, the daughter of Lady Bracknell and first cousin of Algernon. Algernon
tells Jack that, as first cousin, he refuses to give his consent for Jack to
marry Gwendolen until Jack can explain why the name Cecily is inscribed in
Jack's cigarette case. The case is engraved with an inscription: “From little
Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.”
After making up a story about
an elderly aunt, Jack finally admits to Algernon that Cecily is his ward who
lives in the country. Jack also admits that his name is not Ernest but rather
Jack, which is what everyone at his country Manor House calls him. Algernon
jokingly accuses Jack of "Bunburying," his own fanciful term for
removing himself from an unpleasant situation in the city, and embarking on a much
more pleasurable occupation in the country. Algernon then determines to meet
Jack’s attractive young ward by posing as Jack’s fictitious brother, Ernest.
Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell arrive at Algernon's flat for tea. Algernon tells Lady Bracknell that, due to the illness of his friend Bunbury, he must leave London, and as a result will not be able to attend her dinner that night. He distracts her in a different room for a while so that Jack can propose to Gwendolen. Jack tells Gwendolen that he loves her, and she replies that she loves him too, particularly because he is named Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence.“
Jack, knowing that his name is
not really Ernest, gets worried, and privately resolves to get baptized and
change his name. Gwendolen, meanwhile, accepts his proposal just as Lady
Bracknell returns; Lady Bracknell announces that Gwendolen may not marry Jack
until she gives her approval.
Algernon and Gwendolen exit while Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack to determine how suitable a husband he is. She is pleased with his answers until she asks him about his parents. When Jack admits that he was abandoned by his parents and found in a handbag by a Mr Thomas Cardew in Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell is horrified.
She refuses to let her daughter marry a man with no knowledge of his own parentage, and suggests to Jack that he "acquire some relations as soon as possible." Gwendolen returns, having heard of Lady Bracknell's disapproval, and agrees to meet Jack at his country estate to figure out what to do. He gives her the address, which is overheard and copied down by Algernon.
Act II:
The Garden at the Manor House,
Woolton, Hertfordshire:
At Jack's country estate, Cecily, his ward is learning
German and geography at the hands of Miss Prism, a tutor who once wrote a long
novel that mysteriously disappeared. Miss Prism in between teaching Cecily,
likes to flirt with the neighbourhood Rector, Dr Chasuble. While she is taking
a walk with him, Algernon, pretending to be Jack's brother Ernest, arrives to
meet Cecily. The two show an immediate romantic interest in one another, and go
into the house to get some food. As they leave, Prism and Chasuble return from
their work and meet Jack as he arrives back home from the city. He is dressed
in mourning in order to keep up the ruse that his brother, who does not
actually exist, has died. While speaking with Chasuble and Prism, Cecily comes
out of the house and sees Jack, and quickly informs him that his brother has
returned.
Jack is shocked and angered when his "brother" Algernon comes out of the house. After the others exit to allow the two reunited brothers time to resolve their differences, Jack tells Algernon that he must leave the house at once. Algernon replies that he will leave only if Jack changes out of his morbid mourning clothes. As Jack exits to do so, Cecily returns. Algernon proposes to her, and she agrees, although she tells him that she particularly loves him because he is named Ernest, a name that "seems to inspire absolute confidence.“ Cecily, in fact, has been pretending in her journal to be engaged to "Ernest" ever since she first found out that her guardian had a brother. Algernon grows secretly worried about the fact that he is not named Ernest; he resolves to get rechristened.
After Algernon exits, Gwendolen
arrives to see Jack, but in the meantime she chats with Cecily, whom she has
never met before. Gwendolen is surprised to hear that "Ernest" has a
ward but has never told her about it. Cecily is confused when Gwendolen says
that she is engaged to Ernest, and things become heated as, in the confusion,
they believe they may be engaged to the same man. Both try to refute the
engagement claims of the other, and when that fails, they sit in silent
hostility until Algernon and Jack re-enter. The two men confess that they lied
about their names and that neither of them is named Ernest. The two women are
shocked, and because both are engaged to someone named Ernest, they retreat
together into the house to await the appearance of this brother named Ernest.
Meanwhile, Jack begins to panic while Algernon sits back and stuffs himself
full of muffins.
Act III :
Drawing–Room at the Manor
House, Woolton, Hertfordshire:
Algernon and
Jack enter shortly after the act begins. Algernon tells Cecily that he lied to
her about having a brother so that he could spend more time in the city with
her. The women are satisfied, although they still cannot accept marrying the
men because neither one is named Ernest. When the men reply that they are
scheduled to be christened that afternoon, all seems well, until suddenly Lady
Bracknell arrives. She again refuses to give her consent to the engagement of
Gwendolen and Jack. Algernon tells her that he is engaged to Cecily, and when
Lady Bracknell learns that Cecily is extremely wealthy thanks to her father's
estate, she gives her consent. However, as Cecily's legal guardian, Jack will
not give his consent to the marriage unless Lady Bracknell approves of his
engagement to Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell again refuses and prepares to leave
with Gwendolen.
Dr. Chasuble enters and learns
that a christening will no longer be necessary, so he resolves to return to
Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell, suddenly realizing that she once employed a Miss
Prism to take care of her sister's baby, asks to see Miss Prism, who readily
appears. Lady Bracknell demands to know what happened to the baby, which we
soon find out disappeared twenty-eight years previously when Miss Prism was
supposed to be taking it for a stroll in the perambulator. Miss Prism confesses
that she accidentally put her three-volume novel in the perambulator and the
baby in her handbag, which she mistakenly left in the cloakroom at Victoria
Station. Jack, suddenly realizing that he was that baby, fetches the handbag in
which he was found, which Miss Prism confirms as being hers.
In the end, he gets together with Gwendolen, Algernon gets together with Cecily, and although Lady Bracknell accuses Jack of triviality, he retorts that he has only just discovered "the vital Importance of Being Earnest."
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