…………………………………………………

The Importance of Being Earnest Book Review

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde first performed in 1895. It’s one of the author’s best and wittiest works.

………………………………………………….

“I never travel without my diary.

One should always have something

sensational to read in the train“

…………………………………………………..

It is a farcical comedy depicting the tangled affairs of two young men about town who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest while wooing the two young women of their affections. This play was the last of the four drawing-room plays (plays that happen in living rooms for the most part) that Wilde wrote and it’s one of his final successful works before his trial and eventual demise. It was popular back then and is still renowned. It can be enjoyed today because its humor hasn’t aged a day.

This was an obviously personal tale for Wilde, a man who was very much ahead of his time. It’s fascinating reading his works and realizing not just that he recognized Victorian era’s hypocrisies and social pressures, but he was actively despising them and fighting against them in his own subtle and artistic way. Marriage is one of the biggest themes of this play and Wilde posits that for the people of this period, especially the upper classes, marriage was very much a business instead of love union. Finances play a crucial role in these unions and he made fun of that concept so effectively here.

The play is also about the complexities of morality and how often the most seemingly immoral people are actually the most moral ones as society is very hypocritical in their views on what constitutes as moral and just. Hypocrisy is a huge theme here and it is best shown through the character of Jack, who is the epitome of a hypocrite. Wilde showed that the Victorians were obsessed with trivial things, such as food and drinks and small pleasantries, instead of more important stuff, which made all of their behavior and conventions beyond hypocritical and pompous. You can read a bit of homosexual subtext from this story, but for the most part those theories I find to be a bit strained.

…………………………………………………..

The play also benefits from a set of very colorful personalities. I did find the two young women to be the weakest of the bunch. Gwendolen and Cecily share what is by far the funniest scene in the entire play, which is the one where one insults the other just by putting sugar in her tea, which perfectly demonstrates that triviality of the era’s behavior and occupations. But overall they left a lot to be desired in terms of strong characterization. Both present different kinds of women of the time, but they should have been better developed and more interesting individually.

Algernon and Jack, on the other hand, are instantly memorable. Jack is the biggest hypocrite of the story and through him Wilde showed the pompousness and fakeness of his contemporaries. As for Algernon, he ended up being the most likable character of the bunch due to his very colorful way of speaking, an irreverent nature to his personality and phenomenal humor. He is the dandy of the story, effectively representing the author himself.

And there is also of course Lady Bracknell, who pretty much stole the show whenever she was there. This is the quintessential Victorian woman, a person who would stop at nothing to judge others and pursue wealth for herself and her family. Through her, Wilde shows how these women were only after money and looking for themselves under the guise of the greater good. So many of her lines were utterly hilarious.

…………………………………………………..

And that brings me to the humor. The Importance of Being Earnest is such a funny read. It is witty and humorous even today, which is a testament to the power of Wilde’s dialogue and just how ahead of his time he truly was. The tone is consistently comedic and irreverent, which lent the story a lot of energy and playfulness. The three-act structure worked, though I did find the twist in the final act rather typical of the era and overly melodramatic and soapy. The first half of the story appealed to me much more as this is where Wilde fired on all cylinders. This is a satire while also being very much a farce and even a parody in a way. While the ending did feel a bit too convenient and rushed, the rest of the play was beautifully paced, consistently amusing and simply a joy to read.