The Importance of Being Earnest

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

The Importance of Being Earnest 

A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Today

- Assignment in groups

- Themes + Quotes

- Quiz

 “[The Importance of Being Earnest] is exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy…That we should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”

 

— Oscar Wilde, from a January 1895 interview with Robbie Ross, published in the St. James Gazette

What did you think about it?

In groups of 4

- Finish the assignment 

- Use google! 

- Sparknotes.com

- We will discuss this in half an hour. 

Questions

- Perspective

- Chronological? 

- Place?

- Time?

Victorian Society

Etiquette

- Oscar Wilde uses satire to mock and ridicule the Victorian society. 

What do you know about this kind of society

Characters

03:35

Jack Worthing

04:20

Algernon Monchrieff

05:01

Gwendolyn Fairfax

05:26

Cecily Cardew

06:02

Lady Bracknell

What is this play's genre?

Themes

Earnestness / (dis)honesty / hypocrisy

 

Being true to one’s self vs being socially desirable

Gap between seriousness and triviality

The nature of Marriage: Business or pleasure?

Earnestness

Seriousness or sincerity is the great enemy of morality in this book. One of the play’s paradoxes is the impossibility of actually being either earnest or moral while claiming to be so. The characters who embrace triviality and wickedness are the ones who may have the greatest chance of attaining seriousness and virtue.

'A war of manners'

Theme: 'Being true to one’s self vs being socially desirable'  

How does the theme 'being true to one-self vs. being socially desirable' comes to a climax in this bit?

Gap between seriousness and triviality

When characters in the play use the word serious, they tend to mean “trivial,” and vice versa. For example, Algernon thinks it “shallow” for people not to be “serious” about meals, and Gwendolen believes, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.”

“It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.”

Hypocrisy 

“I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.”

The nature of Marriage: Business or pleasure?

Read the following quotes, do they refer to marriage as Business or Pleasure?

JACK: I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her. 

ALGERNON: I thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call that business. 

JACK: How utterly unromantic you are! 

ALGERNON: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted.

According to Algernon, is marriage business or pleasure?

Business

Pleasure

Lady Bracknell: To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

According to Lady Bracknell, is marriage business or pleasure?

business

pleasure

Chasuble: Your brother was, I believe, unmarried, was he not?

Jack: Oh yes.

Miss Prism: [Bitterly] People who live entirely for pleasure usually are.

How does miss Prism feel about marriage?

Other themes?

What does the title suggest the play is about?

Earnest

But it also gives us a clue about why it is important to 'be' Earnest.

The first reason becomes clear at the start of the play. 

The second reason becomes clear at the end of the play.

What are the two reasons for the importance of being Ernest?

Bunburying

What leads Algernon to think Jack is leading a double life?

1. A letter
2. A diary
3. An inscription
4. A handkerchief

What is Lady Bracknell’s objection to Jack as a prospective suitor to Gwendolen?

1. his politics
2. his origin
3. his smoking
4. his lack of occupation

What is the name of Algernon’s imaginary friend?

1. Bunbury
2. Harbury
3. Markby
4. Bunberry

In which two locales does the protagonist lead his dual lives as Jack and Ernest Worthing?

1. Coventry and London
2. West Orange and New York
3. Hertfordshire and London
4. st. Andrews and Edinburgh

Now you! 

Finish up your exercises and summary of the Importance of Being Earnest.

+ Prepare your first essay (Step 1 + Step 2 p. 22 of writing reader)

Nowadays, there are still etiqette rules. What are some rules you (still) find important?