Study Guide for Court Theatre's 2004 Production of
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
(A Trivial Comedy for Serious People)
By Oscar Wilde

Contents

1. Synopsis
2. Biography of Oscar Wilde
3. Historical Glossary (aestheticism, decadence, industrial revolution, victorian era)
4. Etiquette
5. Lady Bracknell's Interview
6. Oscar Wilde's Aphorisms
7. Pre-show questions
8. Post-show questions

"Give me back my cigarette case." Allan Aynesworth as Algernon and George Alexander as Jack in a studio photograph of the first production of Earnest, 1895. Photograph by Alfred Ellis.

ACT II
Returning to the country home where he lives with his ward Cecily Cardew and her governess Miss Prism, Jack finds that Algernon has also arrived under the identity of the nonexistent brother Ernest. Algernon falls madly in love with the beautiful Cecily, who has long been enamored of the mysterious, wicked brother Ernest. The only impediment now existing is the fact that neither of the men have the names which are required by their "fianceés" and therefore must plan a christening with the help of Dr. Chasuble to rename themselves to match the aspirations of their true loves.

ACT III
With the arrival of Lady Bracknell, chaos erupts. Gwendolen and Cecily discover their lovers' true identities, Miss Prism finds she is the absent-minded nurse who twenty years ago misplaced the baby of Lady Bracknell's sister in Victoria Station, and Lady Bracknell is in fact Jack's Aunt. Thus Jack, whose name is indeed Ernest, discovers he is Algernon's elder brother after all, and so the play ends.

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In Dublin, Ireland on October 16, 1854, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born to Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon father, Sir William Wilde, and a prominent poet, translator, and outspoken writer for the Young Ireland movement of the 1840s, his mother, Lady Jane "Speranza" Wilde. Even from a young age, Wilde's inclination for spectacle was more than prevelant, having applauded at a nursery room fire and then crying when the nurse extinguished the flame. He attended Magdalene College, in Oxford, and it was there that he became one of the nineteenth century's most expressive proponents of the aesthetic and decadent movements, adopting the credo of "art for art's sake". His career and social personality soon became well known all over Europe and America, where in 1881 he embarked on an east coast-west coast tour lecturing on his impressions of America and reading some of his works. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd, with whom he had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. His literary career began to take off, and from the first performance of Lady Windemere's Fan in 1892, which brought him the attention he would lavish himself in, to the openings of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, both in 1895, secured him as the darling of London society. However, this height of fame and popularity was brief when, fourteen days after the opening and critical success of Earnest, he received a letter from the Marquess of Queensbury (the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas) accusing of being a "posing Somdomite [sic]". Lord Alfred convinced Wilde to sue Queensbury for libel, a suit that was eventually lost, and in May of 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor, the hardest two years of his life which he would record in his memoir The Ballad of Reading Gaol. After a few years of self exile he died on November 30, 1900, in a hotel in Paris.

Oscar Wilde

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Aesthetic Victorians

The Victorian Era of the late 1890s was the height of the Aesthetic movement in art, characterised by the attitude of making "art for art's sake". It was also the time in which Oscar Wilde could enjoy his most flourishing artistic and personal expressions. The combination of the frivolity of beauty with the heightened sense of morality and etiquette that was required of any upstanding citizen, was one that clearly gave birth to Wilde's art especially prevalent in his last two plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Original production playbill

Victorian Era

The Victorian Era of Britain is considered the height of the industrial revolution in Britain and the apex of the British Empire. It is often defined as the years from 1837 to 1901 when Victoria of the United Kingdom reigned.

The Victorian period is now often regarded as one of many contradictions. It is easy for many to see a clash between the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and restraint, and the widespread presence of many arguably deplorable phenomena. These include prostitution, child labour, and having an economy based largely on what many would now see as the exploitation of colonies through imperialism, and of the working classes. The expression "Victorian values" thus may be two-edged.

The term Victorian has acquired a range of connotations, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards, often applied hypocritically.

Comparing the Victorian age to our own, some have observed that whilst the Victorians pretended to be much better than they were, we pretend to be a lot worse than we are. Others disagree.

Aestheticism

The Aesthetic movement is a loosely defined movement in art and literature in later nineteenth century Britain. Generally speaking, it represents the same tendencies that Symbolism or Decadence stood for in France, and may be considered the English branch of the same movement. It belongs to the anti-Victorian reaction and had post-Romantic roots. It took place in the late Victorian period from around 1868 to 1901, and is generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.

The English decadent writers were deeply influenced by Walter Pater and his essays published in 1867-1868, in which he stated that life had to be lived intensely, following an ideal of beauty. Decadent writers used the slogan, coined by the philosopher Victor Cousin and promoted by Théophile Gautier in France, "Art for Art's Sake" (L'art pour l'art) and asserted that there was no connection between art and morality.

The artists and writers of the Aesthetic Movement tended to hold that the Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages. As a consequence they did not accept John Ruskin and Matthew Arnold's utilitarian conception of art as something moral or useful. Instead they believed that Art does not have any didactic purpose, it need only be beautiful. The Aesthetes developed the cult of beauty which they considered the basic factor in art. Life should copy Art, they asserted. The main characteristics of the movement were: suggestion rather than statement, sensuality, massive use of symbols,and synaesthetic effects - that is, correspondence between words, colors, and music.

Aestheticism had its forerunners in John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, and among the Pre-Raphaelites. In Britain the best representatives were Oscar Wilde and Algernon Charles Swinburne, both influenced by the French Symbolists. Artists associated with the Aesthetic Movement include James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Writers include Oscar Wilde. The movement had an influence on interior design. 'Aesthetic' interiors were characterised by the use of such things as peacock feathers and blue-and-white china. This aspect of the movement was satirised in Punch magazine, and in Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta "Patience".

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The Victorian era was one of grace and elegance. Every woman was a lady, and every man a gentleman. Young children were educated in not only the academic studies, but also in the social rules and expectations. From day one they were groomed for a world of top hats and feathered fans, where a gentleman would always hold the door and a lady would never be seen picking up her own gloves. No matter how "out-dated" some of their rules may seem today, the laws of etiquette are there for the benefit of everyone. Nothing puts people off faster than ill-mannered behavior. And in an era of appearances and surfaces, at least presenting yourself as a well-mannered person was critical in achieving society's goal of a proper, well-made life.

Some rules to ponder:
Social Basics For the Young Lady:

• Upon being introduced to a gentleman, a lady will never offer her hand. She should bow politely and say "I am happy to make your acquaintance" or words to that effect.
• When bowing on the street, it is appropriate to incline the head gracefully, but not the body.
• When travelling by train, tramcar or omnibus, the well-bred lady had a delicate sense of self-respect that keeps her from contact with her neighbor, as far as such contact is avoidable.
• A lady never looks back after anyone in the street, or turns to stare at them in the theatre, concert hall, church or opera.
• A lady never, ever smokes.
• In crossing the street, a lady raises her dress a little above the ankle, holding together the folds of her gown and drawing them toward the right. Raising the dress with both hands exposes too much ankle, and is most vulgar.
• A lady (or gentleman for that matter) will always rise to their feet in respect for an older person, or one of a higher social standing.
• Above all, the lady strives to be dignified and elegant in everything she does.

• A gentleman will always tip his hat to greet a lady.
• When walking in the street, the gentleman always walks on the outside to protect his lady from the dangers of the road.
• If a gentleman is smoking and a lady passes by, he should remove the cigar from his mouth.
• A true gentleman should always rise when a lady enters or leaves the room, and remove his hat upon entering a room where ladies are present. He should also precede a lady in ascending the stairs, and follow her in descending them.
• A gentleman always stands to shake hands.
• During the daytime, a gentleman never offers a lady his arm unless to protect her in a large crowd. In the evening, it is appropriate for her to take his arm.
• A gentleman should never place his arm on the back of a chair occupied by a lady.

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One of the best examples of how important it is not only to have the etiquette of a well-bred gentleman courting a well-bred lady. Wilde uses this scene to point out the hypocrisy and the stakes at which a family would go to maintain propriety. Here are some definitions of the topics of Lady Bracknell's interview of Jack in Act I.

Smoking: "Do you smoke?" Unlike today's society where smoking is considered a bad habit, in Victorian society, smoking for a gentleman was considered a hobby. He would perfect a unique way to hold his cigarette and would even go so far as to procure the best tobacco in his own specific blend. It truly is a hobby that only well-bred gentleman should have, in Lady Bracknell's view.

Education: "The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound." The "modern" educational theory Lady Bracknell alludes to is that of compulsory education, compare it to our public education system, where children were required to attend some form of schooling. She believes that well-educated people could therefore think for themselves, and if people thought for themselves they would be able to see just what kind of society they were living in and would resort to "acts of violence", similar to that of the French Revolution.

Politics: "What are your politics?" Lady Bracknell only associates with "Tories" or the early conservative party in England. When Jack calls himself a Liberal Unionist, Lady Bracknell is disregarding the "Liberal" membership and including him in the Unionist party, one that had broken with the Liberal party and joined the conservative one in 1895, the year Oscar Wilde wrote the play.

Parents: "Acquire some relations as soon as possible..." Not having a lineage, regardless of the person you are living your life as, is the gravest offense to Lady Bracknell. Jack Worthing does not belong to any class by birth. Not belonging to a class could be compared to being nothing, as far as upper-class society was concerned. By the end of the play, we realize that he has been a member of upper-class society all his life, and it is pure coincidence that he acquires it in the nick-of-time.

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Wilde's wit is no more evident than in his aphorisms, many of which are in The Importance of Being Earnest. Here is a collection of some of his greatest.

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young
The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has yet discovered.
Pleasure is the only thing one should live for. Nothing ages like happiness.
One should always be a little improbable.
The only way to atone for being occasionally a little overdessed is by being always absolutely over-educated.
Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated
Dandyism is the assertion of the absolute modernity of Beauty.
One should never listen. To listen is a sign of indifference to one's hearers.
Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.
The English are always degrading truths into facts. When a truth becomes a fact it loses all its intellectual value.
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

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• Oscar Wilde subtitled this play "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." What is trivial about this comedy? What makes the characters serious? What is serious about the audience of the time, in 1895?
• What are the characters movements like, and how do they reflect how they function in the world of the play?
• What does the set remind you of? How does it make you feel?
• What do the costumes do to the actors? Most of the female actors are wearing corsets, a required undergarment in Victorian society. How would this restrict their movements, as well as making their costumes visually evocative?
• What humor do you find in the play? Is it in the characters behavior? Is it in the lines they speak? Both?
• What are some social rules in today's society?

A Corset

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• What is the message of the play? The last line of the play is "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest." Who says this line, why do they say it, and what is the joke in the word 'earnest'?
• How are the relationships resolved? John Worthing and Gwendolen Fairfax? Algernon Moncrieff and Cecily Cardew? Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism? Lady Bracknell and John Worthing?
• What are some surprises in Act III? What are some secrets that are revealed about everyone's histories?
• What might Oscar Wilde have been trying to say to the audience of his time period, considering the pressure of the social rules "good" people were required to follow? How would that message apply people living in today's time?

Oscar Wilde

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