The Importance of Being Earnest?qsrc=3044

The Importance of Being Earnest
The original production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 with Allan Aynesworth as Algernon (left) and George Alexander as Jack (right)
Written by	Oscar Wilde
Date premiered	1895
Place premiered	St James's Theatre, London, England, UK
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy, farce
Setting	London and an estate in Hertfordshire

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on the 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, the play is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious persons in order to escape burdensome obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats social institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Contemporary reviews all praised the play's humour, though some were cautious about its explicit lack of social messages, while others foresaw the modern consensus that it was the culmination of Wilde's artistic career so far. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.

The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his downfall: The Marquess of Queensberry attempted to enter the theatre, intending to present Wilde a bouquet of spoiling vegetables at the end of the show. Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission. Soon after Wilde sued Queensberry triggering a series of trials ending in Wilde's imprisonment. Wilde's notoriety caused the play, despite its success, to be closed after only 86 performances. He never wrote another.

Composition

Oscar Wilde in 1889

After the success of Wilde's plays Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance, Wilde was urged to write further plays. In July 1894 he mooted his idea for The Importance of Being Earnest to Sir George Alexander, the actor-manager of St. James's Theatre. Wilde summered with his family at Worthing, where he wrote the play quickly in August.^[1] Wilde borrowed many names and ideas in the play from people or places he had known: Lady Queensberry, Lord Alfred Douglas' mother, for example, lived at Bracknell. ^{[Notes 1][2]} Michael Feingold claims that Wilde drew inspiration for his plot from W. S. Gilbert's Engaged.^[3] Meticulous revisions continued throughout the Autumn—such that no line was left untouched, "in a play so economical with its language and effects, they had serious consequences".^[4] Richard Ellmann argues that Wilde had reached his artistic maturity and wrote this work more surely and rapidly than before.^[5]

Wilde hesitated about submitting the script to Alexander, worrying that it was unsuitable for the more serious repertoire at St. James's and explaining that it was written in response to a request for a play "with no real serious interest".^[6] When Henry James's Guy Domville failed, Alexander agreed to put on the play.^[4] Alexander began his usual meticulous preparations, interrogating the author on each line and planning stage movements with a toy theatre. In the course of these rehearsals Alexander asked Wilde to shorten the play from four acts to three. Wilde agreed and combined elements of the second and third acts.^[7] The largest cut was the character Mr. Gribsby, a solicitor who turns up from London to arrest the profligate "Ernest" (i.e. Jack) for his unpaid dining bills. Algernon—who is going by the name "Ernest" at this point—is about to be led away to Holloway Jail unless he settles his accounts immediately. Jack finally agrees to pay for Ernest, everyone thinking that it is Algy's bill when in fact it is his own. The four-act version was first played on the radio in a BBC production and is still sometimes performed. Oliver Parker's 2002 film adaption includes both Mr. Gribsby and the crush of creditors chasing Algy in the opening scene.

Plot synopsis

Set in "The Present" (1895) in London, the play opens with Algernon Moncrieff, an idle young gentleman, receiving a visit from his best friend, whom he knows as Ernest Worthing. Ernest arrives from the country intent on proposing to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen. Algernon refuses consent until Ernest explains why the cigarette case he left in Algernon's flat bears the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack." "Ernest" is thus forced to disclose that he is leading a double life: in the country, he goes by the name of John (or Jack), pretending that he has a wastrel brother named Ernest living in London who frequently requires his attention; he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of his ward, Cecily, but in the city he assumes the name and behaviour of the libertine Ernest. Algernon reveals that he engages in a similar deception: he pretends to have an invalid friend named Bunbury in the country.

Lady Bracknell arrives with Gwendolen, her daughter, and invites Algernon to dine with them, but he claims Bunbury is ill requires his immediate attention. As he distracts Lady Bracknell in another room, Jack proposes to Gwendolen, who accepts, but seems to love him only for his professed name of Ernest; Jack decides to be rechristened as Ernest. Lady Bracknell discovers them and interrogates Jack as a suitor. Horrified to learn that he was adopted as a baby, she refuses him and forbids her daughter from seeing him. Gwendolen, however, sneaks back to the house to tell Jack that she will always love him, and asks his address in the country. When Jack gives it to her, Algernon also notes it on the cuff of his sleeve; Jack's description of his pretty young ward has so appealed to him that he is resolved to meet her. Algernon arrives, announcing himself as Mr. Ernest Worthing and easily charms Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, though, loves him as Mr. Ernest Worthing, so Algernon asks Dr. Chasuble to christen him as Ernest. Jack, meanwhile, has decided to put his false life as Ernest behind him. He arrives home in full mourning and announces Ernest's death in Paris of a "severe chill". Though Algernon's presence (pretending to be Ernest) contradicts his claim.

A scene from Act III during a production by Calabasas High School theatre.

Gwendolen arrives and meets Cecily in the temporary absence of the two men, each indignantly declares that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". When Jack and Algernon reappear, their deceptions are exposed. They explain themselves and each announces his intention to be christened Ernest, and the women agree not cancel the engagements. Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of her daughter and is surprised to learn that Algernon and Cecily are engaged. The size of Cecily's trust fund dispells her initial doubts over Cecily's suitability as a wife for her nephew. However, stalemate develops when Jack refuses his consent to the marriage of his ward to Algernon until Lady Bracknell consents to his own marriage to Gwendolen.

The impasse is broken by the appearance of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell recognises Miss Prism, who twenty-eight years earlier had been a family nursemaid. One day she left Lord Bracknell's house with a baby boy in a perambulator and never returned. Miss Prism explains that in a moment of "mental abstraction" she had put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the perambulator, and put the baby in a handbag, which she had left at Victoria Station. Jack produces the very same handbag, showing that he is the lost baby, the elder son of Lady Bracknell's late sister, and thus Algernon's older brother.

All that now stands in the way of Jack and Gwendolen's happiness, it seems, is the question of his first name. Lady Bracknell informs Jack that, as the firstborn son, he must have been named after his father, General Moncrieff; Jack examines Army Lists and discovers that his father's name—and thus his own—was in fact Ernest all along. As the happy couples embrace - Ernest and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily, and Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism - Lady Bracknell complains to her new-found relative: "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality." "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta", he replies,

"I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest".

Productions

Premiere

The play was first produced in St. James's Theatre, London, on St. Valentine's Day 1895.^[8] It was freezing cold but Wilde arrived dressed in "florid sobriety", wearing a green carnation.^[9] Allan Aynesworth, who played Mr Algernon Moncrieff, recalled to Hesketh Pearson that ""In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than [that] first night."^[10] Aynesworth was himself "debonair and stylish", and Alexander, who played Mr. Jack Worthing "demure".^[11]

The Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Wilde's intimate friend Lord Alfred Douglas (who was on holiday in Algiers at the time), had planned to disrupt the play by throwing a bouquet of spoiling vegetables at the playwright when he took his bow at the end of the show. Wilde and Alexander learned of the plan, and the latter cancelled Queensberry's ticket and arranged for policemen to bar his entrance. Nevertheless, soon afterwards the feud came to an end in court, and Wilde's ensuing notoriety caused the play, despite its success, to be closed after only 86 performances.^[12]

Revivals

Until after Wilde's death his name remained disgraced and few dared to discuss, let alone perform, his work. A collected edition of Wilde's works in 1908, edited by Robert Ross, helped to restore his reputation. In 1912 The Importance of Being Earnest was first revived, its respectability assured in 1946 when a charity performance was attended by King George VI.^[13]

John Gielgud was possibly the most famous Jack Worthing of the twentieth century, he directed, produced and acted in the Broadway production who's cast won a special Tony Award for "Outstanding Foreign Company".^[14] The play has been previously performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival five times beginning in 1975 with William Hutt playing "Lady Bracknell" in both the 1975 and 1976 productions. The 2009 production was directed by Brian Bedford.^[15] In 2005, the Abbey Theatre produced the play with an all male cast, it also featured Wilde as a character - the play opens with him drinking in a Parisian café, dreaming of his play.^[16][17]

Lady Bracknell's line, "A handbag?", has been called one of the most malleable in English drama lending itself to interpretations ranging from incredulous, scandalised or baffled. Dame Edith Evans, both on stage and in the 1952 film, delivered the line loudly in a mixture of horror, incredulity and condescension.^[18] Stockard Channing, in the Gaiety Theatre in 2010, hushed the line "with a barely audible “A handbag?”, rapidly swallowed up with a sharp intake of breath. An understated take, to be sure, but with such a well-known play, packed full of witticisms and aphorisms with a life of their own, it’s the little things that make a difference."^[19]

Critical reception

While much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues, The Importance of..is superficially about nothing at all. Contemporary reviewers were wary of the "meta-message" and unsure of Wilde as a serious dramatist but recognised its cleverness, humour and popularity with audiences.^[20] George Bernard Shaw reviewed the play in The Saturday Review, where he stated his belief that comedy should touch as well as amuse, "I go to the theatre to be moved to laughter".^[21] Later in a letter he said, the play, though "extremely funny" was "his first really heartless [one]".^[22] William Archer in The World, while agreeing that the play was enjoyable to watch, also picked up on the play's "emptiness", "What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?"^[23]

In The Speaker, A.B. Walkey admired the play and was one of few see it as the culmination of Wilde's dramatical career. he denied the term "farce" was derogatory, or even lacked in seriousness and said "It is of nonsense all compact, and better nonsense, I think, our stage has not seen".^[24] H.G. Wells, in an unsigned review for the Pall Mall Gazette, agreed, calling Earnest one of freshest comedies of the year, and saying "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine."^[25] He also questioned whether people would fully see its message, "..how Serious People will take this Trivial Comedy intended for their learning remains to be seen. No doubt seriously."^[26] The play was so light-hearted that many reviewers compared it to comic opera than drama. W.H.Auden called it "a pure verbal opera", while The Times wrote that "The story is almost too preposterous to go without music".^[11]

Of the theatre of the period, only the work of Wilde and his fellow Irishman Shaw has survived, as well as the farce Charley's Aunt. The Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde's most popular work and continually revived today.^[6]

Themes

Triviality

Richard Ellmann says that The Importance of Being Earnest touched on many themes Wilde had been building since the 1880s -- the languor of aesthetic poses was well-established and Wilde takes it as a starting point for the two protagonists.^[27] While Salomé, An Ideal Husband and The Picture of Dorian Gray had dwelt on more serious wrongdoing, vice in Earnest is represented by Algy's craving for cucumber sandwiches. Wilde told Robert Ross that the play's theme was "That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality."^[27] While blackmail and corruption haunted the double lives of Dorian Gray and Sir Robert Cheverly (in An Ideal Husband); in Earnest the protaganists' duplicity ("bunburying") is merely to avoid unwelcome social obligations.^[27] While much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues, The Importance of..is superficially about nothing at all. It "refuses to play the game" of other dramatists of the period, for instance George Bernard Shaw, who used their characters to draw audiences to grander ideals.^[20]

As a satire of society

The play repeatedly mocks Victorian mores and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular.^[28] Wilde embodied society's rules and rituals artfully into Lady Bracknell: minute attention to the details of her style created a comic effect of assertion by restraint.^[29] In contrast to her encyclopedic knowledge of the social distinctions of London's street names, Jack's obscure parentage is subtly evoked. His defends himself against her "A handbag?" by clarifying "The Brighton Line". At the time, Victoria Station consisted of two separate but adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name. To the east was the ramshackle LC&D Railway, on the west the more fashionable LB&SCR—the Brighton Line, which went to Worthing, the fashionable, expensive town the gentleman who found him was going to (and after where he is named).^[30]

Wilde had managed to both engage with and mock the genre. The men follow traditional matrimonial rites, but the foibles they excuse are ridiculous and the farce is built on an absurd confusion of a book and a baby.^[31] Earnest lack the ideal young woman trope from earlier Wilde plays: Gwendolen and Cecily's idealism is limited to marrying a man named Ernest and indignantly declare to have been deceived when they find out the men's real names. When Jack apologises to Gwendolen during his marriage proposal it is for not being wicked:^[32]

JACK:Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that his whole life he has been speaking nothing but the truth?
GWENDOLEN: I can, for I am sure you are to change.

Homosexual subtexts

Some have implied that Wilde's use of the name Ernest might have an ulterior meaning. John Gambril Nicholson in his poem "Of Boy's Names" (Love in Earnest: Sonnets, Ballades, and Lyrics (1892)) contains the lines: "Though Frank may ring like silver bell, And Cecil softer music claim, They cannot work the miracle, –'Tis Ernest sets my heart a-flame." The poem was promoted by John Addington Symonds and Nicholson and Wilde contributed pieces to the same issue of The Chameleon magazine.^[33] Theo Aronson has suggested that the word "earnest" became a code-word for homosexual, as in: "Is he earnest?", in the same way that "Is he so?" and "Is he musical?" were also employed.^[34]

Contrary to claims of homosexual terminology, the actor Sir Donald Sinden, who in the 1940s had met two of the play's original participants (Irene Vanbrugh, the first Gwendolen, and Allan Aynesworth, the first Algy), as well as Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, wrote to The Times to dispute suggestions that 'Earnest' held any sexual connotations: "Although they had ample opportunity, at no time did any of them even hint that Earnest was a synonym for homosexual, or that Bunburying may have implied homosexual sex. The first time I heard it mentioned was in the 1980s and I immediately consulted Sir John Gielgud whose own performance of Jack Worthing in the same play was legendary and whose knowledge of theatrical lore was encyclopaedic. He replied in his ringing tones: "No-No! Nonsense, absolute nonsense: I would have known."^[35] Gielgud was well-known in theatrical circles to be gay. Russell Jackson agrees, noting that "nothing of the overtly Dorian mode is to be found in the finished play or its drafts."^[36]

Publication

First edition

Wilde's two final comedies An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest had been still on stage in London the time of his imprisonment. In Paris in 1898 he corrected and published them, the proofs of which Richard Ellmann argues show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play".^[38] Wilde's reputation was still disgraced in England, and Leonard Smithers agreed to publish the plays when no-one else would. Wilde's name did not appear promimently on the cover, it was "By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan.^[39] Wilde proved to be a diligent reviser, sending detailed instructions on items such as stage directions, character listings, presentation of the book and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside. His return to work was brief though and he refused to write anything else, "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing".^[38]

On 19 October 2007, a rare first edition (number 349 of 1,000) was discovered in a branch of Oxfam in Nantwich, Cheshire, coincidentally inside a handbag; ironically mimicking the discovery of Jack Worthing as an infant. Staff were unable to trace the donor. It was sold for £650.^[40]

In translation

The Importance of Being Earnest's popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages, though the title poses a special problem for translators, since it plays on the fact that "Ernest" and "earnest" are homophones in English. Translators have found various solutions to this problem, and the play is sometimes staged under the title Bunbury.^{[citation needed]}

In some languages, the translator removes the pun from the title; in Norwegian it is rendered as Hvem er Ernest? ("Who is Ernest?") In Spanish-speaking countries, the title is translated as La importancia de llamarse Ernesto (The Importance of being named Ernest).

Several languages — German, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Czech and Slovak — offer equivalent puns. In Germany the play and the 2002 film are called Ernst sein ist alles ("Being Ernst is everything", Ernst being both a first name and the German word for serious). The Italian L'importanza di essere Ernesto, or L'importanza di essere Franco ("The Importance of Being Frank"), similarly preserves punning with a slight twist. In Catalan it is also, as in Italian, "La importància de ser Franc" ("The Importance of Being Frank"). In Dutch it has been translated as Het belang van Ernst, in which the pun is also fully functional.

In French, the play is commonly known as De l'importance d'être Constant, Constant being both a (mildly uncommon) first name and also the quality of steadfastness; the pun is thus preserved but with a slightly different meaning. Jean Anouilh translated the play under an alternative title: Il est important d'être Aimé (Aimé is both a name and the French for "beloved").^[41]

The same approach has been used in Hungarian: the title has been translated as Szilárdnak kell lenni ("One Must Be Steadfast"), Szilárd being also an uncommon first name meaning "steadfast". In Czech, the title is translated as Jak je důležité míti Filipa ("The Importance of Having Phillip"), which is an idiom for being clever, and Filip is a quite common name. Similarly, in Basque it has been titled Fidel izan beharraz ("On the need to be Fidel"), fidel being both the Basque word for "faithful" and a first name. Likewise, in Esperanto, the play is called La Graveco de la Fideliĝo (the importance of becoming faithful/becoming Fidel).

In Polish, however, the title is Brat Marnotrawny ("The Prodigal Brother"), an allusion to the parable of the Prodigal Son (in Polish: Syn Marnotrawny). In Hebrew it is known as Hashivuta shel retsinut ("The Importance of Seriousness").

Adaptations

Film

• The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film) was directed by Anthony Asquith and stars Michael Denison (Algernon), Michael Redgrave (Jack), Dame Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Dorothy Tutin (Cecily), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolen), and Margaret Rutherford (Miss Prism).
• The Importance of Being Earnest (1992 film) was directed by Kurt Baker.
• The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film) stars Colin Firth (Jack), Rupert Everett (Algy), Dame Judi Dench (Lady Bracknell), Reese Witherspoon (Cecily), Frances O'Connor (Gwendolen), Anna Massey (Miss Prism), and Tom Wilkinson (Dr. Chasuble) and was directed by Oliver Parker.^[42]
• The Telugu (a South Indian language) film Ashta Chamma was based on this play.

Opera

• In 1963, Erik Chisholm completed his opera based on the play with Wilde's text as the libretto.
• A musical based on the play called Ernest in Love opened off-Broadway in 1960.^[43] The show was later revived and translated into Japanese in 2005 for the Takarazuka Revue in Japan.
• A play, The Importance of Being Frank (first professional performance: Bristol, 1991) by Tom Holland, relates Oscar Wilde's trial, imprisonment and exile, using quotation and pastiche of this play, with Lord Alfred Douglas as Algernon, Wilde as Ernest, his wife Constance as Gwendolen and the Marquess of Queensberry as Lady Bracknell. (Note: Tom Holland is not related to Wilde's descendants.)

Radio

• On 13 February 1995 to commemorate the centenary of the first performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation directed by Glyn Dearman starring Dame Judi Dench as "Lady Bracknell", Sir Michael Hordern as "Lane", Michael Sheen as "Jack Worthing", Martin Clunes as "Algernon Moncrieff", John Moffatt as "Rev. Canon Chasuble", Miriam Margolyes as "Miss Prism", Samantha Bond as "Gwendolen" and Amanda Root as "Cecily". The production was released on audio cassette by Hodder Headline Audiobooks by arrangement with BBC Enterprises (ISBN 1-85998-218-2).
• In 1997, Penguin Audiobooks released a recording of the play directed by Shaun MacLoughlin starring Miriam Margolyes as "Lady Bracknell", Greg Wise as "Jack Worthing", Richard Pearce as "Algernon Moncrieff", Bill Wallis as "Rev. Canon Chasuble", June Barrie as "Miss Prism", Jane Slavin as "Gwendolen" and Anna Mountford as "Cecily", with music composed by Mark Barton-Hill. (ISBN 0-14-086539-X).
• On 13 December 2000, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a new radio adaptation directed by Howard Davies starring Geraldine McEwan as "Lady Bracknell", Simon Russell Beale as "Jack Worthing", Julian Wadham as "Algernon Moncrieff", Geoffrey Palmer as "Rev. Canon Chasuble", Celia Imrie as "Miss Prism", Victoria Hamilton as "Gwendolen" and Emma Fielding as "Cecily", with music composed by Dominic Muldowney. The production was released on audio cassette by the BBC Radio Collection (ISBN 0-563-47803-9).
• In 2005, Naxos Audiobooks released a recording of a 1952 BBC radio production of the play starring Dame Edith Evans as "Lady Bracknell", Sir John Gielgud as "John Worthing", Ronald Ward as "Algernon Moncrieff", Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as "Gwendolen", Angela Baddeley as "Cecily", David Horne as "The Rev. Canon Chasuble", Betty Hardy as "Miss Prism" and Roger Delgado as "Merriman". According to the liner notes, this "was almost certainly taken from a live transmission, as almost all radio plays were broadcast live in those days." (ISBN 962-634-342-7)

Sources

• Beckson, Karl E., ed. Oscar Wilde: the critical heritage, Volume 1970, Part 2 Routledge p. 434 ISBN:0710069294, 9780710069290
• Dennis, Richard (2008). Cities in modernity: representations and productions of metropolitan space, 1840-1930. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-521-46841-8.
• Ellmann, Richard (1988). Oscar Wilde. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780394759845. 
• Mason, Stuart (1914; new ed. 1972) Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. Rota pub; Haskell House Pub ISBN 0838313787
• Raby, Peter, ed (1997). The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47987-8. 

Notes

References

External links

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• The Importance of Being Earnest on Project Gutenberg
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• The Importance of Being Earnest - Audio Book on LibriVox
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