Wilde, Oscar
The importance of being earnest

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Penguin Books, 1985
First release: 1954, The Importance of Being Earnest-1895

Summary

Algernon is at home and waiting for his aunt and niece to visit, when Jack visits him. When they are talking Jack asks Algernon if can propose to his niece, Algernon thinks it’s ok. When Algernon’s aunt and niece arrive, Algernon takes his aunt to the kitchen, so Jack can propose to Gwendolen. Because Gwendolen doesn’t know his real name is Jack and thinks his name is Earnest, she would like to marry him and says: “I always wanted to marry someone called Earnest”. Algernon’s Aunt refuses to let Gwendolen getting married whit Jack (everybody thinks his name is Earnest), and Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell leave immediately. Lady Bracknell invited Algernon for a dinner, but he said he had to go to Bunbury because he’s sick.
In the conversation between Jack (Earnest) and Lady Bracknell, Algernon heard the address of Jack’s countryhouse and decides to go there when Jack isn’t there. When he arrives he introduces himself as Earnest. Cecily, Jacks niece, already fall in love whit him before the ever met. She fell in love because of his name (Earnest) and had already told her diary that she was going to get married whit Earnest (Algernon). After Algernon arrived Jack also arrived and told his “brother” Earnest died. Cecily denied that and showed him his “brother” Earnest (Algernon). After Cecily left Jack and Algernon began a huge argue. Little time later Gwendolen Fairfax arrived to meet her big love Earnest (Jack) at his farm. While Jack and Algernon both tried to change their names into Earnest, Gwendolen and Cecily started talking about the men the love. They became in a argue because the both thought they both felt in love whit the same man. When both men came back, both girls found out the were cheated on and decided to make a pact together against the men, because they lied.
A little time later the men came back and apologised to the girls and also told the girls they were going to change both their names into Earnest. After the men made up for their mistakes Lady Bracknell also arrived at jack’s house, and meets Cecily’s Governess Miss Prism that appears to be Lady Bracknell’s old cleaner. After talking a while the subject of a bag whit a child in it that was lost comes up and Jack knows he was the child. Miss Prism lost this bag a lot of years ago. When Jack comes back after searching for the bag, because he kept it, Miss Prism recognised it. She told that the child in it was Lady Bracknell’s and so Jack is Algernon’s brother . Also in coincidence the child appears to be called Earnest. In the end Jack and Gwendolen and Algernon and Cicily fall in each others arms. The last sentence of Jack/Earnest was: ”I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”.
Analysis

The genre of this play is no doubt a comedy, and a good one too. The story is set in London and the English country side, at the end of the last century (sorry, the century before that one...)

The Title of this super book is very clever. You can reed the title in two different ways. In the case of the characters in the book, namely Jack and Algernon, it is of the greatest importance to be Earnest, in the sense of the name. This is because the women they love, Cecily and Gwendolen, can only love a man when he carries that name.
On the other hand, by being Earnest they are not being earnest. In other words: They can never be Earnest if they are earnest, and the other way around.

The character analysis isn’t very important in this so called “comedy of manners”. The persons don’t act as real ones, that’s also why this book is so funny, but I can tell a bit of the relations between the characters.
John Worthing: A rich (2 houses) foundling. In the city he’s Earnest and on the country he’s Jack. Earnest is a kind of imaginary friend.
Algernon Moncrieff: Rich man from the city, he has a imaginary friend called Bunbury and is a good friend of Jack. He knows the story between Jack and Earnest.
Rev. Canon Chasuble: Miss Prism’s friend and lives on the country.
Merriman: Jack’s butler on the country.
Lane: Algernon’s manservant.
Lady Bracknell: Algernon’s Aunt.
Gwendolen Fairfax: Algernon’s niece and Jack’s girlfriend
Cecily Cardew: Jack’s niece and Algernon’s girlfriend.
Miss Prism: Cecily’s Governess and good friend of dr. Chasuble.

Personal Response

A.
The part I’ve copied (enclosure 1) is the part I like most. It’s the part when Jack comes home and tells everybody his brother Earnest has died, but what he didn’t know is that Algernon is also there and calls himself Earnest. When Cecily meets Jack he told her about Earnest but Cecily doesn’t understand the story because she thought Earnest was inside.
I like this part most, because this is the moment when Jack got confronted with his own lies and has to find an way out of all this. You can imagine how astonished Jack is when Cecily tells him his “brother” Earnest is in the house.

C.
I don’t think this story could have happened, because in this story there are too much coincidences that have happened. Like Jack appeared to be Algernon’s older brother, and that Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell appeared to know each other and that Miss Prism lost Lady Bracknell’s first child that appeared to be Jack again. Only these examples show the improbability of this story.

Reading Experience

Comparative
I really enjoyed reading this book. This book was recommended to me by many people, and not only because it counted only sixty-five pages, and I’m very grateful to them for doing so.
It’s very easy to reed and the story is very funny. I was amazed to see how Oscar Wilde managed to create such a confusing situation in such a short time.

I’m glad I can’t identify myself with the main character because I won’t like to be in such a complex situation. Of course you can recognise some characters in this play, like Lady Bracknell, she stands for the upper class society. She’s rich and has an high social status, she has also some main criteria for marriage.

I haven’t read many books with the same genre, humour, so I can’t really connect this text whit another text. But if someone knows a book with the same kind of humour I would really would like to hear it (hint…….). The only thing is, I think, there aren’t that many books with the same quality like this one, and I think this books stand on it’s own.

Interpretative
The language is very witty. There are only dialogues because this is originally a play. The dialogues in this play are full of great humour, for example:

“Jack: Charming day it has been, Miss Fairfax.
Gwendolen: Pray don’t talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that the mean something else. And that makes me so nervous.”

Or,

“Jack: I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come down to town especially to propose to her.
Algernon: I thought you had come down for pleasure?… I call that business.”

These examples aren’t the only amusing dialogues, the book is full of these kind of dialogues.
Especially in the first act there are a lot of very amusing dialogues.

Evaluative
I would use the following criteria to review the book: style, readability, plot, humour and characters. Because this is not a normal book but a play I included the criteria “plot” and “characters”.
For this play I come to the following conclusion:

Style: 8
Readability: 7.5
Humour: 9
Characters: 7
Plot: 9.5

Overall: 8.5
I came to the conclusion I had never read such a short story whit eventually such a super plot, I would almost call it the best book ever written by anyone, but because I haven’t read so many books I can’t. I would recommend this book to everyone who like’s to read this kind of humour (and only sixty-five pages), and to everyone else who asks me about some good English books.