The Importance of Being Earnest

We've just finished reading Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in class. Think about the topics from discussion and write two paragraphs about whichever topic you find most interesting.  Or, if you have a different idea, go ahead and write about your own idea. Within your two paragraphs, showcase your ability to make inferences about what you read and show your understanding of the play. Also, this play is a comedy - what did you find funny? How is reading comedy different from reading more serious literature? 

Due  Tuesday, June 13.

1.  The Importance of Being Earnest can be enjoyed simply as a silly comedy of manners.  However, at deeper inspection, it is obvious that Wilde satirizes many Victorian institutions and/or societal expectations.  Identify one of those major institutions and discuss Wilde’s serious message behind his trivial treatment.  How does Wilde invert well-known proverbs and use epigrams and aphorisms to comment on Victorian attitudes? What connections can you make to Great Expectations?

2.   Wilde suggests that his Victorian contemporaries should treat trivial matters with greater respect and pay less attention to what society then regarded as serious.  Discuss how Wilde expresses this philosophy with reference to one of the following: death, money, property, food or marriage

3. There are three major male/female relationships in The Importance of Being Earnest: Algernon/Cecily, Jack/Gwendolyn, and Prism/Chasuble.  Each relationship is stylized with its own particular type of dialogue.  In fact, the two members of each pair go together in part because they share a type of language.  Analyze the conversations of one of these couples, examining how they speak and what sorts of epigrams or social commentaries they make, What do you conclude?

4. Dishonesty is a theme that pervades The Importance of Being Earnest.  There are different levels on which this dishonesty is expressed throughout the play. Choose one type of dishonesty and discuss its significance to the theme.  Why is this an important theme to the play as a whole?