Related PapersThis essay discusses how Wilde addresses the very nature of being. In repressive Victorian society, he chronicles the emergence of a self that is hidden and double and thus must exist at the margin, if not in the shadows. The result in Wilde’s private life is an identity in flux that reveals him as an identity migrant, who at one moment is the Victorian father and husband, and at another, the homosexual lover of Lord Alfred Douglas. Show Oscar Wilde’s “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.” (1889) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) both centrally feature imaginary persons. In “The Portrait of Mr. W.H.,” Wilde’s narrator says that “all Art” is “to a certain degree a mode of acting, an attempt to realise one’s own personality.” The Importance of Being Earnest assigns actors’ bodies to the imaginary person of the title. My essay examines what it meant to realize a personality on the late-nineteenth-century stage in light of recent scholarship on character, stage properties, and materiality. I argue that – because theatre shows the constructedness of material and corporeal being, because farce renders male identity a matter of genre, and because Wilde unifies the characters’ desires under one name – The Importance of Being Earnest uniquely locates personality in a living human body. The comedy of manners is a genre which, since its beginnings in the Restoration comedy, enjoyed much attention from both the writers and the audience. Its reputation however suffered at times from accusations of many critics, who condemned it as being improper, shallow and immoral. However, it reflects various tendencies permeating the society in which it was created, be it the Restoration society or the one during the late Victorian period, as those saw the creation of the plays discussed in the thesis. They thus serve as a testament of not only what the authors created, but additionally, what the audience wished to see. eds. Alastair Blanshard, Iarla Manny, Kathleen Riley, Oxford Univ. Press. In Menander in Contexts. Ed. Alan Sommerstein. Routledge. 2014. 215-32. This essay is the second part of a study of the figures of text as child and child as text in (mainly) late nineteenth century writing. The whole study takes as its starting point the well-known instance of text as child in Ibsen's HEDDA GABLER (1890). The present essay begins with Oscar Wilde's parodic hommage to Ibsen's play in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (1895). It is argued that the figure under consideration conjoins with concerns central to Wilde's imagination. The situation is even plainer in the case of J. M. Barrie, whose idea of being 'the parent of the Book' is recurrent in his early work. An examination of the novel THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD (1902) demonstrates the problematic and disturbing qualities of Barrie's treatment of this theme. The essay ends by investigating how and why text can be seen even to take priority over child in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST and THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD.
IntroductionOscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest derives much of its comedic and thematic heft from the way in which it inverts the values of everyday life. The play constantly pokes fun at conventionally serious topics like love, death, and religion, while simultaneously handling trivialities (e.g., which teatime snacks are trendy this season) with the utmost seriousness. This irreverence takes its most perfect form in the dozens of epigrams and witticisms that make up so much of the play’s dialogue. In this Launchpad, you will have the opportunity to analyze the language, characters, and structure of The Importance of Being Earnest. Links are given to a few additional resources that offer the option to extend your study of Wilde, uncovering more about the play’s themes, as well as relevant aspects of Victorian society. Students may access the David Price, 1915 Methuen and Co. edition eBook version of the entire play online at Project Gutenberg. The print version used is The Importance of Being Earnest. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1999. (1985)* Questions for Close ReadingAfter completing the entire reading of The Importance of Being Earnest, observe your teacher’s directions for answering the following questions. Be sure to refer to the text of the play and provide evidence from it in order to inform and support your responses. ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
Questions for Further ConsiderationFollow your teacher’s directions to respond to the following prompts as optional expository writing activities. Be sure to include evidence from the play in your responses.
Resources for Further ResearchIn a conversation with Andre Gide, Oscar Wilde declared, “I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talents into my works.” The following resources can be tapped to discover more about the fascinating life and work of Oscar Wilde and to place the play in its broader context.
*Note to Teachers: The Importance of Being Earnest is a CCSS exemplar for grades 11-CCR. The activities in this resource align with the following CCSS Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RL. 11-12.2: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RL. 11-12.4: Determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. About the Author: Conor McVarish, a spring 2016 intern at EDSITEment, attends American University in Washington D.C. and is pursuing a double major in literature and political science. What are the activities in pre7 Great Pre-Reading Activities that Build Buy-In for your Next Novel Unit. Start with a visual to introduce & build background knowledge. ... . Take a (virtual) Field Trip. ... . Purposefully make connections using graphic organizers. ... . Analyze a Text Quote. ... . Debate an Issue. ... . Hold a Book Tasting and Vote.. How do you teach The Importance of Being Earnest?Learning Objectives for The Importance of Being Earnest
Identify the pun central to the play and analyze its meaning. Comment on the irony between the elegant demeanor of the characters and their absurd conversations and behavior. Discuss the meaning of the play's subtitle "a trivial play for serious people."
What is the purpose of prePre-reading activities can help the learner to be more prepared for what they are about to read. It can help them anticipate the topic of the reading. In doing this, they can also prepare themselves for the kind of language, vocabulary, and even grammar that might be used in the text.
What is the main lesson of an Importance of Being Earnest?“[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.”
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