The Importance of Being Earnest

F r o m t h e d r a m a tu r g “To the world I seem, by intention on my part, a dilettante and a dandy merely — it is not wise to show ones heart to the world — and as seriousness of manner is the disguise of the fool, folly in its exquisite modes of triviality and indifference and lack of care is the robe of the wise man. In so vulgar an age as this we all need masks.” — Oscar Wilde, 1894 The son of a prominent doctor and a fiery nationalist poet, W ilde inherited both the intellect and the passion that formed him into one of the most visionary artists this world has sustained. Ever a reluctant product of his age, W ilde chafed at the restrictions put on him by the Victorian Era. The straight-backed hypocrisy of the deluded upper classes became the material for some of history’s most famous plays. The Im portance o f B ein g Earnest , a social commentary on a time noted for hypocrisy, remains to this day the very soul of modern wit. Everything is distorted. Despite truth being revered, the characters attempt to achieve their goals through lies and deceit. In spite of goodness and moral purity being the ideal, it seems our characters’ only goal is to defy, if secretly, the tenets of their culture. But for all his satire, W ilde never wrote idly. He strove to reach those in his immediate audience with a distinct reality, though his brilliance was not recognized until long after his death. In Earnest , W ilde brings aspects of truth through a society where there were so many rules and barriers; its own inhabitants did not know what to believe anymore. In it we see echoes of ourselves, our friends, and our families. These things that are universal now speak to W ilde’s universal audience, far beyond the reach of the Victorian Era. Along with tmth, Earnest is packed full of symbols commonly recognizable in the time period. Many scholars identify Lady Bracknell as a stand-in for Queen Victoria. In this particular age in history, loyalty to the crown was everything, and all was for the benefit of expanding the empire. Lady Bracknell’s threats parallel the constant and invisible pressure of having to please the British crown at all times. W ilde pokes fun at the flippancy of marriage in the Victorian Era, and plays upon shallowness in the ideals of love. Cecily claims to have fallen in love with ‘Ernest’ before she even met him, because “a man much talked about is always very attractive.” But Jack remarks that divorce is rampant due to the fact that so many people have “forgotten” they were married. We infer then the deeper message of the play, that anything no matter how apparently sincere, is simply a mask. But for all his cynicism, W ilde was a tme romantic at heart. He longed for the ideals of the Victorian Era without the taint of hypocrisy. It was for this reason he chose to give his characters, especially those in Earnest , the chance to have real happiness despite their troubles. His characters were privileged to have the happy endings that W ilde himself was never able to have. From his birth in Ireland to his death abroad in Paris, W ilde has been established as a fully integrated part of British and American popular culture. A singular genius, W ilde will be remembered long beyond our time as man beyond his own, separated from his culture, and the only person in the age to see the ultimate importance of being earnest. “For all his professed delight in his own escapades, he was at heart a most reluctant product of his age.” — John Stokes — Rachel Charlee Hoffman, Dramaturg