Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest (TH)

 

Hello everyone, I'm going to write my blog on "OSCAR WILDE'S IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST" ; task given by Megha Ma'am Trivedi.

In this blog I'm dealing with these 5 questions,..

1) Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

2) Which of the female characters is the most attractive to you among Lady Augusta Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, and Miss Prism? Give your reasons for her being the most attractive among all.

3)The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage, and the pursuit of love in particular. Through which situations and characters is this happening in the play?

4)Queer scholars have argued that the play's themes of duplicity and ambivalence are inextricably bound up with Wilde's homosexuality and that the play exhibits a "flickering presence-absence of… homosexual desire" Do you agree with this observation? Give your arguments to justify your stance.

5)Below are various movie and radio adaptations of this play. Write your critique on various adaptations of this play. 
 Refer to this blog - https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/01/importance-of-being-earnest-oscar-wilde.html

# First Let's Discuss Some Biographical Information About "OSCAR WILDE",....

 

Oscar Wilde, in full Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, (born October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland—died November 30, 1900, Paris, France), Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment (1895–97).

Wilde was born of professional and literary parents. His father, Sir William Wilde, was Ireland’s leading ear and eye surgeon, who also published books on archaeology, folklore, and the satirist Jonathan Swift. His mother, who wrote under the name Speranza, was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore.

After attending Portora Royal School, Enniskillen (1864–71), Wilde went, on successive scholarships, to Trinity College, Dublin (1871–74), and Magdalen College, Oxford (1874–78), which awarded him a degree with honours. During these four years, he distinguished himself not only as a Classical scholar, a poseur, and a wit but also as a poet by winning the coveted Newdigate Prize in 1878 with a long poem, Ravenna. He was deeply impressed by the teachings of the English writers John Ruskin and Walter Pater on the central importance of art in life and particularly by the latter’s stress on the aesthetic intensity by which life should be lived. Like many in his generation, Wilde was determined to follow Pater’s urging “to burn always with [a] hard, gemlike flame.” But Wilde also delighted in affecting an aesthetic pose; this, combined with rooms at Oxford decorated with objets d’art, resulted in his famous remark, “Oh, would that I could live up to my blue china!”

In the early 1880s, when Aestheticism was the rage and despair of literary London, Wilde established himself in social and artistic circles by his wit and flamboyance. Soon the periodical Punch made him the satiric object of its antagonism to the Aesthetes for what was considered their unmasculine devotion to art. And in their comic opera Patience, Gilbert and Sullivan based the character Bunthorne, a “fleshly poet,” partly on Wilde. Wishing to reinforce the association, Wilde published, at his own expense, Poems (1881), which echoed, too faithfully, his discipleship to the poets Algernon Swinburne, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and John Keats. Eager for further acclaim, Wilde agreed to lecture in the United States and Canada in 1882, announcing on his arrival at customs in New York City that he had “nothing to declare but his genius.” Despite widespread hostility in the press to his languid poses and aesthetic costume of velvet jacket, knee breeches, and black silk stockings, Wilde for 12 months exhorted the Americans to love beauty and art; then he returned to Great Britain to lecture on his impressions of America.

In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd, daughter of a prominent Irish barrister; two children, Cyril and Vyvyan, were born, in 1885 and 1886. Meanwhile, Wilde was a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette and then became editor of Woman’s World (1887–89). During this period of apprenticeship as a writer, he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), which reveals his gift for romantic allegory in the form of the fairy tale.

In the final decade of his life, Wilde wrote and published nearly all of his major work. In his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (published in Lippincott’s Magazine, 1890, and in book form, revised and expanded by six chapters, 1891), Wilde combined the supernatural elements of the Gothic novel with the unspeakable sins of French decadent fiction. Critics charged immorality despite Dorian’s self-destruction; Wilde, however, insisted on the amoral nature of art regardless of an apparently moral ending. Intentions (1891), consisting of previously published essays, restated his aesthetic attitude toward art by borrowing ideas from the French poets Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire and the American painter James McNeill Whistler. In the same year, two volumes of stories and fairy tales also appeared, testifying to his extraordinary creative inventiveness: Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, and Other Stories and A House of Pomegranates.

But Wilde’s greatest successes were his society comedies. Within the conventions of the French “well-made play” (with its social intrigues and artificial devices to resolve conflict), he employed his paradoxical, epigrammatic wit to create a form of comedy new to the 19th-century English theatre. His first success, Lady Windermere’s Fan, demonstrated that this wit could revitalize the rusty machinery of French drama. In the same year, rehearsals of his macabre play Salomé, written in French and designed, as he said, to make his audience shudder by its depiction of unnatural passion, were halted by the censor because it contained biblical characters. It was published in 1893, and an English translation appeared in 1894 with Aubrey Beardsley’s celebrated illustrations.

A second society comedy, A Woman of No Importance (produced 1893), convinced the critic William Archer that Wilde’s plays “must be taken on the very highest plane of modern English drama.” In rapid succession, Wilde’s final plays, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, were produced early in 1895. In the latter, his greatest achievement, the conventional elements of farce are transformed into satiric epigrams—seemingly trivial but mercilessly exposing Victorian hypocrisies.

In many of his works, exposure of a secret sin or indiscretion and consequent disgrace is a central design. If life imitated art, as Wilde insisted in his essay “The Decay of Lying” (1889), he was himself approximating the pattern in his reckless pursuit of pleasure. In addition, his close friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he had met in 1891, infuriated the marquess of Queensberry, Douglas’s father. Accused, finally, by the marquess of being a sodomite, Wilde, urged by Douglas, sued for criminal libel. Wilde’s case collapsed, however, when the evidence went against him, and he dropped the suit. Urged to flee to France by his friends, Wilde refused, unable to believe that his world was at an end. He was arrested and ordered to stand trial.

Wilde testified brilliantly, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. In the retrial he was found guilty and sentenced, in May 1895, to two years at hard labour. Most of his sentence was served at Reading Gaol, where he wrote a long letter to Douglas (published in 1905 in a drastically cut version as De Profundis) filled with recriminations against the younger man for encouraging him in dissipation and distracting him from his work.

In May 1897 Wilde was released, a bankrupt, and immediately went to France, hoping to regenerate himself as a writer. His only remaining work, however, was The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions. Despite constant money problems, he maintained, as George Bernard Shaw said, “an unconquerable gaiety of soul” that sustained him, and he was visited by such loyal friends as Max Beerbohm and Robert Ross, later his literary executor; he was also reunited with Douglas. He died suddenly of acute meningitis brought on by an ear infection. In his semiconscious final moments, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, which he had long admired.

# For More Biographical Information About "OSCAR WILDE" Watch These Videos,...

Let's Discuss All these Questions,...

QUE:1 Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

ANS:

# INTRODUCTION:-

Oscar Wilde's original subtitle for The Importance of Being Earnest, "A Serious Comedy for Trivial People," is a paradox. It suggests that the play is both serious and trivial, and that it is intended for an audience of people who are themselves trivial. This interpretation is supported by the play's lighthearted tone and its focus on superficial concerns, such as social status and marriage.

However, Wilde's revised subtitle, "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," inverts the paradox and suggests a more complex reading of the play. It implies that the play is not simply a frivolous comedy, but that it also contains serious insights into human nature and society. Wilde himself suggested that the play is a satire of Victorian society, and its themes of identity, class, and gender are still relevant today.

So, what is the difference between the two subtitles? The first subtitle suggests that the play is a simple comedy for a trivial audience. The second subtitle suggests that the play is more complex and thought-provoking, and that it is intended for a serious audience.

However, both subtitles are paradoxical in their own way. The first subtitle suggests that the play is both serious and trivial, while the second subtitle suggests that the play is both trivial and serious. This paradox reflects the play's own duality, as it is both a lighthearted comedy and a satire of Victorian society.

# Wilde's Subtitles for The Importance of Being Earnest: A Paradoxical Play for a Paradoxical Audience:-

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a play that is full of paradoxes. This is evident in the very title of the play, which is both serious and ironic. The play is also full of witty dialogue and absurd situations, which makes it both funny and thought-provoking.

The play's subtitle, "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," is another paradox. It suggests that the play is both trivial and serious, and that it is intended for a serious audience. This paradox reflects the play's own duality, as it is both a lighthearted comedy and a satire of Victorian society.

The original subtitle, "A Serious Comedy for Trivial People," is also paradoxical. It suggests that the play is both serious and trivial, and that it is intended for a trivial audience. This interpretation is supported by the play's lighthearted tone and its focus on superficial concerns, such as social status and marriage.

However, Wilde's revised subtitle, "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People," inverts the paradox and suggests a more complex reading of the play. It implies that the play is not simply a frivolous comedy, but that it also contains serious insights into human nature and society. Wilde himself suggested that the play is a satire of Victorian society, and its themes of identity, class, and gender are still relevant today.

So, what is the difference between the two subtitles? The first subtitle suggests that the play is a simple comedy for a trivial audience. The second subtitle suggests that the play is more complex and thought-provoking, and that it is intended for a serious audience.

However, both subtitles are paradoxical in their own way. The first subtitle suggests that the play is both serious and trivial, while the second subtitle suggests that the play is both trivial and serious. This paradox reflects the play's own duality, as it is both a lighthearted comedy and a satire of Victorian society.

# Paradoxical Play for a Paradoxical Audience:-

The play's paradoxical nature is also reflected in its audience. On the one hand, the play is a lighthearted comedy that is intended to entertain. On the other hand, the play is a satire of Victorian society that is intended to make the audience think.

The play's paradoxical audience is also reflected in the characters themselves. The two main characters, Jack and Algernon, are both leading double lives. Jack pretends to be a responsible guardian in the country, while Algernon pretends to have a sickly friend in the city. Both characters are using false identities to escape the expectations of society.

The play's other characters are also paradoxical in their own way. Lady Bracknell, for example, is a social climber who is obsessed with social status. However, she is also a loving mother who wants the best for her daughter.

# CONCLUSION:-

Wilde's subtitles for The Importance of Being Earnest are both paradoxical and thought-provoking. They reflect the play's own duality, as it is both a lighthearted comedy and a satire of Victorian society. The play's paradoxical audience is also reflected in the characters themselves, who are all leading double lives.

Wilde's play is a reminder that life is full of paradoxes. We are all complex and contradictory creatures. We are both serious and trivial. We are both who we are and who we pretend to be.

QUE:2 Which of the female characters is the most attractive to you among Lady Augusta Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, and Miss Prism? Give your reasons for her being the most attractive among all.

 ANS.

"According to me "Gwendolen Fairfax" is the most attractuve charachter among all"; because,

Gwendolen Fairfax, the female protagonist of Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, is often overlooked as a complex and well-developed character. She is often dismissed as a shallow and materialistic young woman who is only interested in marrying a man named Ernest. However, a closer examination of her character reveals that she is much more than that.

In fact, Gwendolen is one of the most attractive female characters in all of literature. She is intelligent, witty, independent, and fiercely determined. She is also deeply compassionate and empathetic.

> Here are some of the reasons why Gwendolen Fairfax is the most attractive female character in The Importance of Being Earnest:

• She is intelligent and witty. Gwendolen is a quick-witted and intelligent young woman. She can engage in witty banter with Jack and Algernon, and she is not afraid to challenge them intellectually. She is also well-educated and has a wide range of interests.
• She is independent and fiercely determined. Gwendolen is not a passive character. She knows what she wants and she is determined to get it. She is not afraid to stand up for herself or to challenge the status quo. For example, she refuses to marry Jack unless he is named Ernest, even though she knows that he is not being honest with her.
• She is deeply compassionate and empathetic. Despite her strong-willed nature, Gwendolen is also a deeply compassionate and empathetic person. She cares deeply about the people she loves, and she is always willing to help those in need. For example, she shows great kindness and understanding to Cecily, even though they are rivals for Jack's affections.

In addition to these qualities, Gwendolen is also a beautiful and stylish young woman. She has a keen sense of fashion and she always looks her best. She is also very graceful and poised.

Of course, no character is perfect, and Gwendolen is no exception. She can be stubborn and prideful at times. However, her flaws only make her more human and relatable.

Overall, Gwendolen Fairfax is one of the most attractive female characters in all of literature. She is intelligent, witty, independent, fiercely determined, compassionate, and empathetic. She is also beautiful and stylish. While she may have some flaws, these only make her more human and relatable.

> Here are some specific examples from the play that illustrate Gwendolen's attractiveness:-

• In Act I, Gwendolen and Jack engage in a witty and intelligent conversation about the importance of names. Gwendolen is clearly impressed by Jack's intellect and sense of humor.
• In Act II, Gwendolen refuses to marry Jack unless he is named Ernest. This shows that she is independent and knows what she wants. She is also willing to stand up for her beliefs, even though it means risking losing the man she loves.
• In Act III, Gwendolen shows great kindness and understanding to Cecily, even though they are rivals for Jack's affections. This shows that she is a compassionate and empathetic person.
• In the final act of the play, Gwendolen is reunited with Jack and they finally get married. She is clearly happy and fulfilled, and she looks radiant in her wedding dress.

Overall, Gwendolen Fairfax is a complex and well-developed character who is both attractive and inspiring. She is a role model for young women everywhere.

QUE:3 The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage, and the pursuit of love in particular. Through which situations and characters is this happening in the play?

ANS:

Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest is a satirical comedy that mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage, and the pursuit of love in particular. This is done through a variety of situations and characters, including:

The title itself is a paradox, as it suggests that the most important thing in life is to be earnest (serious), but the play itself is a lighthearted comedy. This suggests that Wilde does not take the Victorian ideal of earnestness very seriously.

The play's two protagonists, Jack Worthing and Algernon "Algy" Moncrieff, both lead double lives. Jack pretends to be a responsible guardian named "Ernest" in the country, while Algy pretends to have a sickly friend named "Bunbury" in the city. This suggests that the Victorian ideal of respectability is a facade, and that people are not always who they seem.

The play's female characters are also lampooned. Lady Bracknell, Algy's aunt, is a snobbish socialite who is more concerned with her daughter's social status than with her happiness. Miss Prism, Cecily's governess, is a pedantic and hypocritical woman who writes romantic novels but does not believe in love.

The play's plot is also full of absurd situations that satirize Victorian social norms. For example, Jack falls in love with Gwendolen Fairfax because she is named "Ernest," while Algy falls in love with Cecily Cardew because she is Jack's ward and therefore "forbidden fruit." This suggests that Victorian courtship rituals are often more about social convention than about genuine love.

> Here are some specific examples of how the play mocks Victorian traditions and social customs:

In Act I, Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to determine if he is a suitable match for her daughter, Gwendolen. She asks him a series of questions about his family background, including whether his parents were married when he was born. When Jack tells her that he was found in a handbag in Victoria Station, she is horrified. This scene satirizes the Victorian obsession with social class and respectability.

In Act II, Algy invites Jack to visit him at his country estate. Jack agrees, but only if he can pretend to be Algy's friend Bunbury. This scene satirizes the Victorian ideal of the gentleman, who is supposed to be always honorable and responsible. However, Jack and Algy are both willing to lie and deceive in order to escape their social obligations.

In Act III, Jack and Algy discover that they are both named Ernest. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and complications, as the two women they love are both in love with the name Ernest. This scene satirizes the Victorian belief in the importance of names and appearances.

# CONCLUSION:-

In conclusion we can say that The Importance of Being Earnest is a satirical comedy that mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage, and the pursuit of love in particular. Wilde does this through a variety of situations and characters, including the two protagonists' double lives, the female characters' snobbishness and hypocrisy, and the absurd plot twists. The play is still relevant today because it challenges us to question the social norms that we take for granted.

QUE:5 Below are various movie and radio adaptations of this play. Write your critique on various adaptations of this play. 

 Refer to this blog - https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2021/01/importance-of-being-earnest-oscar-wilde.html

ANS:

# Critique of a Radio Play Performance of The Importance of Being Earnest:

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a classic comedy of manners, and it is one of the most popular plays ever written. It has been adapted for radio, television, and film many times over the years.

In a radio play performance, the actors must rely on their voices alone to convey the characters and the story. This can be a challenge, but it can also be an opportunity to create a unique and immersive experience for the listener.

> A good radio play performance of The Importance of Being Earnest will have the following qualities:

• Clear and expressive acting: The actors must be able to deliver Wilde's witty dialogue with clarity and precision. They must also be able to convey the characters' emotions and personalities through their voices alone.
• Effective sound effects: Sound effects can be used to create a sense of atmosphere and to highlight the play's comedic moments. For example, the sound of a doorbell ringing or a teacup being clinked can be used to create a sense of place and time.
• A well-paced adaptation: The play is often adapted for radio by cutting or combining scenes. A good adaptation will keep the story moving forward and will not lose any of the essential plot points or humor.