The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners that addresses the seriousness of society in late Victorian England. The story revolves around the main character, John Worthing’s, fictitious brother Ernest, which is the main source of the comedy in the play.
Whenever Worthing wants to leave his dull country life behind, he makes visits to the city posing as his fictitious “brother” Ernest. However, once there, he becomes smitten with the beautiful Gwendolyn.
Meanwhile, while Worthing is in town, his playboy pal Algy is in the country falling for Worthing’s young and beautiful ward, Cecily – all the while also impersonating Ernest! Pandemonium ensues when these two would-be Ernests find themselves face-to-face and in the predicament of explaining who they really are!
- About the author: Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s.
