The original production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 with Allan Aynesworth as Algernon (left) and George Alexander as Jack (right)

The Importance of Being Earnest is a play by Oscar Wilde. Allan Aynesworth (born Edward Abbot-Anderson, April 14, 1864 in Sandhurst, Berkshire; died August 22, 1959 in George Alexander may refer to George Alexander (actor, British actor George Alexander (politician, mayor of Los Angeles Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 was an Irish Playwright, Novelist, poet and Author of It premiered on February 14, 1895 at the St. James's Theatre in London. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year St James's Theatre ( est 1835 was a 1200-seat theatre located in King Street at Duke Street St James's, London.

Set in England during the late Victorian era, the play's humour derives in part from characters maintaining fictitious identities to escape unwelcome social obligations. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) It is replete with witty dialogue. It has remained Wilde's most popular play.

The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but also heralded his impending downfall. The Marquess of Queensberry, father of Wilde's male lover Lord Alfred Douglas, attempted to enter the theatre, to cause a public scandal and expose Wilde's homosexuality. John Sholto Douglas 9th Marquess of Queensberry GCVO ( 20 July 1844 &ndash 31 January 1900) was a Scottish nobleman remembered Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas ( 22 October 1870 &ndash 20 March 1945) was a Poet, a Translator and a Prose Wilde was tipped off and Queensberry was refused admission. Nonetheless, Queensberry's hostility to Wilde was soon to trigger the latter's legal travails and eventual imprisonment. Wilde's notoriety caused the play, despite its success, to be closed after only 83 performances. He never wrote another play.

Plot

Algernon, an aristocratic young Londoner, pretends to have a friend named Bunbury who lives in the country and is frequently in ill health: whenever Algernon wants to avoid an unwelcome social obligation, or just get away for the weekend, he makes an ostensible visit to his "sick friend". He calls this practice "Bunburying". Bunburying is a term introduced by Oscar Wilde in the play The Importance of Being Earnest.

Algernon's real-life best friend lives in the country but makes frequent visits to London. Algernon knows him as Ernest Worthing, but when the friend leaves his silver cigarette case in Algernon's morning room, Algernon finds an inscription in it: "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack". Worthing (ˈwɜrðɪŋ is a large seaside town and a local government borough in West Sussex, England

Jack is thus forced to disclose that he too is a "Bunburyist". In the country, he goes by the name of Jack (which he believes to be his real name), and pretends that he has a wastrel brother named Ernest, who lives in London and requires his frequent attention. In the country Jack assumes a more serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward, the 18-year old heiress Cecily. When in the city, he assumes the name and behaviour of the profligate Ernest.

Jack wants to marry Algernon's cousin Gwendolen, but faces two obstacles. First, Gwendolen seems to love him merely for his name, Ernest, which she thinks the most beautiful name in the world. Second, Gwendolen's mother, the terrifying Lady Bracknell, does not approve of Mr Worthing, and is further horrified to learn that he was adopted as a baby after being discovered in a handbag at a railway station. In her opinion it is absolutely below the standards of her daughter to "marry into a cloakroom and form an alliance with a parcel. "

Meanwhile, Jack's description of Cecily has so appealed to Algernon that he resolves to meet her, in spite of Jack's firm opposition. He visits Jack's house in the country in the guise of Ernest. Cecily has for some time imagined herself in love with the mysterious scapegrace Ernest, and is soon swept off her feet by Algernon.

Jack, meanwhile, decides to do away with Bunburying, and returns to his country estate with the news that his brother Ernest has reportedly died in Paris. He is forced to abandon this claim by the presence of "Ernest", who threatens to expose Jack's double life if the latter doesn't play along.

Gwendolen, in turn, flees London and her mother to be with her love. When she and Cecily meet for the first time, each indignantly insists that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". Once Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of her daughter, she and Jack reach stalemate as she still refuses to countenance his marriage to Gwendolen, while he, in retaliation, denies his consent to the marriage of her penniless nephew Algernon to his heiress ward Cecily.

The impasse is broken, in deus ex machina fashion, by the appearance of Cecily's governess, Miss Prism. A deus ex machina ( lat. ˈdeːus eks ˈmaːkʰina literally "god from a/the machine" is an improbable As she and Lady Bracknell recognize each other with horror, it is revealed that, when working many years previously as a nursemaid for Lady Bracknell's sister, Prism had inadvertently lost a baby boy in a handbag. When Jack produces the identical handbag, it becomes clear that he is Lady Bracknell's nephew and Algernon's older brother.

With Jack's provenance established, only one thing now stands in the way of the young couples' happiness: in view of Gwendolen's continued insistence that she can only love a man named Ernest, what is Jack's real first name? Lady Bracknell informs him that he was named after his father, a general, but cannot remember the general's name. Jack looks eagerly in a military reference book and declares that the name is in fact Ernest after all, and he has all along been telling the truth inadvertently.

As the happy couples embrace (including also Miss Prism and her clerical admirer, the Reverend Canon Chasuble), Lady Bracknell complains to Ernest, "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality. " "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta," Ernest replies, "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest. "

Characters

• John ("Jack") Worthing: In love with Gwendolen. Bachelor. Adopted when very young by Thomas Cardew.
• Algernon ("Algy") Moncrieff: First cousin of Gwendolen. Bachelor. Nephew of Lady Bracknell.
• Lady (Augusta) Bracknell.
• Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax: daughter of Lady Bracknell.
• Cecily Cardew: granddaughter of Thomas Cardew and ward of Jack Worthing. Lives at Jack's country house in Hertfordshire.
• Miss Laetitia Prism: governess to Cecily.
• Rev Canon Frederick Chasuble, D.D.: a minister who lives near Jack’s country house.
• Lane: butler to Algernon.
• Merriman: butler to Jack.

Three-act and Four-act versions

When Wilde handed his final draft of the play over to theatrical impresario George Alexander it was complete in four acts. The actor manager of the St. James' Theatre soon began a reworking of the play (whether to provide space for a 'warmer' or for a musical interlude, as was often the bill, is not entirely clear). Wilde agreed to the cuts and various elements of the second and third acts were combined. The ensuing three act play is the version that opened in London and also the version usually performed ever since. The "missing" extra act, coming between the current second and third, was heavily cut. The greatest impact was the loss of the character Mr Gribsby, a solicitor who turns up from London to arrest the profligate "Ernest" (Jack) for his unpaid dining bills. Algernon - who is going by the name "Ernest" at this point - is about to be led away to Holloway Jail unless he settles his accounts immediately. The four-act version was first played on the radio in a BBC production and is still sometimes performed. The 2002 film includes the Gribsby scene from the missing act.

Translations

The comedy has been successful even when performed in translation. The title being translatable only to a few languages—it relies on "Ernest" and "earnest" being homophones in English—it is sometimes staged under the title Bunbury. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning

In some languages, the title loses its character as a pun. In Norwegian it is staged as Hvem er Ernest?, which means "Who is Ernest?" In Spanish-speaking countries, the title is translated as La importancia de llamarse Ernesto (The Importance of Calling Yourself Ernest). Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language

Several languages—German, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Czech—offer equivalent puns. In Germany the play and the 2002 movie are called Ernst sein ist alles ("Being Earnest is everything"), keeping the original pun (Ernst being both a first name and a German word for serious). In Dutch it has been translated as Het belang van Ernst, in which the pun is also fully functional. In French, the play is known as De l'importance d'être Constant, Constant being both a mildly uncommon first name and the quality of steadfastness; the pun is preserved but with a slightly different meaning.

The Italian L'importanza di essere Ernesto, or L'importanza di essere Franco ("The Importance of Being Frank"), similarly preserves punning with a slight twist. In Catalan it is also, as in Italian, "La importància de ser Franc" ("The Importance of Being Frank").

The same approach has been used in Hungarian: the title has been translated as Szilárdnak kell lenni ("One Must Be Steadfast"), Szilárd being also an uncommon first name meaning "steadfast". Similarly, in Basque it has been titled Fidel izan beharraz ("On the need to be Fidel"), fidel being both the Basque word for "faithful" and a first name. In Czech, the title is translated as Jak je důležité míti Filipa ("The Importance of Having Phillip"), which is an idiom for being clever, and Filip is a quite common name. In Polish, however, the title is Brat Marnotrawny ("The Prodigal Brother"), an allusion to the parable of the Prodigal Son (in Polish: Syn Marnotrawny). Polish ( język polski, polszczyzna) is the Official language of Poland. In Hebrew it is known as Hashivuta shel retsinut ("The Importance of Seriousness").

Possible inside jokes

Some have implied that Wilde's use of the name Ernest might possibly be an inside joke. John Gambril Nicholson in his poem "Of Boy's Names" (Love in Earnest: Sonnets, Ballades, and Lyrics (1892)) contains the lines: " Though Frank may ring like silver bell, And Cecil softer music claim, They cannot work the miracle, –'Tis Ernest sets my heart a-flame. John Gambril Francis Nicholson ( 6 October 1866 - 1 July 1931) was an English school teacher and Uranian poet " The poem was promoted by John Addington Symonds and Nicholson and Wilde contributed pieces to the same issue of The Chameleon magazine. John Addington Symonds ( October 5 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic ^[1]. Theo Aronson has suggested that the word "earnest" became a code-word for homosexual, as in: "Is he earnest?", in the same way that "Is he so?" and "Is he musical?" were also employed. ^[2]

The words bunbury and bunburying, meanwhile, which are used to imply double lives and as excuses for absences, are -- according to a letter from Aleister Crowley to Sir R. H. Bruce Lockhart -- an inside joke that came about after Wilde boarded a train at Banbury on which he met a schoolboy. Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley (ˈkroʊli (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947 was a British Occultist Writer, mountaineer Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart KCMG ( 2 September 1887 - 27 February, 1970) was a Journalist, Author, They got into conversation and subsequently arranged to meet again at Sunbury. ^[3]

Contrary to claims of homosexual terminology, the actor Sir Donald Sinden, who in the 1940's had met two of the play's original participants (Irene Vanbrugh, the first Gwendolen, and Allan Aynesworth, the first Algy), as well as Wilde's lover Lord Alfred Douglas, wrote to The Times to dispute suggestions that 'Earnest' held any sexual connotations: "Although they had ample opportunity, at no time did any of them even hint that Earnest was a synonym for homosexual, or that Bunburying may have implied homosexual sex. Sir Donald Sinden CBE DLitt is an English stage film and television actor who has remained hugely popular since his days as a Rank Organisation Dame Irene Vanbrugh DBE ( 2 December 1872 &ndash 30 November 1949) born Irene Barnes, was an English actress Allan Aynesworth (born Edward Abbot-Anderson, April 14, 1864 in Sandhurst, Berkshire; died August 22, 1959 in Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas ( 22 October 1870 &ndash 20 March 1945) was a Poet, a Translator and a Prose The first time I heard it mentioned was in the 1980s and I immediately consulted Sir John Gielgud whose own performance of Jack Worthing in the same play was legendary and whose knowledge of theatrical lore was encyclopaedic. Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH ( 14 April, 1904 – 21 May 2000) known as Sir John Gielgud, was an He replied in his ringing tones: "No-No! Nonsense, absolute nonsense: I would have known. "^[4] The latter remark gains additional salience from the fact that Gielgud himself was well-known in theatrical circles to be gay.

Related facts

• John Gielgud was possibly the most famous Jack Worthing of the twentieth century, performing the role in several different productions on the English stage, and also in two sound recordings with Dame Edith Evans, certainly the best-remembered Lady Bracknell (see below). Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH ( 14 April, 1904 – 21 May 2000) known as Sir John Gielgud, was an His 1947 Broadway production won the only Tony Award ever given for Best Foreign Production. Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located The Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American Theatre and are presented
• Lady Bracknell's line, "A handbag?", has been claimed to be the single quotation in English drama that has given rise to the most varied interpretations, ranging from incredulous through scandalized to just plain baffled. In Logic an interpretation gives meaning to an artificial or Formal language or to a sentence of such a language by assigning a denotation (extension There is scarcely an actress who has not tried to put her own personal stamp on it, but the most famous is that of Edith Evans, seen both on stage and in the 1952 film The Importance of Being Earnest, who delivered the line loudly in a mixture of horror, incredulity and condescension. Dame Edith Mary Evans DBE ( 8 February 1888 &ndash 14 October 1976) was an actress who had a long and distinguished career on the The Importance of Being Earnest ( 1952) is a British film adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde. ^[5]
• The name 'Miss Prism' is a pun on 'misprision', which has two definitions. Misprision (from O Fr mesprendre mod meprendre to misunderstand is a term of English Law used to describe certain kinds of offence The older is very dark, involving the concealment of official neglect, crime or possibly treason. The more modern meaning closely resembles the character's multiple misunderstandings.
• At the time the play was written Victoria Station in London was actually two adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name. London Victoria is a major London Underground, National Rail and Coach station in the City of Westminster. To the east was the terminal of the decidedly ramshackle London, Chatham and Dover Railway and to the west, the much more fashionable London, Brighton and South Coast Railway—the Brighton Line. The London Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR was a railway company in south-eastern England from 1859 until the 1923 grouping which united it with other companies The London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR (commonly known as "the Brighton line" was a Railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1923 Although the two stations shared a dividing wall, there was no interconnection: it was necessary to walk out into the street to pass from one station to the other. Jack explains that he was found in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station and tries to mitigate the circumstance by assuring Lady Bracknell that it was the more socially acceptable "Brighton line".
• Wilde's plays had reached a pinnacle of success, and anything new from the playwright was eagerly awaited. The press were always hungry for details and would pursue stories about new plots and characters with a vengeance. To combat this Wilde gave the play a working title, Lady Lancing. Lady Lancing was the working title of Oscar Wilde 's masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest. The use of seaside town names for leading characters, or the locations of their inception, can be recognised in all four of Wilde's society plays (the surname of the play's leading character, Worthing, is itself taken from the town where Wilde was staying when he wrote the play). Worthing (ˈwɜrðɪŋ is a large seaside town and a local government borough in West Sussex, England
• Based on his own research, Michael Feingold claims that Wilde drew inspiration for his plot from W. S. Gilbert's Engaged. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 &ndash 29 May 1911 was an English Dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen Engaged is a three-act farcical comedy by W S Gilbert. It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre on October 3 1877, the ^[6]
• Tom Stoppard's 1974 comedy play Travesties, set in Zurich during the First World War, takes as the starting point for its fictional embellishments a troubled production of The Importance of Being Earnest that was historically undertaken by an amateur company whose business manager was the writer James Joyce. Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE (born 3 July 1937 is a British Screenwriter playwright Travesties is a comedic play by Tom Stoppard, first produced at the Aldwych Theatre, London, on June 10, 1974 James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the
• The famous Spanish singer, Enrique Bunbury, named himself after Algernon's imaginary friend Bunbury. Enrique Ortiz de Landázuri Izardui (aka Enrique Bunbury) born August 11, 1967 is a Spanish rock Singer-songwriter.
• The names of Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon in Neil Simon's comedy The Odd Couple were inspired by the Cecily and Gwendolen of Wilde's play. The Odd Couple was a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series as well as other derivative works and spin offs
• In one of his final television appearances, comedian Jim Varney appeared on Viva Variety in a sketch that parodied Wilde's play. James Albert Varney Jr ( June 15, 1949 – February 10, 2000) was an American Actor. Viva Variety was a television show on Comedy Central satirizing European variety shows with characters from the Eastern Bloc. In this case, the "Ernest" in question was Varney's signature character, Ernest P. Worrell. Ernest P Worrell was a fictional character portrayed by American actor Jim Varney in a series of Television commercials and later in a television series
• In the 2004 film Spider-Man 2, this was the play in which Mary Jane starred; she plays Cecily, nearly forgetting to deliver the Act II line "I am glad to hear it" when she notices Peter in the audience. Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American Superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred
• On 19 October 2007, a rare first edition of the play was discovered in a branch of Oxfam in Nantwich, Cheshire, coincidentally in a handbag. Events 202 BCE - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 organizations working with over 3000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice Nantwich is a market town in south Cheshire, England, in the Borough and parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich. Cheshire (or archaically the County of Chester) is a county in North West England. Staff at the shop said they had no idea who donated the items. The book has a mark on the inside cover stating that it was numbered 349 out of 1,000 copies and was sold for £650. [1]

Film versions

• The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film) was directed by Anthony Asquith and stars Michael Denison (Algernon), Michael Redgrave (Jack), Dame Edith Evans (Lady Bracknell), Dame Dorothy Tutin (Cecily), Joan Greenwood (Gwendolen), and Margaret Rutherford (Miss Prism). The Importance of Being Earnest ( 1952) is a British film adaptation of the play by Oscar Wilde. The Honourable Anthony Asquith ( November 9, 1902 – February 20, 1968) was a respected English Film director. John Michael Terence Wellesley Denison CBE (b Doncaster, South Yorkshire November 1, 1915 - d Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE ( 20 March, 1908 — 21 March, 1985) was an English actor author director and Dame Edith Mary Evans DBE ( 8 February 1888 &ndash 14 October 1976) was an actress who had a long and distinguished career on the Dame Dorothy Tutin DBE, ( 8 April, 1930 &ndash 6 August, 2001) was a highly-regarded English Actor of stage Joan Greenwood ( 4 March 1921 – 27 February 1987) was an English actress Dame Margaret Rutherford DBE ( May 11, 1892 &ndash May 22, 1972) was an Academy Award -winning English
• The Importance of Being Earnest (1992 film) was directed by Kurt Baker.
• The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film) stars Colin Firth (Jack), Rupert Everett (Algy), Dame Judi Dench (Lady Bracknell), Reese Witherspoon (Cecily), Frances O'Connor (Gwendolen), Anna Massey (Miss Prism), and Tom Wilkinson (Dr. The Importance of Being Earnest is a 2002 film directed by Oliver Parker, based on Oscar Wilde 's classic Comedy of manners play Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September, 1960) is an English film television and stage Actor. Rupert James Hector Everett (born May 29, 1959) is a two-time Golden Globe -nominated English film Actor and ex- Singer Dame Judith Olivia Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA, (born 9 December, 1934) usually known as Judi Dench, is an English Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22 1976 is an Academy Award winning American actress and Film producer, who has established herself as Frances O'Connor (born 12 June 1967) is an Australian actress. Anna Raymond Massey, CBE (born 11 August 1937) is a British actress. Thomas Jeffery "Tom" Wilkinson OBE (born 12 December 1948) is a two time Academy Award -nominated as well as BAFTA Award Chasuble) and was directed by Oliver Parker. See Also Ol Parker, also a film director Oliver Parker (born 6 September 1960) is an English Film director

Adaptations

• In 1963, Erik Chisholm completed his opera based on the play with Wilde's text as the libretto. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Professor Erik William Chisholm (4 January 1904 &ndash 8 June 1965 was a Scottish Composer and conductor often known as "Scotland’s forgotten composer"
• A musical based on the play called Ernest in Love opened off-Broadway in 1960 to glowing reviews. Ernest in Love is a musical with a book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss. It starred John Irving as Jack and Louis Edmonds as Algernon. Louis Edmonds ( September 24, 1923 - March 3, 2001) was an American Actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana ^[7] The show was later revived and translated into Japanese in 2005 for the Takarazuka Revue in Japan. The Takarazuka Revue (宝塚歌劇団 Takarazuka Kagekidan) is a Japanese all- Female musical theater in the city of Takarazuka Japan

References

1. ^ D'arch Smith, Timothy: Love In Earnest: Some Notes on the Lives and Writings of English "Uranian" Poets from 1889 to 1930 (1970)
2. ^ Aronson, Theo: Prince Eddy and the Homosexual Underworld (1994).
3. ^ D'arch Smith, Timothy: Bunbury - Two Notes on Oscar Wilde (1998)
4. ^ The Times, 2 February 2001
5. ^ See, e. Events 962 - Translatio imperii: Pope John XII crowns Otto I Holy Roman Emperor, the first Holy Roman Emperor Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. g. , http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/drama/story/0,,2245343,00.html
6. ^ Feingold, Michael, "Engaging the Past" (Note the last paragraph, where Feingold writes, "Wilde pillaged this piece for ideas. ")
7. ^ Louis Edmonds in Ernest in Love

External links

• The Importance of Being Earnest on Project Gutenberg
• The Importance of Being Earnest - full text and reviews. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
• The Importance of Being Earnest - Audio Book on LibriVox