cchoi1022/wikitext-103-v1 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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= = = act ii = = =

the garden of the manor house woolton
cecily is studying with her governess miss prism algernon arrives pretending to be ernest worthing and soon charms cecily long fascinated by uncle jack 's hitherto absent black sheep brother she is predisposed to fall for algernon in his role of ernest ( a name she like gwendolen is apparently particularly fond of ) therefore algernon too plans for the rector dr chasuble to rechristen him ernest
jack meanwhile has decided to abandon his double life he arrives in full mourning and announces his brother 's death in paris of a severe chill a story undermined by algernon 's presence in the guise of ernest
gwendolen now enters having run away from home during the temporary absence of the two men she meets cecily each woman indignantly declaring that she is the one engaged to ernest when jack and algernon reappear their deceptions are exposed

= = = act iii = = =

morning @@ room at the manor house woolton
arriving in pursuit of her daughter lady bracknell is astonished to be told that algernon and cecily are engaged the revelation of cecily 's trust fund soon dispels lady bracknell 's initial doubts over the young lady 's suitability but any engagement is forbidden by her guardian jack he will consent only if lady bracknell agrees to his own union with gwendolen something she declines to do
the impasse is broken by the return of miss prism whom lady bracknell recognises as the person who twenty @@ eight years earlier as a family nursemaid had taken a baby boy for a walk in a perambulator ( baby carriage ) and never returned challenged miss prism explains that she had absentmindedly put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the perambulator and the baby in a handbag which she had left at victoria station jack produces the very same handbag showing that he is the lost baby the elder son of lady bracknell 's late sister and thus indeed algernon 's elder brother having acquired such respectable relations he is acceptable as a suitor for gwendolen after all
gwendolen though still insists that she can only love a man named ernest what is her fiancé 's real first name lady bracknell informs jack that as the first @@ born he would have been named after his father general moncrieff jack examines the army lists and discovers that his father 's name and hence his own real name was in fact ernest <unk> was reality all along as the happy couples embrace jack and gwendolen algernon and cecily and even dr chasuble and miss prism lady bracknell complains to her newfound relative my nephew you seem to be displaying signs of triviality on the contrary aunt augusta he replies i 've now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest

= = themes = =


= = = <unk> = = =

arthur ransome described the importance as the most trivial of wilde 's society plays and the only one that produces that peculiar exhilaration of the spirit by which we recognise the beautiful it is he wrote precisely because it is consistently trivial that it is not ugly ellmann says that the importance of being earnest touched on many themes wilde had been building since the 1880s the languor of aesthetic poses was well established and wilde takes it as a starting point for the two protagonists while salome an ideal husband and the picture of dorian gray had dwelt on more serious wrongdoing vice in earnest is represented by algy 's craving for cucumber sandwiches wilde told robert ross that the play 's theme was that we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality the theme is hinted at in the play 's ironic title and earnestness is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue algernon says in act ii one has to be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life but goes on to reproach jack for ' being serious about everything ' blackmail and corruption had haunted the double lives of dorian gray and sir robert chiltern ( in an ideal husband ) but in earnest the protagonists ' duplicity ( algernon 's bunburying and worthing 's double life as jack and ernest ) is undertaken for more innocent purposes largely to avoid unwelcome social obligations while much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues earnest is superficially about nothing at all it refuses to play the game of other dramatists of the period for instance bernard shaw who used their characters to draw audiences to grander ideals

= = = as a satire of society = = =

the play repeatedly mocks victorian traditions and social customs marriage and the pursuit of love in particular in victorian times earnestness was considered to be the over @@ riding societal value originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes it spread to the upper ones too throughout the century the play 's very title with its mocking paradox ( serious people are so because they do not see trivial comedies ) introduces the theme it continues in the drawing room discussion yes but you must be serious about it i hate people who are not serious about meals it is so shallow of them says algernon in act 1 allusions are quick and from multiple angles
wilde managed both to engage with and to mock the genre while providing social commentary and offering reform the men follow traditional matrimonial rites whereby suitors admit their weaknesses to their prospective brides but the foibles they excuse are ridiculous and the farce is built on an absurd confusion of a book and a baby when jack apologises to gwendolen during his marriage proposal it is for not being wicked
<unk> gwendolen it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth can you forgive me
<unk> i can for i feel that you are sure to change
in turn both gwendolen and cecily have the ideal of marrying a man named ernest a popular and respected name at the time gwendolen quite unlike her mother 's methodical analysis of john worthing 's suitability as a husband places her entire faith in a christian name declaring in act i the only really safe name is ernest this is an opinion shared by cecily in act ii i pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called ernest and they indignantly declare that they have been deceived when they find out the men 's real names
wilde embodied society 's rules and rituals artfully into lady bracknell minute attention to the details of her style created a comic effect of assertion by restraint in contrast to her encyclopaedic knowledge of the social distinctions of london 's street names jack 's obscure parentage is subtly evoked he defends himself against her a handbag with the clarification the brighton line at the time victoria station consisted of two separate but adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name to the east was the ramshackle lc & d railway on the west the up @@ market lb & scr the brighton line which went to worthing the fashionable expensive town the gentleman who found baby jack was travelling to at the time ( and after which jack was named )

= = = suggested homosexual subtext = = =

it has been 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 on re @@ reading the play after his release from prison wilde said it was extraordinary reading the play over how i used to toy with that tiger life as one scholar has put it the absolute necessity for homosexuals of the period to need a public mask is a factor contributing to the satire on social disguise
the use of the name earnest may have been a homosexual in @@ joke in 1892 three years before wilde wrote the play john <unk> nicholson had published the book of pederastic poetry love in earnest the sonnet of boys ' names included the verse though frank may ring like silver bell / and cecil softer music claim / they cannot work the miracle / ' tis ernest sets my heart a @@ flame the word earnest may also have been a code @@ word for homosexual as in is he earnest in the same way that is he so and is he musical were employed
sir donald sinden an actor who had met two of the play 's original cast ( irene vanbrugh and allan aynesworth ) and 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 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 he replied in his ringing tones no @@ no nonsense absolute nonsense i would have known
a number of theories have also been put forward to explain the derivation of bunbury and <unk> which are used in the play to imply a secretive double life it may have derived from henry shirley bunbury a <unk> acquaintance of wilde 's youth another suggestion put forward in 1913 by aleister crowley who knew wilde was that bunbury was a combination word that wilde had once taken train to banbury met a schoolboy there and arranged a second secret meeting with him at sunbury

= = dramatic analysis = =


= = = use of language = = =

while wilde had long been famous for dialogue and his use of language raby ( 1988 ) argues that he achieved a unity and mastery in earnest that was unmatched in his other plays except perhaps salomé while his earlier comedies suffer from an unevenness resulting from the thematic clash between the trivial and the serious earnest achieves a pitch @@ perfect style that allows these to dissolve there are three different registers detectable in the play the <unk> insouciance of jack and algernon established early with algernon 's exchange with his manservant betrays an underlying unity despite their differing attitudes the formidable pronouncements of lady bracknell are as startling for her use of hyperbole and rhetorical extravagance as for her disconcerting opinions in contrast the speech of dr chasuble and miss prism is distinguished by pedantic precept and idiosyncratic diversion furthermore the play is full of epigrams and paradoxes max beerbohm described it as littered with chiselled <unk> witticisms unrelated to action or character of which he found half a dozen to be of the highest order
lady bracknell 's line a handbag has been called one of the most malleable in english drama lending itself to interpretations ranging from incredulous or scandalised to baffled edith evans both on stage and in the 1952 film delivered the line loudly in a mixture of horror incredulity and condescension stockard channing in the gaiety theatre dublin in 2010 hushed the line in a critic 's words with a barely audible ' a handbag ' rapidly swallowed up with a sharp intake of breath an understated take to be sure but with such a well @@ known play packed full of witticisms and aphorisms with a life of their own it 's the little things that make a difference

= = = characterisation = = =

though wilde deployed characters that were by now familiar the dandy lord the overbearing matriarch the woman with a past the puritan young lady his treatment is subtler than in his earlier comedies lady bracknell for instance embodies respectable upper @@ class society but <unk> notes how her development from the familiar overbearing duchess into a quirkier and more disturbing character can be traced through wilde 's revisions of the play for the two young men wilde presents not stereotypical stage dudes but intelligent beings who as jackson puts it speak like their creator in well @@ formed complete sentences and rarely use slang or vogue @@ words dr chasuble and miss prism are characterised by a few light touches of detail their old @@ fashioned enthusiasms and the canon 's fastidious pedantry pared down by wilde during his many redrafts of the text

= = = structure and genre = = =

ransome argues that wilde freed himself by abandoning the melodrama the basic structure which underlies his earlier social comedies and basing the story entirely on the earnest / ernest verbal conceit now freed from living up to any drama more serious than conversation wilde could now amuse himself to a fuller extent with quips bons @@ mots epigrams and repartee that really had little to do with the business at hand
the genre of the importance of being earnest has been deeply debated by scholars and critics alike who have placed the play within a wide variety of genres ranging from parody to satire in his critique of wilde foster argues that the play creates a world where real values are inverted [ and ] reason and unreason are interchanged similarly wilde 's use of dialogue mocks the upper classes of victorian england lending the play a satirical tone reinhart further stipulates that the use of farcical humour to mock the upper classes merits the play both as satire and as drama

= = publication = =


= = = first edition = = =

wilde 's two final comedies an ideal husband and the importance of being earnest were still on stage in london at the time of his prosecution and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public after two years in prison with hard labour wilde went into exile in paris sick and depressed his reputation destroyed in england in 1898 when no @@ one else would leonard smithers agreed with wilde to publish the two final plays wilde proved to be a diligent <unk> sending detailed instructions on stage directions character listings and the presentation of the book and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside ellmann argues that the proofs show a man very much in command of himself and of the play wilde 's name did not appear on the cover it was by the author of lady windermere 's fan his return to work was brief though as he refused to write anything else i can write but have lost the joy of writing
on 19 october 2007 a first edition ( number 349 of 1 @@ 000 ) was discovered inside a handbag in an oxfam shop in nantwich cheshire staff were unable to trace the donor it was sold for £ 650

= = = in translation = = =

the importance of being earnest 's popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages though the homophonous pun in the title ( ernest a masculine proper name and earnest the virtue of steadfastness and seriousness ) poses a special problem for translators the easiest case of a suitable translation of the pun perpetuating its sense and meaning may have been its translation into german since english and german are closely related languages german provides an equivalent adjective ( ernst ) and also a matching masculine proper name ( ernst ) the meaning and tenor of the wordplay are exactly the same yet there are many different possible titles in german mostly concerning sentence structure the two most common ones are bunbury oder ernst / ernst sein ist alles and bunbury oder wie <unk> es ist ernst / ernst zu sein in a study of italian translations adrian <unk> found thirteen different versions using eight titles since wordplay is often unique to the language in question translators are faced with a choice of either staying faithful to the original in this case the english adjective and virtue earnest or creating a similar pun in their own language
four main strategies have been used by translators the first leaves all characters ' names unchanged and in their original spelling thus the name is respected and readers reminded of the original cultural setting but the liveliness of the pun is lost eva <unk> varied this source @@ oriented approach by using both the english christian names and the adjective earnest thus preserving the pun and the english character of the play but possibly straining an italian reader a third group of translators replaced ernest with a name that also represents a virtue in the target language favouring transparency for readers in translation over fidelity to the original for instance in italian these versions variously call the play l <unk> di essere franco / severo / <unk> the given names being respectively the values of honesty propriety and loyalty french offers a closer pun constant is both a first name and the quality of steadfastness so the play is commonly known as de l <unk> d 'être constant though jean anouilh translated the play under the title il est important d 'être aimé ( aimé is a name which also means beloved ) these translators differ in their attitude to the original english honorific titles some change them all or none but most leave a mix partially as a compensation for the added loss of englishness lastly one translation gave the name an italianate touch by rendering it as ernesto this work liberally mixed proper nouns from both languages

= = adaptations = =


= = = film = = =

apart from multiple made @@ for @@ television versions the importance of being earnest has been adapted for the english @@ language cinema at least three times first in 1952 by anthony asquith who adapted the screenplay and directed it michael denison ( algernon ) michael redgrave ( jack ) edith evans ( lady bracknell ) dorothy tutin ( cecily ) joan greenwood ( gwendolen ) and margaret rutherford ( miss prism ) and miles malleson ( canon chasuble ) were among the cast in 1992 kurt baker directed a version using an all @@ black cast with daryl keith roach as jack wren t brown as algernon ann weldon as lady bracknell <unk> chapman as cecily chris calloway as gwendolen cch pounder as miss prism and brock peters as doctor chasuble set in the united states oliver parker an english director who had previously adapted an ideal husband by wilde made the 2002 film it stars colin firth ( jack ) rupert everett ( algy ) judi dench ( lady bracknell ) reese witherspoon ( cecily ) frances o 'connor ( gwendolen ) anna massey ( miss prism ) and tom wilkinson ( canon chasuble ) parker 's adaptation includes the <unk> solicitor mr <unk> who pursues jack to hertfordshire ( present in wilde 's original draft but cut at the behest of the play 's first producer ) algernon too is pursued by a group of creditors in the opening scene

= = = operas and musicals = = =

in 1960 ernest in love was staged off @@ broadway the japanese all @@ female musical theatre troupe takarazuka revue staged this musical in 2005 in two productions one by moon troupe and the other one by flower troupe
in 1963 erik chisholm composed an opera from the play using wilde 's text as the libretto
in 1964 gerd <unk> composed the musical mein freund bunbury based on the play 1964 premiered at <unk> theater berlin
according to a study by robert <unk> by 2002 there had been least eight adaptations of the play as a musical though never with conspicuous success the earliest such version was a 1927 american show entitled oh earnest the journalist mark <unk> comments the libretto of a 1957 musical adaptation half in earnest deposited in the british library is scarcely more encouraging the curtain rises on algy strumming away at the piano singing ' i can play <unk> lane ' other songs include almost predictably ' a <unk> i must go '
gerald barry created the 2011 opera the importance of being earnest commissioned by the los angeles philharmonic and the barbican centre in london it was premiered in los angeles in 2011 the stage premiere was given by the opéra national de lorraine in nancy france in 2013

= = = radio and television = = =

there have been many radio versions of the play in 1925 the bbc broadcast an adaptation with hesketh pearson as jack worthing further broadcasts of the play followed in 1927 and 1936 in 1977 bbc radio 4 broadcast the four @@ act version of the play with fabia drake as lady bracknell richard pasco as jack jeremy clyde as algy maurice denham as canon chasuble sylvia coleridge as miss prism barbara leigh @@ hunt as gwendolen and prunella scales as cecily the production was later released on cd
to commemorate the centenary of the first performance of the play radio 4 broadcast a new adaptation on 13 february 1995 directed by glyn dearman it featured judi dench as lady bracknell michael hordern as lane michael sheen as jack worthing martin clunes as algernon moncrieff john moffatt as canon chasuble miriam margolyes as miss prism samantha bond as gwendolen and amanda root as cecily the production was later issued on audio cassette
on 13 december 2000 bbc radio 3 broadcast a new adaptation directed by howard davies starring geraldine mcewan as lady bracknell simon russell beale as jack worthing julian wadham as algernon moncrieff geoffrey palmer as canon chasuble celia imrie as miss prism victoria hamilton as gwendolen and emma fielding as cecily with music composed by dominic <unk> the production was released on audio cassette
a 1964 commercial television adaptation starred ian carmichael patrick macnee susannah york fenella fielding pamela brown and irene <unk>
bbc television transmissions of the play have included a 1974 play of the month version starring coral browne as lady bracknell with michael jayston julian holloway gemma jones and celia bannerman stuart burge directed another adaptation in 1986 with a cast including gemma jones alec mccowen paul mcgann and joan plowright
it was adapted for australian tv in 1957

= = = commercial recordings = = =

gielgud 's performance is preserved on an emi audio recording dating from 1952 which also captures edith evans 's lady bracknell the cast also includes roland culver ( algy ) jean cadell ( miss prism ) pamela brown ( gwendolen ) and celia johnson ( cecily )
other audio recordings include a theatre masterworks version from 1953 directed and narrated by margaret webster with a cast including maurice evans lucile watson and mildred natwick a 1989 version by california artists radio theatre featuring dan o 'herlihy jeanette nolan les tremayne and richard erdman and one by la theatre works issued in 2009 featuring charles busch james marsters and andrea bowen


= lloyd mathews =

= = = act ii = = =

the garden of the manor house woolton

cecily is studying with her governess miss prism algernon arrives pretending to be ernest worthing and soon charms cecily long fascinated by uncle jack 's hitherto absent black sheep brother she is predisposed to fall for algernon in his role of ernest ( a name she like gwendolen is apparently particularly fond of ) therefore algernon too plans for the rector dr chasuble to rechristen him ernest

jack meanwhile has decided to abandon his double life he arrives in full mourning and announces his brother 's death in paris of a severe chill a story undermined by algernon 's presence in the guise of ernest

gwendolen now enters having run away from home during the temporary absence of the two men she meets cecily each woman indignantly declaring that she is the one engaged to ernest when jack and algernon reappear their deceptions are exposed

= = = act iii = = =

morning @@ room at the manor house woolton

arriving in pursuit of her daughter lady bracknell is astonished to be told that algernon and cecily are engaged the revelation of cecily 's trust fund soon dispels lady bracknell 's initial doubts over the young lady 's suitability but any engagement is forbidden by her guardian jack he will consent only if lady bracknell agrees to his own union with gwendolen something she declines to do

the impasse is broken by the return of miss prism whom lady bracknell recognises as the person who twenty @@ eight years earlier as a family nursemaid had taken a baby boy for a walk in a perambulator ( baby carriage ) and never returned challenged miss prism explains that she had absentmindedly put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the perambulator and the baby in a handbag which she had left at victoria station jack produces the very same handbag showing that he is the lost baby the elder son of lady bracknell 's late sister and thus indeed algernon 's elder brother having acquired such respectable relations he is acceptable as a suitor for gwendolen after all

gwendolen though still insists that she can only love a man named ernest what is her fiancé 's real first name lady bracknell informs jack that as the first @@ born he would have been named after his father general moncrieff jack examines the army lists and discovers that his father 's name and hence his own real name was in fact ernest <unk> was reality all along as the happy couples embrace jack and gwendolen algernon and cecily and even dr chasuble and miss prism lady bracknell complains to her newfound relative my nephew you seem to be displaying signs of triviality on the contrary aunt augusta he replies i 've now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest

= = themes = =

= = = <unk> = = =

arthur ransome described the importance as the most trivial of wilde 's society plays and the only one that produces that peculiar exhilaration of the spirit by which we recognise the beautiful it is he wrote precisely because it is consistently trivial that it is not ugly ellmann says that the importance of being earnest touched on many themes wilde had been building since the 1880s the languor of aesthetic poses was well established and wilde takes it as a starting point for the two protagonists while salome an ideal husband and the picture of dorian gray had dwelt on more serious wrongdoing vice in earnest is represented by algy 's craving for cucumber sandwiches wilde told robert ross that the play 's theme was that we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality the theme is hinted at in the play 's ironic title and earnestness is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue algernon says in act ii one has to be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life but goes on to reproach jack for ' being serious about everything ' blackmail and corruption had haunted the double lives of dorian gray and sir robert chiltern ( in an ideal husband ) but in earnest the protagonists ' duplicity ( algernon 's bunburying and worthing 's double life as jack and ernest ) is undertaken for more innocent purposes largely to avoid unwelcome social obligations while much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues earnest is superficially about nothing at all it refuses to play the game of other dramatists of the period for instance bernard shaw who used their characters to draw audiences to grander ideals

= = = as a satire of society = = =

the play repeatedly mocks victorian traditions and social customs marriage and the pursuit of love in particular in victorian times earnestness was considered to be the over @@ riding societal value originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes it spread to the upper ones too throughout the century the play 's very title with its mocking paradox ( serious people are so because they do not see trivial comedies ) introduces the theme it continues in the drawing room discussion yes but you must be serious about it i hate people who are not serious about meals it is so shallow of them says algernon in act 1 allusions are quick and from multiple angles

wilde managed both to engage with and to mock the genre while providing social commentary and offering reform the men follow traditional matrimonial rites whereby suitors admit their weaknesses to their prospective brides but the foibles they excuse are ridiculous and the farce is built on an absurd confusion of a book and a baby when jack apologises to gwendolen during his marriage proposal it is for not being wicked

<unk> gwendolen it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth can you forgive me

<unk> i can for i feel that you are sure to change

in turn both gwendolen and cecily have the ideal of marrying a man named ernest a popular and respected name at the time gwendolen quite unlike her mother 's methodical analysis of john worthing 's suitability as a husband places her entire faith in a christian name declaring in act i the only really safe name is ernest this is an opinion shared by cecily in act ii i pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called ernest and they indignantly declare that they have been deceived when they find out the men 's real names

wilde embodied society 's rules and rituals artfully into lady bracknell minute attention to the details of her style created a comic effect of assertion by restraint in contrast to her encyclopaedic knowledge of the social distinctions of london 's street names jack 's obscure parentage is subtly evoked he defends himself against her a handbag with the clarification the brighton line at the time victoria station consisted of two separate but adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name to the east was the ramshackle lc & d railway on the west the up @@ market lb & scr the brighton line which went to worthing the fashionable expensive town the gentleman who found baby jack was travelling to at the time ( and after which jack was named )

= = = suggested homosexual subtext = = =

it has been 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 on re @@ reading the play after his release from prison wilde said it was extraordinary reading the play over how i used to toy with that tiger life as one scholar has put it the absolute necessity for homosexuals of the period to need a public mask is a factor contributing to the satire on social disguise

the use of the name earnest may have been a homosexual in @@ joke in 1892 three years before wilde wrote the play john <unk> nicholson had published the book of pederastic poetry love in earnest the sonnet of boys ' names included the verse though frank may ring like silver bell / and cecil softer music claim / they cannot work the miracle / ' tis ernest sets my heart a @@ flame the word earnest may also have been a code @@ word for homosexual as in is he earnest in the same way that is he so and is he musical were employed

sir donald sinden an actor who had met two of the play 's original cast ( irene vanbrugh and allan aynesworth ) and 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 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 he replied in his ringing tones no @@ no nonsense absolute nonsense i would have known

a number of theories have also been put forward to explain the derivation of bunbury and <unk> which are used in the play to imply a secretive double life it may have derived from henry shirley bunbury a <unk> acquaintance of wilde 's youth another suggestion put forward in 1913 by aleister crowley who knew wilde was that bunbury was a combination word that wilde had once taken train to banbury met a schoolboy there and arranged a second secret meeting with him at sunbury

= = dramatic analysis = =

= = = use of language = = =

while wilde had long been famous for dialogue and his use of language raby ( 1988 ) argues that he achieved a unity and mastery in earnest that was unmatched in his other plays except perhaps salomé while his earlier comedies suffer from an unevenness resulting from the thematic clash between the trivial and the serious earnest achieves a pitch @@ perfect style that allows these to dissolve there are three different registers detectable in the play the <unk> insouciance of jack and algernon established early with algernon 's exchange with his manservant betrays an underlying unity despite their differing attitudes the formidable pronouncements of lady bracknell are as startling for her use of hyperbole and rhetorical extravagance as for her disconcerting opinions in contrast the speech of dr chasuble and miss prism is distinguished by pedantic precept and idiosyncratic diversion furthermore the play is full of epigrams and paradoxes max beerbohm described it as littered with chiselled <unk> witticisms unrelated to action or character of which he found half a dozen to be of the highest order

lady bracknell 's line a handbag has been called one of the most malleable in english drama lending itself to interpretations ranging from incredulous or scandalised to baffled edith evans both on stage and in the 1952 film delivered the line loudly in a mixture of horror incredulity and condescension stockard channing in the gaiety theatre dublin in 2010 hushed the line in a critic 's words with a barely audible ' a handbag ' rapidly swallowed up with a sharp intake of breath an understated take to be sure but with such a well @@ known play packed full of witticisms and aphorisms with a life of their own it 's the little things that make a difference

= = = characterisation = = =

though wilde deployed characters that were by now familiar the dandy lord the overbearing matriarch the woman with a past the puritan young lady his treatment is subtler than in his earlier comedies lady bracknell for instance embodies respectable upper @@ class society but <unk> notes how her development from the familiar overbearing duchess into a quirkier and more disturbing character can be traced through wilde 's revisions of the play for the two young men wilde presents not stereotypical stage dudes but intelligent beings who as jackson puts it speak like their creator in well @@ formed complete sentences and rarely use slang or vogue @@ words dr chasuble and miss prism are characterised by a few light touches of detail their old @@ fashioned enthusiasms and the canon 's fastidious pedantry pared down by wilde during his many redrafts of the text

= = = structure and genre = = =

ransome argues that wilde freed himself by abandoning the melodrama the basic structure which underlies his earlier social comedies and basing the story entirely on the earnest / ernest verbal conceit now freed from living up to any drama more serious than conversation wilde could now amuse himself to a fuller extent with quips bons @@ mots epigrams and repartee that really had little to do with the business at hand

the genre of the importance of being earnest has been deeply debated by scholars and critics alike who have placed the play within a wide variety of genres ranging from parody to satire in his critique of wilde foster argues that the play creates a world where real values are inverted [ and ] reason and unreason are interchanged similarly wilde 's use of dialogue mocks the upper classes of victorian england lending the play a satirical tone reinhart further stipulates that the use of farcical humour to mock the upper classes merits the play both as satire and as drama

= = publication = =

= = = first edition = = =

wilde 's two final comedies an ideal husband and the importance of being earnest were still on stage in london at the time of his prosecution and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public after two years in prison with hard labour wilde went into exile in paris sick and depressed his reputation destroyed in england in 1898 when no @@ one else would leonard smithers agreed with wilde to publish the two final plays wilde proved to be a diligent <unk> sending detailed instructions on stage directions character listings and the presentation of the book and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside ellmann argues that the proofs show a man very much in command of himself and of the play wilde 's name did not appear on the cover it was by the author of lady windermere 's fan his return to work was brief though as he refused to write anything else i can write but have lost the joy of writing

on 19 october 2007 a first edition ( number 349 of 1 @@ 000 ) was discovered inside a handbag in an oxfam shop in nantwich cheshire staff were unable to trace the donor it was sold for £ 650

= = = in translation = = =

the importance of being earnest 's popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages though the homophonous pun in the title ( ernest a masculine proper name and earnest the virtue of steadfastness and seriousness ) poses a special problem for translators the easiest case of a suitable translation of the pun perpetuating its sense and meaning may have been its translation into german since english and german are closely related languages german provides an equivalent adjective ( ernst ) and also a matching masculine proper name ( ernst ) the meaning and tenor of the wordplay are exactly the same yet there are many different possible titles in german mostly concerning sentence structure the two most common ones are bunbury oder ernst / ernst sein ist alles and bunbury oder wie <unk> es ist ernst / ernst zu sein in a study of italian translations adrian <unk> found thirteen different versions using eight titles since wordplay is often unique to the language in question translators are faced with a choice of either staying faithful to the original in this case the english adjective and virtue earnest or creating a similar pun in their own language

four main strategies have been used by translators the first leaves all characters ' names unchanged and in their original spelling thus the name is respected and readers reminded of the original cultural setting but the liveliness of the pun is lost eva <unk> varied this source @@ oriented approach by using both the english christian names and the adjective earnest thus preserving the pun and the english character of the play but possibly straining an italian reader a third group of translators replaced ernest with a name that also represents a virtue in the target language favouring transparency for readers in translation over fidelity to the original for instance in italian these versions variously call the play l <unk> di essere franco / severo / <unk> the given names being respectively the values of honesty propriety and loyalty french offers a closer pun constant is both a first name and the quality of steadfastness so the play is commonly known as de l <unk> d 'être constant though jean anouilh translated the play under the title il est important d 'être aimé ( aimé is a name which also means beloved ) these translators differ in their attitude to the original english honorific titles some change them all or none but most leave a mix partially as a compensation for the added loss of englishness lastly one translation gave the name an italianate touch by rendering it as ernesto this work liberally mixed proper nouns from both languages

= = adaptations = =

= = = film = = =

apart from multiple made @@ for @@ television versions the importance of being earnest has been adapted for the english @@ language cinema at least three times first in 1952 by anthony asquith who adapted the screenplay and directed it michael denison ( algernon ) michael redgrave ( jack ) edith evans ( lady bracknell ) dorothy tutin ( cecily ) joan greenwood ( gwendolen ) and margaret rutherford ( miss prism ) and miles malleson ( canon chasuble ) were among the cast in 1992 kurt baker directed a version using an all @@ black cast with daryl keith roach as jack wren t brown as algernon ann weldon as lady bracknell <unk> chapman as cecily chris calloway as gwendolen cch pounder as miss prism and brock peters as doctor chasuble set in the united states oliver parker an english director who had previously adapted an ideal husband by wilde made the 2002 film it stars colin firth ( jack ) rupert everett ( algy ) judi dench ( lady bracknell ) reese witherspoon ( cecily ) frances o 'connor ( gwendolen ) anna massey ( miss prism ) and tom wilkinson ( canon chasuble ) parker 's adaptation includes the <unk> solicitor mr <unk> who pursues jack to hertfordshire ( present in wilde 's original draft but cut at the behest of the play 's first producer ) algernon too is pursued by a group of creditors in the opening scene

= = = operas and musicals = = =

in 1960 ernest in love was staged off @@ broadway the japanese all @@ female musical theatre troupe takarazuka revue staged this musical in 2005 in two productions one by moon troupe and the other one by flower troupe

in 1963 erik chisholm composed an opera from the play using wilde 's text as the libretto

in 1964 gerd <unk> composed the musical mein freund bunbury based on the play 1964 premiered at <unk> theater berlin

according to a study by robert <unk> by 2002 there had been least eight adaptations of the play as a musical though never with conspicuous success the earliest such version was a 1927 american show entitled oh earnest the journalist mark <unk> comments the libretto of a 1957 musical adaptation half in earnest deposited in the british library is scarcely more encouraging the curtain rises on algy strumming away at the piano singing ' i can play <unk> lane ' other songs include almost predictably ' a <unk> i must go '

gerald barry created the 2011 opera the importance of being earnest commissioned by the los angeles philharmonic and the barbican centre in london it was premiered in los angeles in 2011 the stage premiere was given by the opéra national de lorraine in nancy france in 2013

= = = radio and television = = =

there have been many radio versions of the play in 1925 the bbc broadcast an adaptation with hesketh pearson as jack worthing further broadcasts of the play followed in 1927 and 1936 in 1977 bbc radio 4 broadcast the four @@ act version of the play with fabia drake as lady bracknell richard pasco as jack jeremy clyde as algy maurice denham as canon chasuble sylvia coleridge as miss prism barbara leigh @@ hunt as gwendolen and prunella scales as cecily the production was later released on cd

to commemorate the centenary of the first performance of the play radio 4 broadcast a new adaptation on 13 february 1995 directed by glyn dearman it featured judi dench as lady bracknell michael hordern as lane michael sheen as jack worthing martin clunes as algernon moncrieff john moffatt as canon chasuble miriam margolyes as miss prism samantha bond as gwendolen and amanda root as cecily the production was later issued on audio cassette

on 13 december 2000 bbc radio 3 broadcast a new adaptation directed by howard davies starring geraldine mcewan as lady bracknell simon russell beale as jack worthing julian wadham as algernon moncrieff geoffrey palmer as canon chasuble celia imrie as miss prism victoria hamilton as gwendolen and emma fielding as cecily with music composed by dominic <unk> the production was released on audio cassette

a 1964 commercial television adaptation starred ian carmichael patrick macnee susannah york fenella fielding pamela brown and irene <unk>

bbc television transmissions of the play have included a 1974 play of the month version starring coral browne as lady bracknell with michael jayston julian holloway gemma jones and celia bannerman stuart burge directed another adaptation in 1986 with a cast including gemma jones alec mccowen paul mcgann and joan plowright

it was adapted for australian tv in 1957

= = = commercial recordings = = =

gielgud 's performance is preserved on an emi audio recording dating from 1952 which also captures edith evans 's lady bracknell the cast also includes roland culver ( algy ) jean cadell ( miss prism ) pamela brown ( gwendolen ) and celia johnson ( cecily )

other audio recordings include a theatre masterworks version from 1953 directed and narrated by margaret webster with a cast including maurice evans lucile watson and mildred natwick a 1989 version by california artists radio theatre featuring dan o 'herlihy jeanette nolan les tremayne and richard erdman and one by la theatre works issued in 2009 featuring charles busch james marsters and andrea bowen

= lloyd mathews =