¡Descarga The Importance of Being Earnest y más Apuntes en PDF de Teatro solo en Docsity! The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde lived in a time of contrasts: The Victorian Age (1830-1901). The Victorian Age is known forits hypocrisy, its double moral in a rigid and moralist society. In this time, everybody wants toshow pureness and chastity, but,from doors onwards, things were very different. People, mostly aristocracy, preached about morality, chastity, sinfulness and truth, but they were the first to break all. Aristocracy, the ones who defended these the most, were also the ones to make fun of it. They were very puritans on their public life, but, whenthey were at home, they were all libertines. So, that is the theme of a lot of incredible writes, novels as well as greats theatre plays. Writers wanted to show their corrupted society by reflecting it in their works, as made Robert Luis Stevenson with his novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Another work that also shows perfectly this duality is The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde (Ireland, 1854-1900), was novelist, poet and playwright. He managed to be successful in all this areas at ones. Wilde is known also of being quite polemic. All his life was characterized by his libertinism and this were his sentence. At the end of his life, he was accused for maintaining sexual relationships with a noble man, Albert Douglas, Marquis of Queensberry. Due to that, Wilde was putted in jail. When he finally was free, he got a severe otitis, which eventually turned into a strong meningitis. Wilde died in 1900. Wilde’s theatre, as I previously mentioned, reflects the contrasts of the Victorian society, but with a touch of comedy. He manages to show it with a style that anybody of that time was offended. Despite the characters shared the faults of people of that time, they were so caricaturized that they did not felt shame. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) plays with that as well as with the name of the main character, Ernest, that it is phonetically exactly as earnest. Ernest is a man’s name, but earnest is someone with serious intentions. The main character of this work, Jack, has a double life: in one, he is Jack, and in the other he is Ernest. Jack, known to Algernon, a wealthy men from London, as Ernest, lives a respectable life in the country providing an example to his young ward Cecily. Algernon lives in luxury in London, as I said, and has invented an imaginary invalid friend, Bunbury, to whom he visits in the country whenever an unappealing social engagement presents to him. Jack has also invented a character - a wayward younger brother called Ernest, whom he uses as pretext for going up to London and enjoy. Jack wants to marry Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen, but must first convince her mother, Lady Bracknell, of the respectability of his family. For Jack, having been abandoned in a handbag at Victoria station, this is quite a difficult task. Algernon visits Jack’s house in the country and introduces himself to Cecily as Ernest, knowing that Cecily is already fascinated by tales of Ernest's wickedness. He further wins her over and they become engaged. Shortly after, Jack arrives home announcing Ernest’s death. This sets off a series
