I recommend this book because it is one of the funniest and most delightful social satires that I’ve read. No other plays so colorfully pokes fun at Victorian high society. I read it when I was in high school when we had to analyze the play but on re-reading it, I find it no less hilarious. It is no wonder that The Importance of Being Earnest is considered to be Oscar Wilde’s timeless classic. The playwright’s trademark sardonic wit permeates every part of the play – so much so that almost every line of the play is quotable.
One interesting aspect of this play is hinted by the subtitle: “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People”. The subject matters that the play touched upon are all important: love and marriage, divorce and illegitimacy, education, class distinctions, the real versus the ideal, and death. But all these “serious” topics are treated by the play’s characters with trivial, off-hand, and insouciant remarks. A few examples should suffice:
On Class: “Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?”
On Education: “I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
On Death: “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
On Married Life: “No married man is ever attractive except to his wife. And often, I’ve been told, not even to her.”
When asked if there is a philosophy behind this play, Wilde glibly replies (with characteristic irony): “We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.” It is then no wonder that “serious” critics and playwrights of the time (like George Bernard Shaw) found this play to be devoid of any merits. But all seriousness aside, The Importance of Being Earnest is just plain funny stuff – a comedic masterpiece. The plot of the play is too intricate to summarize even in brief – the four main lovers (Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Cecily Cardew, Gwendolen Fairfax) are sometimes partners, sometimes competitors, and at all times trying to hide something from each other. While no one is in name or in fact, Earnest, everyone either pretends to be or pursues this ideal. Wilde managed to keep this delightful irony to the very end of the play – even the very last line of the play when Jack Worthing proclaimed to his Aunt Augusta: “I’ve realized for the first time in my life the Importance of Being Earnest” is not an earnest statement.
Bottom line: If you want a real comedy to brighten your day, forget about a sitcom or a funny movie which can often be juvenile, crass, tasteless, and/or too dependent on physical humor – do yourself a favor instead and read The Importance of Being Earnest. You’ll thank me for it, earnestly!