Who was Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde was an
Anglo-Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and critic. He is regarded as one of
the greatest playwrights of the Victorian Era.
In his lifetime he wrote nine plays, one novel, and numerous poems, short
stories, and essays.
Wilde was a proponent of the Aesthetic movement, which emphasized aesthetic
values more than moral or social themes. This doctrine is most clearly
summarized in the phrase 'art for art's sake'.
Besides literary accomplishments, he is also famous, or perhaps infamous, for
his wit, flamboyance, and affairs with men. He was tried and imprisoned for his
homosexual relationship (then considered a crime) with the son of an
aristocrat.
Fast Facts
Birth name: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Birth date: October 16, 1854
Birth place: Dublin, Ireland
Nationality: Irish
Educated: Trinity College (Dublin)
Magdalen College
(Oxford)
Father: Sir William Wilde (eye doctor)
Mother: Jane Francesca Elgee (poet and journalist)
Siblings: brother William, sister Isola
Spouse: Constance Lloyd
Children: two sons - Cyril and Vyvyan
Occupation: Playwright, novelist, poet, editor, critic
Period: Victorian era (1837–1901)
Literary movement: Aestheticism
Famous Works:
·
The Picture of Dorian
Gray (novel)
·
The Importance of Being
Earnest (play)
·
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
(poem)
Died: November 30, 1900 (aged 46) in Paris, France
Resting place: Le Pére Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
Jack Worthing, the play’s
protagonist, is a pillar of the community in Hertfordshire, where he is
guardian to Cecily Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-year-old granddaughter of the
late Thomas Cardew, who found and adopted Jack when he was a baby. In
Hertfordshire, Jack has responsibilities: he is a major landowner and justice
of the peace, with tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and other
employees all dependent on him. For years, he has also pretended to have an
irresponsible black-sheep brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life in
pursuit of pleasure and is always getting into trouble of a sort that requires
Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely Jack’s
alibi, a phantom that allows him to disappear for days at a time and do as he
likes. No one but Jack knows that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack
goes by in London, which is where he really goes on these occasions—probably to
pursue the very sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his imaginary
brother.
Jack is in love with Gwendolen
Fairfax, the cousin of his best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When the play
opens, Algernon, who knows Jack as Ernest, has begun to suspect something,
having found an inscription inside Jack’s cigarette case addressed to “Uncle
Jack” from someone who refers to herself as “little Cecily.” Algernon suspects
that Jack may be leading a double life, a practice he seems to regard as
commonplace and indispensable to modern life. He calls a person who leads a
double life a “Bunburyist,” after a nonexistent friend he pretends to have, a
chronic invalid named Bunbury, to whose deathbed he is forever being summoned
whenever he wants to get out of some tiresome social obligation.
At the beginning of Act I, Jack
drops in unexpectedly on Algernon and announces that he intends to propose to
Gwendolen. Algernon confronts him with the cigarette case and forces him to
come clean, demanding to know who “Jack” and “Cecily” are. Jack confesses that
his name isn’t really Ernest and that Cecily is his ward, a responsibility
imposed on him by his adoptive father’s will. Jack also tells Algernon about
his fictional brother. Jack says he’s been thinking of killing off this fake
brother, since Cecily has been showing too active an interest in him. Without
meaning to, Jack describes Cecily in terms that catch Algernon’s attention and
make him even more interested in her than he is already.
Gwendolen and her mother, Lady
Bracknell, arrive, which gives Jack an opportunity to propose to Gwendolen.
Jack is delighted to discover that Gwendolen returns his affections, but he is
alarmed to learn that Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest, which she says
“inspires absolute confidence.” Gwendolen makes clear that she would not
consider marrying a man who was not named Ernest.
Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to
determine his eligibility as a possible son-in-law, and during this interview
she asks about his family background. When Jack explains that he has no idea
who his parents were and that he was found, by the man who adopted him, in a
handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell is scandalized.
She forbids the match between Jack and Gwendolen and sweeps out of the house.
In Act II, Algernon shows up at
Jack’s country estate posing as Jack’s brother Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack, having
decided that Ernest has outlived his usefulness, arrives home in deep mourning,
full of a story about Ernest having died suddenly in Paris. He is enraged to
find Algernon there masquerading as Ernest but has to go along with the
charade. If he doesn’t, his own lies and deceptions will be revealed.
While Jack changes out of his
mourning clothes, Algernon, who has fallen hopelessly in love with Cecily, asks
her to marry him. He is surprised to discover that Cecily already considers
that they are engaged, and he is charmed when she reveals that her fascination
with “Uncle Jack’s brother” led her to invent an elaborate romance between
herself and him several months ago. Algernon is less enchanted to learn that
part of Cecily’s interest in him derives from the name Ernest, which,
unconsciously echoing Gwendolen, she says “inspires absolute confidence.”
Algernon goes off in search of Dr.
Chasuble, the local rector, to see about getting himself christened Ernest.
Meanwhile, Gwendolen arrives, having decided to pay Jack an unexpected visit.
Gwendolen is shown into the garden, where Cecily orders tea and attempts to
play hostess. Cecily has no idea how Gwendolen figures into Jack’s life, and
Gwendolen, for her part, has no idea who Cecily is. Gwendolen initially thinks
Cecily is a visitor to the Manor House and is disconcerted to learn that Cecily
is “Mr. Worthing’s ward.” She notes that Ernest has never mentioned having a
ward, and Cecily explains that it is not Ernest Worthing who
is her guardian but his brother Jack and, in fact, that she is engaged to be
married to Ernest Worthing. Gwendolen points out that this is impossible as she
herself is engaged to Ernest Worthing. The tea party degenerates into a war of
manners.
Jack and Algernon arrive toward the
climax of this confrontation, each having separately made arrangements with Dr.
Chasuble to be christened Ernest later that day. Each of the young ladies
points out that the other has been deceived: Cecily informs Gwendolen that her
fiancé is really named Jack and Gwendolen informs Cecily that hers is really called
Algernon. The two women demand to know where Jack’s brother Ernest is, since
both of them are engaged to be married to him. Jack is forced to admit that he
has no brother and that Ernest is a complete fiction. Both women are shocked
and furious, and they retire to the house arm in arm.
Act III takes place in the drawing
room of the Manor House, where Cecily and Gwendolen have retired. When Jack and
Algernon enter from the garden, the two women confront them. Cecily asks
Algernon why he pretended to be her guardian’s brother. Algernon tells her he
did it in order to meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack whether he pretended to have a
brother in order to come into London to see her as often as possible, and she
interprets his evasive reply as an affirmation. The women are somewhat appeased
but still concerned over the issue of the name. However, when Jack and Algernon
tell Gwendolen and Cecily that they have both made arrangements to be
christened Ernest that afternoon, all is forgiven and the two pairs of lovers
embrace. At this moment, Lady Bracknell’s arrival is announced.
Lady Bracknell has followed
Gwendolen from London, having bribed Gwendolen’s maid to reveal her
destination. She demands to know what is going on. Gwendolen again informs Lady
Bracknell of her engagement to Jack, and Lady Bracknell reiterates that a union
between them is out of the question. Algernon tells Lady Bracknell of his
engagement to Cecily, prompting her to inspect Cecily and inquire into her
social connections, which she does in a routine and patronizing manner that
infuriates Jack. He replies to all her questions with a mixture of civility and
sarcasm, withholding until the last possible moment the information that Cecily
is actually worth a great deal of money and stands to inherit still more when
she comes of age. At this, Lady Bracknell becomes genuinely interested.
Jack informs Lady Bracknell that, as
Cecily’s legal guardian, he refuses to give his consent to her union with
Algernon. Lady Bracknell suggests that the two young people simply wait until
Cecily comes of age, and Jack points out that under the terms of her
grandfather’s will, Cecily does not legally come of age until she is
thirty-five. Lady Bracknell asks Jack to reconsider, and he points out that the
matter is entirely in her own hands. As soon as she consents to his marriage to
Gwendolen, Cecily can have his consent to marry Algernon. However, Lady
Bracknell refuses to entertain the notion. She and Gwendolen are on the point
of leaving when Dr. Chasuble arrives and happens to mention Cecily’s governess,
Miss Prism. At this, Lady Bracknell starts and asks that Miss Prism be sent
for.
When the governess arrives and
catches sight of Lady Bracknell, she begins to look guilty and furtive. Lady
Bracknell accuses her of having left her sister’s house twenty-eight years
before with a baby and never returned. She demands to know where the baby is.
Miss Prism confesses she doesn’t know, explaining that she lost the baby,
having absentmindedly placed it in a handbag in which she had meant to place
the manuscript for a novel she had written. Jack asks what happened to the bag,
and Miss Prism says she left it in the cloakroom of a railway station. Jack
presses her for further details and goes racing offstage, returning a few
moments later with a large handbag. When Miss Prism confirms that the bag is
hers, Jack throws himself on her with a cry of “Mother!” It takes a while
before the situation is sorted out, but before too long we understand that Jack
is not the illegitimate child of Miss Prism but the legitimate child of Lady
Bracknell’s sister and, therefore, Algernon’s older brother. Furthermore, Jack
had been originally christened “Ernest John.” All these years Jack has
unwittingly been telling the truth: Ernest is his name, as is Jack,
and he does have an unprincipled younger brother—Algernon. Again the couples
embrace, Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble follow suit, and Jack acknowledges that he
now understands “the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/summary.html