The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy of manners follows two men who use the name Ernest to evade social obligations and pursue romance. Its epigrams and mistaken identities satirize Victorian respectability.

Bunburying: A fictional excuse for avoiding unwanted duties, coined in Oscar Wilde’s play. Jack invents an invalid friend, Bunbury, to escape his country responsibilities.
Oscar Wilde: An Irish writer and wit whose works include the play The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde wrote the play and shaped its epigrammatic critique of respectability.
Jack Worthing: A respectable country gentleman who invents the troublesome brother Ernest in Wilde’s play. His double life creates the central deception and romantic predicament.
Censorship of The Importance of Being Earnest: The withdrawal of Wilde’s play from production after the Marquess of Queensberry’s accusations disrupted its 1895 run. The play’s brief first run ended as Wilde’s legal conflict became public.
Dramatic irony: A dramatic device in which the audience knows something that one or more characters do not. The audience tracks identities and deceptions that the characters gradually uncover.
Victorian era: The period of Queen Victoria’s British reign, from 1837 to 1901. The play’s social codes and targets belong to late Victorian Britain.
Algernon Moncrieff: A witty London gentleman who invents an invalid friend named Bunbury in Wilde’s play. His parallel escape scheme brings him into conflict and comic alliance with Jack.
Oscar Wilde's trials: The 1895 criminal trials that convicted Oscar Wilde of gross indecency. Wilde’s prosecution soon overshadowed the premiere and shaped the play’s early reception.
Mistaken identity: A plot device in which a person is wrongly identified as someone else. The name Ernest becomes an assumed identity that drives the romantic complications.
St James's Theatre: A London theatre that hosted the first production of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895. The play opened here on 14 February 1895, shortly before Wilde’s public downfall.

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