The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - A Level Summary and Analysis for A*
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Course
Aspects of Comedy (1B)
Institution
AQA
This document includes analysis of the entirety of the Importance of Being Earnest, drawing out key lines to scrutinise key features of language, structure, form and context. Key themes are highlighted throughout.
Importance of Being Earnest English Literature Revision
The Importance of Being Earnest
Act One
“Morning-room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon street”
o Sets a trivial tone, but one that is relatable to the audience.
“Lane is arranging afternoon tea”
o The first trope appears, and is immediately subverted with “I didn’t
think it polite to listen”
“As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte”
o Algernon establishes himself as the ‘dandy’ (a trope of comedic
theatre). This lets the audience know that Wilde is going to
communicate his beliefs through Algernon, who represents Wilde in
the play closer than most characters.
o Pun in the semantic field of music; again asserting a tone of
triviality. This is a low-stakes play, and the audience is at ease.
“speaking of the science of life, have you got the cucumber
sandwiches…?”
o Bathos; the first joke at the expense of the audience.
o Establishes its place as a comedy of manners: the upper-class are
going to be satirised ruthlessly.
“eight bottles and a pint”
o Lane subverts expectations of a servant by joining in with the
display of excess
“I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir”
o Phatic communication; the “sir” is meaningless when he is being
this confident cocky.
o Critic Ruth Robbins: “beyond the reach of conventional morality”,
2005.
“Consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young
person”
o The subversion here is that it laughs at the traditional tropes of
comedy; Lane is a butler, and is a tertiary character at best, but he
is self-aware in how single-use he is, and doesn’t bother about his
own past.
“If the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use
of them?”
o Wildean epigram that initially sounds like it is against the working
classes, but on closer inspection the lower orders are not the
punchline of this joke.
“It is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five
o’clock”
, Importance of Being Earnest English Literature Revision
o Motif of Science of Life; this continues until the end of Act I then
entirely dissolves as the setting goes to the countryside, where the
rules are less rigid and weird things can happen.
“When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one
amuses other people”.
o Subverts the literary trope that the city represents degradation and
the country represents serenity. The characters have poisoned
both.
“perfectly disgraceful”
o A refrain held by many characters in the play; everyone uses the
adverb “perfectly” as a continuous reminder to the reader that this
is not something to be taken seriously.
“I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing”
o Wilde explores the idea of changing social beliefs in this play, and
the first is the idea of marriage. Jack believes it sacrosanct, and
Algernon believes it is “business”. Algernon rebels against authority
in subtle ways, and his rejection of the idea of romantic love is one
of those ways. Wilde does not tell the audience how to feel toward
this kind of belief, but his reputation for aestheticism would suggest
Wilde believes Algernon more than he does Jack.
o Jack’s reference to the Divorce Courts is a name-drop, given no
added stage time and no consequences. This is a common dramatic
method in the play; instead of making it feel timeless, it grounds it
in this time, and is specific to this audience. The Divorce Courts, the
Liberal-Unionists, are all expected knowledge of the audience,
which is Wilde further spiting the upper-class: they have to work to
keep up with his jokes, which are always against them. That was his
kind of wit.
“You behave as if you were married to her already”
o Gwendolen is described as fond of bread and butter; Algernon
describing her as basic (which, in many respects, she is).
o Appetite for food is used as a symbol for lust; he is being too
utilitarian in his eating of the bread, and Algernon comments that
he’s doing it like he’s already married. Food is a comic device as
well as a literary one.
“It is a very ungentlemanly thing to read a private cigarette case”
o Jack and Algernon reel off to each other lines that read like mantras;
quoting some hidden rulebook of the ‘science of life’.
“More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read”
o Wilde every so often stunts the flow of the dialogue in noticeable
ways, like with this, to slip in some of his own satire. Wilde almost
makes himself a character in his own play.
“why an aunt… would call her own nephew uncle, I can’t quite make out”
o Wilde foregrounds early on the idea of complex familial relations.
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