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Oscar Wilde *The Importance of Being Earnest* Notes (ENGL 210)
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Oscar Wilde *The Importance of Being Earnest* Notes (ENGL 210)
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Topic 14: The Importance of Being EarnestFebruary 1st, 2023 – February 6th, 2023
Introduction
This play is a comedy – there is a very predictable set of dramatic structural features that the plot
follows. The play is farcical – to some viewers, it is a very strenuous satire on Victorian life.
● Think about the jokes! There are way too many jokes! There are also a lot of precise
cultural and historical, and political markers.
● Theatre is representation – it isn’t reality. The set doesn’t have to be real, but the food has
to be real. The interesting intersection here between reality and representation.
○ This is a play that is interested in the status of stage objects. The plot of the play
turns on stuff – the handbag that is produced in Act III is the ultimate example of
that, but there are many points in the play where character interactions are bound
up with objects and things.
Oscar Wilde: Contexts
Wilde lived a somewhat conventional and upper-class Victorian life.
● While living this respectable life (gesturing to the theme of the double-life), Wilde had,
for years, been having affairs with younger men and becoming increasingly outspoken
about his sexual identity and preferences (still not fully articulated in that culture).
● Wilde’s boyfriend at the time was a younger aristocrat (Douglas) who was a horrible
person and terrible to be with (he became a Nazi, disavowing his homosexuality, etc.)
○ Douglas was all about rebellion (major daddy issues) – his father was a rich bully
who invented the Queensbury rules for boxing. The father and son were at war in
public (and had been for years) – Douglas was being blackmailed while he was at
Oxford for indiscreet letters he wrote to other young men.
○ Blackmail and illicit secrets hover under the surface of other Wilde plays. The
fact that things are written down as evidence is important, too.
● Douglas’ father tried to destabilize the first performance of The Importance of Being
Earnest. Queensbury was furious about not being able to destroy the opening night that
he went to Wilde’s club and left a calling card for Wilde.
○ Against the wishes by all of his friends (but goaded on by his bitchy boyfriend,
Wilde sued Queensbury for libel (most sensational trial in Britain, covered by
news all around the world, etc).
○ The trial introduced literary work into evidence – it used The Picture of Dorian
Grey as a way of measuring and registering what was (at that point) illegal
behaviour. Wilde charged with indecency.
■ Caused the collapse of this play. The first few weeks of the play were very
successful. The PR was really bad after the trial.
○ Cancel culture: because of what someone has previously done (which goes
against social norms), that person is forced out of public favour.
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