The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s brilliant play makes fun of the English upper classes with light-hearted satire and dazzling humor. The play focuses on Jack and Algernon, two young men in love with girls both determined to marry someone named Earnest, “that name inspires absolute confidence.” While Gwendolen’s Ernest seems perfectly honorable, Cecily’s is ostensibly wicked. Yet both have bent the truth and neither is quite who he says he is. The four lovers find themselves together in the country, snared in romantic entanglements only the sharp wit of Oscar Wilde could devise and resolve with all of the characters quite understanding The Importance of Being Earnest.