Now it's high time to write an essay!!!

Suggested Essay Topics

1. What is the overall effect of the play’s references to death? How is death, as a theme, dealt with in the play?

2. Is Cecily a more realistic character than Gwendolen? Why or why not?

3. Which union—Jack’s with Gwendolen or Algernon’s with Cecily—seems more likely to succeed?

4. Why or how is The Importance of Being Earnest funny? Analyze some aspects of Wildean wit. Is there a difference between being “witty” and being “funny”?

5. Discuss the character of Miss Prism. What kind of person is she and what seems to be her function in the play?

6. Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

The Importance of Being Earnest - Analysis

1- Explain the meaning of the tittle. Is it ironic or not? Why?

2- Summarize with your own words what the play is about (plot). Do not forget to mention setting in place and time!
3- Who are the characters? Are they round or flat? Choose two of the major characters and analize them in depth, taking into account their personality and why they are important for the story development.

4- Which is the central theme/s in the play? Justify your answer with examples from the story.

5- Are there any liguistic or concrete symbols that are connected with the theme or with any of the characters? Mention them and quote from where you find them.

6- Which is the most important comflict in the play? And what about the rising action and the climax?

7- Mention examples extracted from the story which are foreshadowing of future events.

8- In The Importance of Being Earnest, characters often use words such as bad and wicked and make pronouncements about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. Do true virtue or wickedness appear in the play?

9- Gwendolen’s father, Lord Bracknell, never appears in the play, yet Lady Bracknell mentions him often. What picture of his life and marriage do we get from the things she and Gwendolen say about him?

A play that turned to be a film!

10- A play differs from a novel or film in that it requires a performance by live actors pretending to be characters they are not before a live audience that allows itself to be fooled. What is gained by the fact that The Importance of Being Earnest was written as a play?

11- Follow the link and watch the trailer of the movie "The importance of being Earnest" (2002) After ehat... are the characters and the setting as you have imagined? Why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssBUir2LG-U

12- Now, chosse one of the following links that contain scenes of the movie and compare it with the part of the play that the scene is representing. Are the scene and the play so diffeent or not? Why?

Scene 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=horJHn-AQq8&feature=related

Scene 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMVQa6Xscrg&feature=related

Scene 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VHAQx4MAg&feature=related

Scene 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYGdk7uQ28&feature=related

What do you remember about the plot?

Now do this quiz and check the questions with your classmates in the commentary section... Let's see which your conclusions are!!!

QUIZ

1. Why does Lane think it isn’t polite to listen to Algernon’s piano-playing?
(A) Because Lane is only a servant
(B) Because Algernon plays so badly
(C) Because Lane is tone deaf
(D) Because he knows Algernon is shy about his playing

2. What does Algernon tell Jack he has always suspected him of being?
(A) A Communist
(B) A Liberal Unionist
(C) A Bunburyist
(D) A Tory

3. What leads Algernon to think Jack is leading a double life?
(A) A letter
(B) A diary
(C) An inscription
(D) A handkerchief embroidered with strawberries

4. What does Jack say it is a very ungentlemanly thing to read?
(A) Gwendolen’s diary
(B) French drama
(C) More than half of modern literature
(D) A private cigarette case

5. At first, Jack tells Algernon that Cecily is his what?
(A) Sister
(B) Aunt
(C) Hair colorist
(D) Former governess

6. What does Algernon mean when he says that Lady Bracknell rings the doorbell in a “Wagnerian manner”?
(A) That she is humming “The Ride of the Valkyrie”
(B) That she is dressed up like one of the Valkyrie
(C) That she rings insistently, leaving her finger on the bell for a long time
(D) That she has a tendency to burst into song

7. Why does Lane claim that there were “no cucumbers at the market”?
(A) Because he thinks Algernon should go on a high-protein diet
(B) Because Algernon has eaten all the cucumber sandwiches himself
(C) Because he wants to get Algernon off the hook
(D) B and C

8. What does Gwendolen say they live in?
(A) A pigsty
(B) An age of ideals
(C) A house in Shropshire
(D) An age of surfaces

9. What does Gwendolen say the name Ernest produces?
(A) Vibrations
(B) Suspicions
(C) Absolute confidence
(D) A and C

10. What is Lady Bracknell’s reaction when Jack admits to her that he smokes?
(A) Shock
(B) Disgust
(C) Approval
(D) A coughing fit

11. Where did old Mr. Thomas Cardew find Jack as a baby?
(A) In a cloakroom at a railway station
(B) Shropshire
(C) A foundling hospital
(D) The British Museum

12. What is Lady Bracknell’s objection to Jack as a prospective suitor to Gwendolen?
(A) His smoking
(B) His lack of an occupation
(C) His origins
(D) His politics

13. What does Algernon begin playing offstage at the conclusion of Jack’s interview with Lady Bracknell?
(A) A funeral march
(B) “The Wedding March”
(C) “We Are the Champions”
(D) “The Ride of the Valkyrie”

14. What is Gwendolen’s response to the story of Jack’s origins?
(A) She is shocked
(B) She is disgusted
(C) She thinks it’s romantic
(D) She thinks it’s a hoot

15. Who does Algernon think ought to set an example for the upper classes?
(A) The prime minister
(B) The lower classes
(C) The queen
(D) The clergy

16. What does Jack call Lady Bracknell behind her back?
(A) A Gorgon
(B) An organ
(C) A Liberal Unionist
(D) A Bunburyist

17. Why hasn’t Jack told Gwendolen that he has an excessively pretty young ward?
(A) Because Gwendolen might be jealous
(B) Because Gwendolen might want to borrow some of her clothes
(C) Because Gwendolen’s brother Gerald might want to meet her
(D) Because Gwendolen herself is extremely unattractive

18. What is the name of Algernon’s imaginary friend?
(A) Harbury
(B) Bunbury
(C) Markby
(D) Bunberry

19. Where is Jack’s house in the country?
(A) Shropshire
(B) Hertfordshire
(C) Worthing
(D) Sussex

20. Why is Cecily nervous about meeting Jack’s brother Ernest?
(A) Because he’s wicked
(B) Because he’ll find out about their engagement
(C) Because she’s afraid he’ll look different from other people
(D) Because she’s afraid he’ll look just like everyone else

21. Where has Cecily recorded her engagement to Jack’s brother Ernest?
(A) In the Times
(B) In the family bible
(C) In a letter to her mother
(D) In her diary

22. Why has Cecily broken off her engagement to Algernon?
(A) She discovered that Jack’s brother is more wicked than she thought
(B) She discovered that Jack’s brother is less wicked than she thought
(C) She felt it couldn’t be a really serious engagement otherwise
(D) She had met someone else

23. Why does Gwendolen never travel without her diary?
(A) She is trying to come to terms with herself
(B) She has a poor memory
(C) She hopes to turn it into a three-volume novel
(D) One should always have something sensational to read on the train

24. Why does Gwendolen tell Cecily that cake and sugar are no longer fashionable?
(A) She wants to give her friendly advice
(B) She thinks Cecily herself could stand to lose a few pounds
(C) She is on a high-protein diet
(D) She wants to insult Cecily

25. Why does Cecily put sugar in Gwendolen’s tea?
(A) She doesn’t hear what Gwendolen said
(B) She doesn’t understand what Gwendolen said
(C) She disagrees with what Gwendolen said
(D) She wants to insult Gwendolen

Introduction to The Importance of Being Earnest

Hi, students! Now that you have read "The Importance of being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde... You are ready for the analysis, aren't you?

First, let's see what you know...

A) Answer the following questions:

1- What's a play? Which are its parts?
2- Which genre does this play belong to?
3- What do you know about the author? How is his life and the time he lived in (i.e. context) connected to the play itself?