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{{Short description|Farcical comedy play by Oscar Wilde}}
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{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox play
| name = The Importance of Being Earnest
| image = file:Algy-and-Jack-1895.jpg
| alt = Two young white men in a drawing room, wearing Victorian morning dress. One man is turned around in a seat, attempting in vain to snatch a cigarette case from the standing man.
| caption = Original production, 1895<br />[[Allan Aynesworth]] as Algernon (left) and [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]] as Jack
| writer = [[Oscar Wilde]]
| characters =
| setting = [[Mayfair]], London, and a country house in [[Hertfordshire]]
| premiere = 14 February 1895
| place = [[St James's Theatre]],<br />London, England
| genre = [[Comedy]]
}}

'''''The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People''''' is a play by [[Oscar Wilde]], the last of his four [[drawing-room play]]s, following ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]'' (1892), ''[[A Woman of No Importance]]'' (1893)  and ''[[An Ideal Husband]]'' (1895). First performed on 14 February 1895 at the [[St James's Theatre]] in London, it is a [[Farce|farcical comedy]] depicting the tangled affairs of two young [[wikt:man about town|men about town]] who lead double lives to evade unwanted social obligations, both assuming the name Ernest while wooing the two young women of their affections.

The play, celebrated for its wit and repartee, parodies contemporary dramatic norms, gently satirises late [[Victorian era|Victorian]] manners, and introduces – in addition to the two pairs of young lovers – the formidable Lady Bracknell, the fussy [[governess]] Miss Prism and the benign and scholarly [[Canon (title)#Church of England|Canon]] Chasuble. Contemporary reviews in Britain and overseas praised the play's humour, although some critics had reservations about its lack of social messages.

The successful opening night marked the climax of Wilde's career but was followed within weeks by his downfall. The [[John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry|Marquess of Queensberry]], whose son [[Lord Alfred Douglas]] was Wilde's lover, unsuccessfully schemed to throw a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright at the end of the performance.  This feud led to [[Oscar Wilde#Trials|a series of legal trials]] from March to May 1895 which resulted in Wilde's conviction and imprisonment for homosexual acts. Despite the play's early success, Wilde's disgrace caused it to be closed in May after 86&nbsp;performances. After his release from prison in 1897 he published the play from exile in Paris, but he wrote no more comic or dramatic works.

From the early 20th century onwards the play has been revived frequently in English-speaking countries and elsewhere. After the first production, which featured [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]], [[Allan Aynesworth]] and [[Irene Vanbrugh]] among others, many actors have been associated with the play, including [[Mabel Terry-Lewis]], [[John Gielgud]], [[Edith Evans]], [[Margaret Rutherford]], [[Martin Jarvis (actor)|Martin Jarvis]], [[Nigel Havers]] and [[Judi Dench]]. The role of the redoubtable Lady Bracknell has sometimes been played by men. ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' has been adapted for radio from the 1920s onwards and for television since the 1930s, filmed for the cinema on three occasions (directed by [[Anthony Asquith]] in 1952, Kurt Baker in 1992 and [[Oliver Parker]] in 2002) and turned into operas and musicals.
{{TOC limit|2}}

==Synopsis==
The play is set in "The Present" (1895 at the time of the premiere).<ref name="auto1">Wilde (2000), p. 3</ref>
===Act I===
'''Algernon Moncrieff's flat in [[Half Moon Street, London|Half Moon Street]]'''
[[File:Importance-Act-1-Jack-Gwendolen-Algernon.png|Jack ([[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]]) tells Gwendolen ([[Irene Vanbrugh]]) the address of his country house, while Algernon ([[Allan Aynesworth]]) secretly overhears.|thumb|alt=young white male and female couple in Victorian costume conversing; she writes in a small notebook, left, while a young white male, right, listens to them, secretly, and writes in his notebook]]
Algernon Moncrieff, a young [[wikt:man about town|man about town]], is visited by a friend whom he knows by the name of Ernest Worthing. The latter has come from the country to propose to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon refuses to consent until Ernest explains why his cigarette case bears the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack". Worthing is forced to admit to living a double life. In the country, he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of his young [[ward (law)|ward]], the [[inheritance|heiress]] Cecily Cardew, and goes by the name of John or Jack, while pretending that he must worry about a wastrel younger brother in London, named Ernest. Meanwhile, he assumes the identity of the profligate Ernest when in town. Algernon confesses a similar deception: he pretends to have a sickly friend named Bunbury in the country, whom he can "visit" whenever he wishes to avoid an unwelcome social obligation. Jack refuses to tell Algernon the location of his country estate.<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 5–17</ref>

Gwendolen and her formidable mother, Lady Bracknell, now call on Algernon, who distracts Lady Bracknell in another room while Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She accepts but says she could not love him if his name were not Ernest. He resolves secretly to be rechristened. Discovering the two in this intimate exchange, Lady Bracknell interviews Jack as a prospective suitor for her daughter. Horrified to learn that he was adopted – having been found as a baby in a handbag deposited at [[London Victoria station|Victoria Station]] in London – she refuses him and forbids further contact with her daughter. Gwendolen manages to covertly promise to him her undying love. As Jack gives her his address in the country, Algernon surreptitiously notes it on the cuff of his sleeve: Jack's revelation of his pretty young ward has motivated his friend to meet her.<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 18–40</ref>

===Act II===
'''The Garden of the Manor House, Woolton'''
[[File:Alexander-Worthing-1909.jpg|alt=white man with side whiskers in a garden setting, wearing full Victorian morning dress, including long coat, tophat, gloves and cane|thumb|left|upright|Alexander in Act&nbsp;II (1909 revival)]]
Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, in the (fictitious) village of Woolton, Hertfordshire. Algernon arrives, pretending to be Ernest Worthing, and soon charms Cecily. Long fascinated by her uncle Jack's hitherto-absent dissolute brother, she is predisposed to fall for Algernon in his role of Ernest. Algernon plans for the [[rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]], Dr&nbsp;Chasuble, to rechristen him "Ernest". Jack has decided to abandon his double life. He arrives in full mourning and announces his brother's death in Paris, from a severe chill, a story undermined by Algernon's presence in the guise of Ernest. Gwendolen now enters, having left the Bracknells' London house without her mother's knowledge. During the temporary absence of the two men she meets Cecily. They get along well at first, but when they learn of the other's engagement each indignantly declares that she is the one engaged to Ernest. When Jack and Algernon reappear together, Gwendolen and Cecily realise they have been deceived; they leave the men in the garden and withdraw to the house.<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 41–81</ref>

===Act III===
'''Morning-room at the Manor House, Woolton'''

Gwendolen and Cecily forgive the men's trickery. Arriving in pursuit of her daughter, Lady Bracknell is astonished to be told that Algernon and Cecily are engaged. The revelation of Cecily's wealth soon dispels Lady Bracknell's initial doubts over the young lady's suitability, but any engagement is forbidden by her [[legal guardian|guardian]], Jack: he will consent only if Lady Bracknell agrees to his own union with Gwendolen – something she declines to do.

The impasse is resolved by the return of Miss Prism, whom Lady Bracknell recognises as the person who, 28 years earlier as a family nursemaid, had taken a baby boy out in a [[baby transport#Prams|perambulator]] from Lord Bracknell's house and never returned. Challenged, Miss Prism explains that she had absent-mindedly put into the perambulator the manuscript of a novel she was writing, and put the baby in a handbag, which she later left at Victoria Station. Jack produces the same handbag, showing that he is the lost baby, the eldest son of Lady Bracknell's late sister, Mrs Moncrieff, and thus Algernon's elder brother. Having acquired such respectable relations, he is acceptable as Gwendolen's suitor.<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 82–104</ref>

Gwendolen continues to insist that she can love only a man named Ernest. Lady Bracknell tells Jack that, as the firstborn, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the [[Army List]]s and discovers that his father's name – and hence his own original christening name – was, in fact, Ernest. As the happy couples embrace – Ernest and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily, and even Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism – Lady Bracknell complains to her newfound relative: "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality". He replies, "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta: I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest".<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 104–105</ref>

==Composition==
[[File:Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) 1889, May 23. Picture by W. and D. Downey.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Early middle aged white man in Victorian morning dress, seated with legs crossed, holding gloves and looking pensively towards the camera|Oscar Wilde in 1889]]
''The Importance of Being Earnest'' followed the success of Wilde's earlier [[drawing room play]]s, ''[[Lady Windermere's Fan]]'' (1892), ''[[A Woman of No Importance]]'' (1893)  and ''[[An Ideal Husband]]'' (1895).<ref name=wildeodnb>Edwards, Owen Dudley. [https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29400 "Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills (1854–1900), writer"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press 2004. {{ODNBsub}}</ref> He spent the summer of 1894 with his family at [[Worthing]], on the [[Sussex]] coast, where he began work on the new play.<ref>Ellmann, p. 421</ref>

Wilde scholars generally agree that the most important influence on the play was [[W. S. Gilbert]]'s 1877 [[farce]] [[Engaged (play)|''Engaged'']],<ref>Denisoff, p. 66; Feingold, Michael, [http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0418,feingold1,53206,11.html "Engaging the Past"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061108131632/http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0418,feingold1,53206,11.html |date=8 November 2006 }}; Hudson, pp. 101–105; Jackson (2000), p. xxxvi; Koerble, p. 144; Pearson, p. 63; Raby (1995) p. 28; Stedman, p. 151; Thompson, p. 255; and Williams, pp. 15 and 411</ref> from which Wilde borrowed not only several incidents but also, in the words of Russell Jackson in his 1980 introduction to Wilde's play, "the gravity of tone demanded by Gilbert of his actors".<ref>Jackson (2000) p. xxxvi</ref> Wilde's first draft was so long that it filled four [[exercise book]]s, and over the summer he continually revised and refined it, as he had done with his earlier plays.<ref name=jackson163>Jackson (1997), p. 163</ref><ref>Eltis, pp. 60, 101 and 137</ref> Among his many changes he altered the subtitle from "a Serious Comedy for Trivial People" to "a Trivial Comedy for Serious People",<ref>[https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/written-word/item/5420 "A Serious Comedy for Trivial People, an early manuscript draft of The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240828163825/https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/written-word/item/5420 |date=28 August 2024 }}, New York Public Library (1894). Retrieved 28 August 2024</ref> and renamed the characters Lady Brancaster and Algernon Montford as Lady Bracknell and Algernon Moncrieff.<ref>Jackson (1980), pp. xxix and 4</ref>

Wilde wrote the part of John Worthing with the actor-manager [[Charles Wyndham (actor)|Charles Wyndham]] in mind. Wilde shared [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw's]] view that Wyndham was the ideal comedy actor and based the character on his stage persona.<ref name="wildeodnb"/> Wyndham accepted the play for production at [[Wyndham's Theatre|his theatre]], but before rehearsals began, he changed his plans in order to help a beleaguered colleague, the actor-manager [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]] of the [[St James's Theatre]]. In early 1895 Alexander's production of [[Henry James]]'s ''[[Guy Domville]]'' failed, and closed after 31 performances, leaving Alexander in urgent need of a new play to follow it.<ref name=james>Horne, Philip. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-341502004 "James, Henry (1843–1916), writer"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425205454/https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-341502004 |date=25 April 2023 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. Retrieved 14 April 2021 {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref name=rhd>Wilde (1962), pp. 418–419</ref> Wyndham waived his contractual rights and allowed Alexander to stage Wilde's play.<ref name=rhd/><ref>Raby (1988), p. 143</ref>

After working with Wilde on stage movements, using a model theatre, Alexander asked the author to shorten the play from four acts to three. Wilde complied and combined elements of the second and third acts.<ref name=e406>Ellmann, p. 406</ref> The largest cut was the removal of the character of Mr&nbsp;Gribsby, a solicitor who comes from London to serve a [[writ]] on the profligate "Ernest" Worthing for unpaid dining bills at the [[Savoy Hotel]].<ref name=jackson163/><ref>Wilde (2000), p. 107</ref> Wilde was not entirely happy with alterations made at Alexander's behest. He said, "Yes, it is quite a good play. I remember I wrote one very like it myself, but it was even more brilliant than this",<ref name=e406/> but the three-act version usually performed is widely considered more effective than Wilde's four-act original.<ref name=Raby121>Raby (1988), p. 121</ref><ref name=mikhail>Mikhail E. H. [https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/mdr.1968.0047 "The Four-Act Version of The Importance of Being Earnest"], ''Modern Drama'', Fall 1968 {{subscription required}}</ref>{{refn|The deleted scene with the solicitor was thought lost until it was found in some of Wilde's papers and was first performed on [[BBC radio]] on 27 October 1954.<ref name=mikhail/>|group=n}}

==First productions==
The play was first produced at the St James's Theatre, London, on 14 February – [[Valentine's Day]] – 1895,<ref name=gaye>Gaye, p. 1405</ref> preceded by a [[curtain-raiser]], a short comedy called ''In the Season'', by [[Langdon Elwyn Mitchell|Langdon E. Mitchell]].<ref name=era/> During most of the month-long rehearsal period Wilde was on holiday in Algeria with his gay partner, [[Lord Alfred Douglas]], but he returned in time for the [[dress rehearsal]] on 12 February.<ref name=jxliv>Jackson (2000), p. xliv</ref> Douglas remained in Algiers; his father, the [[John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry|Marquess of Queensberry]], planned to disrupt the premiere by throwing a bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright when he took his bow at the end. Wilde learned of the plan and Alexander cancelled Queensberry's ticket and arranged for the police to bar his entrance. Wilde wrote to Douglas, "He arrived with a [[prize fighter]]!!{{refn|Queensberry had been a prize fighter himself in his younger days, and retained what one historian calls "his band of bruisers".<ref name=adut>Adut, p. 230</ref>|group=n}} I had all [[Scotland Yard]] to guard the theatre. He prowled around for three hours, then left chattering like a monstrous ape".<ref>Wilde (2003), p. 186</ref> Queensberry left the bouquet at the theatre entrance.<ref name=adut/>

Wilde arrived for the premiere dressed in "florid sobriety", wearing a [[LGBT symbols#Plants and animals|green carnation]] in his lapel.<ref>Ellmann, p. 430</ref>  [[Allan Aynesworth]], who played Algernon Moncrieff, recalled to [[Hesketh Pearson]]:
{{blockquote|In my fifty-three years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than the first night of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' ... The audience rose in their seats and cheered and cheered again.<ref>Pearson, p. 257</ref>}}
The theatrical newspaper ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'' reported that the play "met with enthusiastic and unanimous approval" and confidently predicted "a long and prosperous run".<ref name=era>"The Importance of Being Earnest", ''The Era'', 16 February 1895, p. 11</ref>  Aynesworth was "debonair and stylish", and Alexander, who played Jack Worthing, "demure";<ref name=jackson171>Jackson (1997), p. 171</ref> according to ''The Era'', "Mr George Alexander played Worthing just as a part of this sort should be played, i.e., with entire seriousness and no indication of purposed irony".<ref name=era/> ''[[The Morning Post]]'' said that [[Irene Vanbrugh]] and [[Evelyn Millard]] could not be bettered and caught the required Gilbertian tone.<ref>"St James's Theatre", ''The Morning Post'', 15 September 1895, p. 5</ref> ''[[The Observer]]'' remarked on the "rapturous amusement" of the audience, and echoed ''The Era'''s prediction of a long run.<ref>"At the Play", ''The Observer'', 17 February 1895, p. 6</ref>

According to the published text, the characters, descriptions and cast comprised:<ref>Wearing pp. 459–460;</ref><ref name="auto1"/>
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
| John Worthing, [[Justice of the Peace|JP]]

| of the Manor House, Woolton, Hertfordshire
| [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]]
|-
| Algernon Moncrieff
| his friend
| [[Allan Aynesworth]]
|-
| Rev [[Canon (title)#Church of England|Canon]] Chasuble, [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]]
| [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of Woolton
| [[H. H. Vincent (actor)|H. H. Vincent]]
|-
| Merriman
| butler to Mr Worthing
| [[Franklin Dyall|Frank Dyall]]
|-
| Lane
| Mr Moncrieff's manservant
| [[Kinsey Peile|F. Kinsey Peile]]
|-
| Lady Bracknell
| 
| [[Rose Leclercq]]
|-
| [[The Honourable#United Kingdom|Hon]] Gwendolen Fairfax
| her daughter
| [[Irene Vanbrugh]]
|-
| Cecily Cardew
| John Worthing's [[Ward (law)|ward]]
| [[Evelyn Millard]] (succeeded by Violet Lyster){{refn|Alexander released Millard from her contract at the St James's at the beginning of March to enable her to take over at short notice from the ailing [[Marion Terry]] in the lead role in [[Sydney Grundy]]'s ''Sowing the Wind'' at the [[Harold Pinter Theatre|Comedy Theatre]]. Millard's understudy, Violet Lyster, took over the role of Cecily.<ref>"Theatrical Items", ''St James's Gazette'', 1 March 1895, p. 12</ref>|group=n}}
|-
| Miss Prism
| her governess
| Mrs George Canninge
|}

{{multiple image
| caption_align=center
| align = center
| direction = horizontal
| header_align = center
| footer_align = left
| image1 = Vanbrugh-Millard-The-Importance-1895.png
| width1 = 197
| alt1 =Two young white women, seated side by side, in Victorian costume with hats, in a garden setting
| caption1 =Irene Vanbrugh as Gwendolen and [[Evelyn Millard]] as Cecily
| image3 = Cecily-and-Miss-Prism-1895.jpg
| width3 = 217
| alt3 =Elderly white woman, seated, with young white woman, standing, both in hats
| caption3 = Mrs George Canninge as Miss Prism, and Evelyn Millard as Cecily
| image2 = Rose-Leclerq-as-Lady-Bracknell.jpg
| width2 = 223
| caption2 = [[Rose Leclercq]] as Lady Bracknell, from a sketch of the first production
| alt2=Drawing of middle-aged white woman, dressed severely, looking imperiously through a [[lorgnette]]
| image4=Algy-and-Jack-Act2-1895.png
|width4=192
|alt4=Two young white men in a garden, standing and eating muffins, about which they bicker
|caption4=Aynesworth and Alexander as Algernon and Jack in Act II
}}

Queensberry continued harassing Wilde, who within weeks launched a [[private prosecution]] against him for [[criminal libel]], triggering a [[Oscar Wilde#Trials|series of trials]] that revealed Wilde's homosexual private life and ended in his imprisonment for [[gross indecency between men|gross indecency]] in May 1895. The [[Victorian era|Victorian]] public turned against him after his arrest, and box-office receipts dwindled rapidly;<ref>Gagnier, pp. 132–134</ref><ref>"Oscar Wilde in a Cell", ''Rochester Democrat and Chronicle'', 6 April 1895, p. 2</ref> Alexander tried to save the production by removing the author's name from the playbills,{{refn|Removing Wilde's name from the play billing caused a breach between the author and Alexander that lasted for some years; the actor later paid Wilde small monthly sums and bequeathed his rights in the play to the author's son [[Vyvyan Holland]].<ref name=ga/>|group=n}} but it closed on 8 May after only 83 performances.<ref name=jxliv/><ref>"St James's Theatre", ''The Westminster Gazette'',  8 May 1895, p. 1</ref>

The play's original [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production opened at the [[Empire Theatre (41st Street)|Empire Theatre]] on 22 April 1895 but closed after sixteen performances. Its cast included [[William Faversham]] as Algernon, [[Henry Miller (actor)|Henry Miller]] as Jack, [[Viola Allen]] as Gwendolen and [[Ida Vernon]] as Lady Bracknell.<ref name=hischak>Hischak, p. 2527</ref> The Australian premiere was in Melbourne on 10 August 1895, presented by [[Robert Brough (actor)|Robert Brough]] and [[Dion Boucicault Jr.]], with Cecil Ward as Jack, Boucicault as Algernon and Jenny Watt-Tanner as Lady Bracknell. The production was an immediate success.<ref name=rf/><ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9370036 "Princess's Theatre"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092640/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/9370036 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Melbourne Argus'', 12 August 1895, p. 6</ref> Wilde's downfall in England did not affect the popularity of his plays in Australia.<ref name=f55/>{{refn|In a 2003 study, Richard Fotheringham writes that in Australia, unlike Britain and the US, Wilde's name was only briefly excluded from playbills, and the critics and public took a much more relaxed view of his crimes.<ref name=f55>Fotheringham, pp. 55 and 57</ref> A [[Royal Command Performance|command performance]] of the play was given by Boucicault's company in the presence of the [[Governor of Victoria]] and his wife.<ref name=rf>Fotheringham, p. 57</ref>|group=n}} The same company presented the New Zealand premiere in October 1895, when the play was enthusiastically received. Reviewers said, "in subtlety of thought, brilliancy of wit and sparkling humour, it has scarcely been excelled";<ref>[https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18951010.2.9 "The Brough and Boucicault Season"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092639/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS18951010.2.9 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Auckland Star'', 10 October 1895, p. 2</ref> and "its fun is irresistible ... increasing in intensity until in the third and last act it becomes uproarious".<ref>[https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951128.2.153 "The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091609/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW18951128.2.153 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Otago Witness'', 28 November 1895, p. 43</ref>

==Critical opinion==
[[File:Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg|thumb|Reviewers of the premiere, clockwise from top left: [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]], [[Arthur Bingham Walkley|A.{{space}}B.{{space}}Walkley]], [[H. G. Wells|{{nobr|H. G. Wells}}]] and [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]]|alt=head and shoulders shots of four middle-aged men in Victorian costume and varying degrees of facial hair. One (Walkley) wears a monocle.]]
In contrast with much theatre of the time, the light plot of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' does not address serious social and political issues,  and this troubled some contemporary reviewers. Though unsure of Wilde's seriousness as a dramatist, they recognised the play's cleverness, humour and popularity.<ref name="Jackson 1997:172">Jackson (1997), p. 172</ref> Shaw found the play "extremely funny" but "heartless", a view he maintained all his life.<ref>Beckson (1970), p. 194</ref>{{refn|In 1950, months before his death, he wrote: "Do not let yourself be trapped into the silly cliché that The Importance is Wilde's best play. It's a mechanical [[cat's cradle]] farce without a single touch of human nature in it. It is Gilbert and Sullivan minus Sullivan".<ref>Beckson (1998), p. 341</ref>|group=n}} His review in the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'' argued that comedy should touch as well as amuse: "I go to the theatre to be moved to laughter, not to be tickled or bustled into it".<ref>Beckson (1970), p. 195</ref>

In ''The World'', [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]] wrote that he had enjoyed watching the play but found it to be empty of meaning: "What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?"<ref>Beckson (1970), pp.189–190</ref> In ''[[The Speaker (periodical)|The Speaker]]'', [[Arthur Bingham Walkley|A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;Walkley]] admired the play and was one of few to see it as the culmination of Wilde's dramatic career. He denied that the term "farce" was derogatory or even lacking in seriousness and said, "It is of nonsense all compact, and better nonsense, I think, our stage has not seen".<ref name="Beckson 196">Beckson (1970), p. 196</ref>

[[H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;Wells]], in an unsigned review for ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'', called the play one of the freshest comedies of the year, saying, "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine".<ref name="Beckson 1970:188">Beckson (1970), p. 188</ref> He also questioned whether people would fully see its message, "... how Serious People will take this Trivial Comedy intended for their learning remains to be seen. No doubt seriously".<ref name="Beckson 1970:188"/> The play was so light-hearted that some reviewers compared it to comic opera rather than drama. [[W. H. Auden]] later (1963) called it "a pure verbal opera", and ''[[The Times]]'' commented, "The story is almost too preposterous to go without music".<ref name=jackson171/> [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]], in ''Sights and Spectacles'' (1959), despite thinking the play extremely funny, called it "a ferocious idyll"; "depravity is the hero and the only character".<ref>Raby (1988), p. xxiii</ref>

As Wilde's works came to be read and performed again in the early 20th century, it was ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' that received the most productions.<ref>Gordon, p. 156</ref> The critic and author [[Max Beerbohm]] called the play Wilde's "finest, most undeniably his own", saying that the plots of his other comedies – ''Lady Windermere's Fan'', ''A Woman of No Importance'' and ''An Ideal Husband'' – follow the manner of [[Victorien Sardou]],{{refn|Sardou is described in ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French'' as a "Highly successful French dramatist, a brilliant manipulator of empty but complicated plots and spectacular theatrical effects ... the melodramas and historical plays are merely sumptuously dressed machines for producing {{lang|fr|[[Glossary of literary terms#Ce|coups de théâtre]]}}".<ref>John, S. Beynon. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 "Sardou, Victorien]", ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French'', Oxford University Press, 2005 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091615/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 |date=22 August 2024 }} </ref>|group=n}} and are similarly unrelated to the theme of the work, while in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' the story is "dissolved" into the form of the play.<ref>Beerbohm, p. 509</ref> By the time of its centenary in 1995 the journalist [[Mark Lawson]] described the piece as "the second most known and quoted play in English after ''[[Hamlet]]''".<ref>Lawson, Mark. [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/out-of-gags-try-oscar-wilde-1573007.html "Out of gags? Try Oscar Wilde"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 14 February 1995</ref>

==Revivals==
===1895–1929===
[[File:Lilian Braithwaite as Cecily.png|thumb|upright=0.5|[[Lilian Braithwaite]] as Cecily, 1901|alt=head and shoulders shot of young white woman with dark hair, seen in left profile]]
''The Importance of Being Earnest'' and Wilde's three other drawing room plays were performed in Britain during the author's imprisonment and exile by small touring groups. A. B. Tapping's company toured ''The Importance'' between October 1895 and March 1896,{{refn|An article in ''The Wildean'' in 2015 speculated that Tapping's production of the play in Limerick in late October 1895 may have been the first staging of the piece in Wilde's native Ireland.<ref>Atkinson, p. 24</ref>|group=n}} and Elsie Lanham's touring company presented it along with ''Lady Windermere's Fan'', beginning in November 1899.<ref>Atkinson, p. 32</ref> The play was well received; one local critic described it as "sparkling with wit and epigrams",<ref>"Pleasure Gardens Theatre", ''Folkestone Express'', 16 November 1895, p. 5</ref> and another called it "a most entertaining comedy [with] some sparkling dialogue".<ref>"The Opera House", ''Londonderry Sentinel'', 9 January 1900, p. 5</ref>

The play was not seen again in London until after Wilde's death in 1900. Alexander revived it in the small Coronet theatre in [[Notting Hill]], outside the West End, in December the following year,<ref>Bristow 2008, p. xxxviii</ref> after taking it on tour, starring as John Worthing, with a cast that included the young [[Lilian Braithwaite]] as Cecily. ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' called the piece "a brilliant play".<ref>"Mr George Alexander at the Royal", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 5 November 1901, p. 6</ref> ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' returned to the West End when Alexander presented a revival at the St James's in 1902. It was billed as "By the author of ''Lady Windermere's Fan''", and few reviews mentioned Wilde's name, but his work was praised. ''[[The Sporting Times]]'' said:

{{blockquote|The trivial comedy revived at the St James's is as witty an evening's entertainment as any worldling could desire. It is all as light as a good soufflé. The ladies talk like Mr W. S. Gilbert's fairies do, and are supernaturally clever; the men emit sparkles of wit even when their mouths are full of cucumber sandwiches or crumpets ... I can guarantee that the most blasé young man of twenty-two will have one chuckle a minute at the St James's. You are tickled throughout with a feather, and it is a very pleasant and comforting sensation.<ref>"The Importance of Being Earnest", ''The Sporting Times'', 11 January 1902, p. 3</ref>}}

The revival ran for 52 performances.<ref name=jxlv>Jackson (2000), p. xlv</ref> For the first Broadway revival, by [[Charles Frohman]]'s Empire [[Repertory theatre|Stock Company]] later in 1902, the playbills and the reviews restored the author's name.<ref>"Amusements", ''The New York Times'', 13 April 1902, p. 15; Carew, Kate. "Here's Wit that Sparkles Ever Bright", ''The Evening World'', 15 April 1902, p. 7; "The Theatres Last Night", ''The New York Times'', 15 April 1902, p. 5</ref>

Alexander presented the work again at the St James's in 1909, when he and Aynesworth reprised their original roles;<ref>"St James's Theatre", ''The Times'', 2 December 1909, p. 12</ref> that revival ran for 316 performances.<ref name=ga>Wearing, J. P. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/30370 "Alexander, Sir George (real name George Alexander Gibb Samson) (1858–1918), actor and theatre manager"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091800/https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30370 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2011 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> Max Beerbohm said that the play was sure to become a classic of the English repertory and that its humour was as fresh then as when it had been written, adding that the actors had "worn as well as the play".<ref name=Beerbohm510>Beerbohm, p. 510</ref>

[[File:The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1923.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|[[Leslie Faber (actor)|Leslie Faber]] (centre) as Jack, 1923 revival, with [[Louise Hampton]] as Miss Prism and [[H. O. Nicholson]] as Dr Chasuble |alt=stage scene in a garden setting with a man in full mourning costume centre, older woman to his right and an older man in clerical garb to his left, all wearing hats]]
The play was revived on Broadway in 1910 with a cast that included [[Hamilton Revelle]], [[A. E. Matthews]] and [[Jane Oaker]]. ''[[The New York Times]]'' commented that the play "has lost nothing of its humor ... no one with a sense of humor can afford to miss it".<ref>"Oscar Wilde Comedy Revived at Lyceum", ''The New York Times'', 15 December 1910, p. 11</ref> For a 1913 revival at the St James's, the young actors [[Gerald Ames]] and A. E. Matthews succeeded the creators as Jack and Algernon.<ref>"St James's Theatre", ''The Times'', 17 February 1913, p. 10</ref>

[[Leslie Faber (actor)|Leslie Faber]] as Jack, [[John Deverell]] as Algernon and [[Margaret Scudamore]] as Lady Bracknell headed the cast in a 1923 production at the [[Haymarket Theatre]].<ref>"Haymarket Theatre", ''The Times'', 22 November 1923, p. 12</ref> Revivals in the first decades of the 20th century treated "the present" as the current year. It was not until the 1920s that the case for 1890s costumes was established; as a critic in ''The Manchester Guardian'' put it, "Thirty years on, one begins to feel that Wilde should be done in the costume of his period – that his wit today needs the backing of the atmosphere that gave it life and truth. ... Wilde's glittering and complex verbal felicities go ill with the [[Bob cut|shingle]] and the [[flapper|short skirt]]".<ref>"''The Importance of Being Earnest'' – a case for period costume", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 3 May 1927, p. 14</ref>

===1930–2000===
In [[Nigel Playfair]]'s 1930 production at the [[Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)|Lyric]], [[Hammersmith]], [[John Gielgud]] played Jack to the Lady Bracknell of his aunt, [[Mabel Terry-Lewis]].<ref>Gielgud, pp. 90–91</ref> An [[The Old Vic|Old Vic]] production in 1934 featured the husband-and-wife team of [[Charles Laughton]] and [[Elsa Lanchester]] as Chasuble and Miss Prism; others in the cast were [[Roger Livesey]] (Jack), [[George Curzon (actor)|George Curzon]] (Algernon), [[Athene Seyler]] (Lady Bracknell), [[Flora Robson]] (Gwendolen) and [[Ursula Jeans]] (Cecily).<ref>"The Old Vic Goes Wilde", ''The Sketch'', 14 February 1934, p. 36</ref> On Broadway, [[Estelle Winwood]] co-starred with [[Clifton Webb]] and Hope Williams in a 1939 revival.<ref>Barron, Mark. "Broadway", ''Buffalo Courier Express'', 22 January 1939, p. 11</ref>

Gielgud produced and starred in a production at the [[Gielgud Theatre|Globe]] (now the Gielgud) Theatre in 1939, in a cast that included [[Edith Evans]] as Lady Bracknell, [[Joyce Carey]] as Gwendolen, [[Angela Baddeley]] as Cecily and [[Margaret Rutherford]] as Miss Prism. ''The Times'' considered the production the best since the original and praised it for its fidelity to Wilde's conception and its "airy, responsive ball-playing quality".<ref>"Globe Theatre", ''The Times'', 1 February 1939, p. 12</ref> Later in the same year, Gielgud presented the work again, with [[Jack Hawkins]] as Algernon, [[Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies]] as Gwendolen and [[Peggy Ashcroft]] as Cecily, with Evans and Rutherford in their previous roles.<ref>"Globe Theatre", ''The Times'', 17 August 1939, p. 8</ref> The production was presented in several seasons during and after the Second World War, with mostly the same principal players.<ref name=gaye/> During a 1946 season at the Haymarket, the [[George VI|King]] and [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Queen]] attended a performance,<ref>"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 12 April 1946, p. 7</ref> which, as the journalist [[Geoffrey Wheatcroft]] put it, gave the play "a final accolade of respectability".<ref>Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. [https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/05/not-green-not-red-not-pink/302729/ "Not green, not red, not pink"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522160423/http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2003/05/wheatcroft.htm |date=22 May 2013 }}, ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]'', May 2003</ref>{{refn|[[George VI]] was not the first British king who had attended a performance of the play: his grandfather [[Edward VII]], then [[Prince of Wales]], was in the audience for the first production.<ref>"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 30 May 1895, p. 12</ref>|group=n}} Gielgud's London production toured North America and was successfully staged on Broadway in 1947.<ref name=c333>Croall, p. 333</ref>{{refn|Rutherford switched roles, from Miss Prism to Lady Bracknell for the North American production; [[Jean Cadell]] played Miss Prism. [[Robert Flemyng]] played Algernon.<ref>Hayman, p. 155</ref> The cast was given a special [[Tony Award]] for "Outstanding Foreign Company".<ref name=c333/>|group=n}}

In 1975 [[Jonathan Miller]], who had been prevented for financial reasons the previous year from staging the play at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] with an all-male cast, directed a production in which Lady Bracknell, played by [[Irene Handl]], was given a German accent.<ref>Hall, pp. 80–81, 122–123, and 151</ref><ref>Hepple, Peter. "The Importance of Being Earnest at Greenwich", ''The Stage'', 27 March 1975, p. 19</ref> For [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]]'s 1982 production at the National Theatre the cast included [[Judi Dench]] as Lady Bracknell,{{refn|Twenty-three years earlier, Dench had played Cecily to the Lady Bracknell of [[Fay Compton]] in a 1959 [[Old Vic]] production that included in the cast [[Alec McCowen]], [[Barbara Jefford]], and [[Miles Malleson]].<ref>"The Importance of Being Earnest revived", ''The Times'', 14 October 1959, p. 4</ref>|group=n}} [[Martin Jarvis (actor)|Martin Jarvis]] as Jack, [[Nigel Havers]] as Algernon, [[Zoë Wanamaker]] as Gwendolen and [[Anna Massey]] as Miss Prism.<ref>Wardle, Irving. "Theatre", ''The Times'', 17 September 1982, p. 9</ref> In 1987 a version of the play was given at the [[Whitehall Theatre]] starring [[Hinge and Bracket]] as Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell respectively.<ref name=ms>Shenton, Mark [https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-importance-of-being-earnest2 "The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816065325/https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-importance-of-being-earnest2 |date=16 August 2024 }}, ''The Stage'', 1 July 2015</ref> [[Nicholas Hytner]]'s 1993 production at the [[Aldwych Theatre]], starring [[Maggie Smith]], had occasional references to [[#Conjectural homosexual subtext|a conjectural gay subtext]].<ref name=Bostridge>Bostridge, Mark. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/earnest-the-musical-earnest-the-sequel-don-t-laugh-175630.html "Earnest the musical? Earnest the sequel? Don't laugh..."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091740/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/earnest-the-musical-earnest-the-sequel-don-t-laugh-175630.html |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''The Independent'', 1 September 2002</ref>

===21st century===
The play was presented in Singapore in 2004 by the [[British Theatre Playhouse]],<ref>[https://britishtheatreplayhouse.com/productions/ "Past Productions"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822093153/https://britishtheatreplayhouse.com/productions/ |date=22 August 2024 }}, British Theatre Playhouse. Retrieved 18 August 2024</ref> and the same company took the production to [[Greenwich Theatre]], London, in 2005.<ref>Morrison, John. "The Importance of Being Earnest", ''The Stage'', 21 April 2005, p. 9</ref> In 2007 [[Peter Gill (playwright)|Peter Gill]] directed the play at the [[Theatre Royal, Bath]]. The production went on a short UK tour before playing in the West End in 2008.<ref>Billington, Michael. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/feb/01/theatre "The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091740/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/feb/01/theatre |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 1 February 2008</ref>

Since the 1987 Whitehall version, some other productions have cast a male actor in the role of Lady Bracknell. In 2005 the [[Abbey Theatre]], Dublin, presented the play with an all-male cast; it also featured Wilde as a character – the play opened with him drinking in a Parisian café, dreaming of his play.<ref>Fricker, Karen. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/08/theatre "The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091655/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/aug/08/theatre |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 8 August 2005</ref> The [[Melbourne Theatre Company]] staged a production in 2011 with [[Geoffrey Rush]] as Lady Bracknell.<ref>Middleton, Carol. [https://australianstage.com.au/201111184961/reviews/melbourne/the-importance-of-being-earnest-%7C-melbourne-theatre-company.html "The Importance of Being Earnest – Melbourne Theatre Company"] ''Australina Stage'', 18 November 2011</ref> In the same year the [[Roundabout Theatre Company]] presented a Broadway revival based on the 2009 [[Stratford Shakespeare Festival]] production featuring its director, [[Brian Bedford]], as Lady Bracknell.<ref>Jones, Kenneth. [https://playbill.com/article/a-wilde-hit-broadways-earnest-gets-17-week-extension-bumping-people-musical-to-studio-54-com-175535 "A Wilde Hit! Broadway's ''Earnest'' gets 17 week extension, bumping ''People'' musical to Studio 54"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816083210/https://playbill.com/article/a-wilde-hit-broadways-earnest-gets-17-week-extension-bumping-people-musical-to-studio-54-com-175535 |date=16 August 2024 }}, ''[[Playbill]]'', 26 January 2011</ref> At the [[Vaudeville Theatre]], London, in 2015, [[David Suchet]] took the role in a production directed by [[Adrian Noble]].<ref name=ms/>

In 2014 at the [[Harold Pinter Theatre]], London, [[Lucy Bailey]] directed a production that followed a trend to "age-blind" casting:<ref name=age/><ref>John, Emma. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/14/age-blind-casting-geraldine-james "'A 70-year-old skipping about pretending to be 20': the new era of age-blind casting"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092701/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/aug/14/age-blind-casting-geraldine-james |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 14 August 2024</ref> the average age of the cast was nearly seventy, and Jarvis and Havers reprised the roles they had played at the National in 1982.<ref name=age>Masters, Tim. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28364946 "Havers recaptures youth in Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092706/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-28364946 |date=22 August 2024 }}, BBC, 20 July 2014</ref> In 2024 the [[Royal Exchange Theatre]], Manchester presented an updated version, described by ''[[The Guardian]]'' as "a convincing stab at a 21st-century makeover".<ref>Fisher, Mark. [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/20/the-importance-of-being-earnest-review-royal-exchange-manchester The Importance of Being Earnest review – Algernon et al get a 21st-century makeover"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822092639/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/20/the-importance-of-being-earnest-review-royal-exchange-manchester |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 20 June 2024</ref> In November 2024 the National Theatre again revived the play, in a new production by Max Webster. The production was recast for a transfer to the [[Noël Coward Theatre]] in September 2025. The two casts included [[Hugh Skinner]]/[[Nathan Stewart-Jarrett]] (John Worthing), [[Ncuti Gatwa]]/[[Olly Alexander]] (Algernon), [[Richard Cant]]/[[Hugh Dennis]] (Canon Chasuble), [[Sharon D. Clarke]]/[[Stephen Fry]] (Lady Bracknell), Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́/Kitty Hawthorne (Gwendolen), [[Eliza Scanlen]]/Jessica Whitehurst (Cecily) and [[Amanda Lawrence]]/[[Shobna Gulati]] (Miss Prism).<ref>[https://catalogue.nationaltheatre.org.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Performance&id=PERF11535&pos=3 "The Importance of Being Earnest"], National Theatre Archive; and [https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-importance-of-being-earnest/ "The Importance of Being Earnest"], National Theatre. Retrieved 14 September 2025</ref>

==Publication==
===First edition===
[[File:Importance-of-Being-Earnest-title-pages.png|thumb|Title pages of the first edition, 1899, with Wilde's name omitted from the first page, and the dedication to [[Robbie Ross]] on the second|alt=Texts on beige background reading: (i) "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. By the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan" and (ii) "To Robert Baldwin Ross, In Appreciation, In Affection"]]
Wilde's two final comedies, ''An Ideal Husband'' and ''The Importance of Being Earnest'', were still on stage in London at the time of his prosecution in 1895, and they were soon closed as the details of his case became public. After two years in prison with hard labour, Wilde went into exile in Paris, sick and depressed, his reputation destroyed in England. In 1898 [[Leonard Smithers]] agreed with Wilde to publish the two final plays.<ref name=e527/>

Wilde proved to be a diligent reviser, sending detailed instructions on stage directions, character listings and the book's presentation and insisting that a playbill from the first performance be reproduced inside. Ellmann argues that the proofs show a man "very much in command of himself and of the play".<ref name=e527>Ellmann, p. 527</ref> Wilde's name did not appear on the cover, which stated: "By the Author of ''Lady Windermere's Fan''".<ref>Mason, p. 429</ref> His return to work was brief, as he refused to write anything else: "I can write, but have lost the joy of writing".<ref name=e527/>

===In translation===
''The Importance of Being Earnest''{{'}}s popularity has meant it has been translated into many languages, but the pun in the title ("[[wikt:Ernest#Proper noun|Ernest]]", a masculine proper name, and "[[wikt:earnest#Etymology 1|earnest]]", steadfast and serious) poses a special [[Translation#Fidelity and transparency|problem for translators]]. The simplest instance of a suitable translation of the pun is in German, where {{lang|de|ernst}} (serious) and {{lang|de|Ernst|italic=no}} (given name) are the same.<ref name="Pablé 2005:319">Pablé, p. 319</ref>{{refn|Nonetheless there are many different possible titles in German, mostly concerning sentence structure. The two most common are {{lang|de|Bunbury oder ernst / Ernst sein ist alles}} and {{lang|de|Bunbury oder wie wichtig es ist, ernst / Ernst zu sein}} ''Bunbury or Ernst/ Serious is everything'' and ''Bunbury or How Important it is to be Serious'' / ''To be serious''.<ref name="Pablé 2005:301"/>|group=n}}

[[File:Oscar-Wilde-Toulouse-Lautrec.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|alt=Drawing of head and torso of white man, clean-shaven, with longish light-coloured hair, holding a large menu or folio, in semi-profile|left|Wilde by [[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]] (1896)]]
As wordplay is usually unique to the language in question, translators are faced with a choice of either staying faithful to the original or creating a similar pun in their own language.<ref>Pablé, p. 299</ref> Some translators leave all characters' names unchanged and in their original spelling: readers are reminded of the original cultural setting, but the liveliness of the pun is lost.<ref>Pablé, p. 318</ref> Others, favouring comprehensibility over fidelity to the original, have replaced ''Ernest'' with a name that also represents a virtue in the target language.<ref name="Pablé 2005:319"/> For instance, Italian versions variously call the play {{lang|it|L'importanza di essere Franco/Severo/Fedele}}, the given names being respectively the values of honesty, propriety and fidelity.<ref>Pablé, p. 314</ref> Translators differ in their approach to the original English honorific titles; some change them all or none, but most leave a mix, partly as a compensation for the loss of Englishness.<ref name=p317>Pablé, p. 317</ref>

French offers a closer pun. According to [[Les Archives du spectacle]] in its listing of productions in French since 1954, the title of the play is most often given as {{lang|fr|L'Importance d'être Constant}},{{refn|"[[:fr:wikt:Constant|Constant]]" is both a French first name and an adjective meaning steadfast.<ref name=p317/><ref>[https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C3742 "constant"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240825133611/https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9C3742 |date=25 August 2024 }}, ''Dictionnaire de l'Académie française''. Retrieved 25 August 2024</ref>|group=n}} but has also been rendered as {{lang|fr|L'Importance d'être sérieux}}, {{lang|fr|Il est important d'être aimé}}, {{lang|fr|Il est important d'être Désiré}} and {{lang|fr|Il est important d'être Fidèle}}.<ref>[https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/recherche?q=Oscar+Wilde+Importance "Oscar Wilde: Importance"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823104022/https://lesarchivesduspectacle.net/recherche?q=Oscar+Wilde+Importance |date=23 August 2024 }}, ''L'Archives du spectacle''. Retrieved 23 August 2024</ref>{{refn|''The Importance of Being Serious, It Is Important to be Loved, It Is Important to be Desired'' and ''It Is Important to be Faithful'', Désiré and Fidèle being given names.|group=n}}

==Analysis==
===Structure and genre===
The novelist and critic [[Arthur Ransome]] argued that Wilde freed himself by abandoning the [[melodrama]] of his earlier drawing room plays and basing the story entirely on the Earnest/Ernest verbal conceit. Freed from "living up to any drama more serious than conversation", Wilde could now amuse himself to a fuller extent with "quips, {{lang|fr|bons mots|italic=no}}, epigrams and repartee that had really nothing to do with the business at hand".<ref>Ransome, p. 136</ref> The academic [[Sos Eltis]] comments that although Wilde's earliest and longest handwritten drafts of the play are full of "farcical accidents, broad puns and a number of familiar comic devices",<ref>Eltis, p. 175</ref> in his revisions "Wilde transformed standard nonsense into the more systematic and disconcerting illogicality which characterizes ''Earnest's'' dialogue".<ref name=Eltis177>Eltis, p. 177</ref>

The genre of the ''Importance of Being Earnest'' has been debated by scholars and critics, who have variously categorised it as [[high comedy]], farce, parody and satire. In a 1956 critique Richard Foster argues that the play creates "an 'as if' world in which 'real' values are inverted, reason and unreason are interchanged and the probable defined by improbability".<ref>Foster, pp. 19–20</ref> Contributors to ''The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde'' (1997) variously refer to the play as "high farce",<ref>Raby (1997), p. 18</ref> "an ostensible farce",<ref>Raby (1997), p. 159</ref> "farce with aggressive pranks, quick-paced action and evasion of moral responsibility",<ref name="Jackson 1997, p. 173">Jackson (1997), p. 173</ref> and "high comedy".<ref>Cave, p. 227</ref>

===Triviality===
Ransome described ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' as the most trivial of Wilde's society plays, and the only one that produces "that peculiar exhilaration of the spirit by which we recognise the beautiful ... It is precisely because it is consistently trivial that it is not ugly".<ref name=r139>Ransome, p. 139</ref> ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]'', ''An Ideal Husband'' and ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'' had dwelt on more serious wrongdoing, but vice in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' is represented by Algernon's greedy consumption of [[cucumber sandwich]]es.<ref name=r139/>{{refn|Wilde himself evidently took sandwiches with due seriousness. [[Max Beerbohm]] recounted in a letter to [[Reginald Turner (writer)|Reggie Turner]] Wilde's difficulty in obtaining a satisfactory offering: "He ordered a watercress sandwich, which in due course was brought to him: Not a thin, diaphanous green thing, such as he had meant, but a very stout, satisfying article of food. This he ate with assumed disgust (but evident relish) and when he paid the waiter, he said: 'Tell the cook of this restaurant with the compliments of Mr Oscar Wilde that these are the very worst sandwiches in the whole world and that, when I ask for a watercress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it.'"<ref>Lyttelton and Hart-Davis, p. 141</ref>|group=n}} Wilde told his friend [[Robbie Ross]] that the play's theme was "That we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality".<ref name="auto">Ellmann, p. 422</ref> The theme is glanced at in the play's title, and earnestness is repeatedly alluded to in the dialogue;<ref name="Pablé 2005:302">Pablé, p. 302</ref> Algernon says in Act II, "one must be serious about something if one is to have any amusement in life", but goes on to reproach Jack for being serious about everything and thus revealing a trivial nature.<ref>Wilde (2000), p. 77</ref> Blackmail and corruption had haunted the double lives of Dorian Gray and Sir Robert Chiltern (in ''An Ideal Husband''), but in ''Earnest'' the protagonists' duplicity (Algernon's "Bunburying" and Worthing's double life as Jack and Ernest) is for more innocent purposes – largely to evade unwelcome social obligations.<ref name="auto"/> While much theatre of the time tackled serious social and political issues, Wilde's writing in this play is the antithesis of that of [[Didacticism|didactic]] writers like Shaw who used their characters to present audiences with grand ideals and appeals for social justice.<ref name="Jackson 1997:172"/>

===Satire and parody===
The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs – marriage and the pursuit of love in particular.<ref>Raby (1997), p. 169</ref> In Victorian times earnestness was considered by some to be the overriding societal value; originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes, it spread to the middle and upper classes during the mid-19th century.<ref name="Pablé 2005:301">Pablé, p. 301</ref> The play's subtitle introduces the theme, which continues in the discussion between Jack and Algernon in Act I: "Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them".<ref>Wilde (2000), p. 17</ref>

[[File:Gwendolen-Merriman-Cecily-1895.jpg|Gwendolen (Irene Vanbrugh), Merriman (Frank Dyall) and Cecily (Evelyn Millard), in the original production, Act II|thumb|alt=Butler between two young women, all dark-haired and all standing, in a garden setting; the women, both in hats, regard each other angrily]]
Wilde's inversion of values continues: when Algernon arrives in Woolton masquerading as Ernest he tells Cecily that he is not really wicked at all.
{{blockquote|CECILY: If you are not, then you have certainly been deceiving us all in a very inexcusable manner. I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.<ref>Wilde (2000), p. 46</ref>}}
In the final scene Jack asks Gwendolen if she can forgive him for not having been deceitful after all:
{{blockquote|JACK: Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?<br>
GWENDOLEN: I can, for I feel that you are sure to change.<ref>Wilde (2000), p. 104</ref>}}

In turn, Gwendolen and Cecily wish to marry a man named Ernest. Gwendolen ignores her mother's methodical analysis of Jack Worthing's suitability as a husband and places her entire faith in a forename, declaring in Act I, "The only really safe name is Ernest".<ref>Pablé, p. 303</ref> This is an opinion shared by Cecily in Act II: "I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest".<ref>Wilde (2000), p. 64</ref>
Wilde portrayed society's rules and rituals in the figure of Lady Bracknell: according to the Wilde scholar Peter Raby, minute attention to the details of her style created a comic effect of assertion by restraint.<ref>Raby (1997), p. 170</ref> She dismisses Jack's London address as on the unfashionable side of [[Belgrave Square]] and is unmoved by Jack's explanation that the handbag in which he was found as a baby was deposited in the cloakroom of the socially superior half of Victoria Station.<ref>Wilde (2000), pp. 29 and 31</ref>{{refn|At the time, [[London Victoria station|Victoria Station]] consisted of two separate but adjacent terminal stations sharing the same name. To the east was the ramshackle [[London, Chatham and Dover Railway|LC&D Railway]], on the west the up-market [[London, Brighton and South Coast Railway|LB&SCR]] – the Brighton Line, which went to Worthing, the fashionable town to which the gentleman who found baby Jack was travelling at the time (and after which Jack was named).<ref>Dennis, p. 123</ref>|group=n}}

Wilde parodies 19th-century melodrama, introducing exaggeratedly incongruous situations such as Jack's arrival in full mourning for the brother who has just walked into his house, and the sudden switch from fulsome affection between Cecily and Gwendolen to deep hostility on discovering that they are supposedly both engaged to the same man.<ref>Patterson, Michael. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191760082.001.0001/acref-9780191760082-e-663 "Importance of Being Earnest, The"], ''The Oxford Dictionary of Plays'', Oxford University Press, 2015 {{subscription required}}</ref>

===Conjectural homosexual subtext===
In [[queer theory]] the play's themes of duplicity and ambivalence are inextricably bound up with Wilde's homosexuality, so that the play exhibits what one critic terms a "flickering presence-absence of ... homosexual desire".<ref name=Craft>Craft, pp. 116–118</ref> After his release from prison, Wilde wrote to [[Reginald Turner]], "It was extraordinary reading the play over. How I used to toy with that tiger Life!"<ref>Wilde (2003), p. 340</ref> In a 2014 study, William Eaton writes, "''The Importance of Being Earnest'' is what it obviously is, a play about dissimulation, and that dissimulation – not seeming to be who one was – was extremely important for homosexuals of Wilde's time and place, and thus was an extremely non-trivial matter for Wilde".<ref name=e220>Eaton, p. 220</ref>{{refn|[[Deconstruction]]ist approaches to the play have interpreted the prominence of linguistic destabilisation, particularly punning, as reflecting the destabilisation of the social world in which heterosexuality is assumed, default and dominant.<ref>Craft 1990, p. 38; Sedgwick 1993, pp. 54–55</ref>  [[Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick]], a proponent of queer theory, contends that the play continually undercuts the idea that there is a "natural" correspondence between what things or people are called and what they are (with particular reference to the importance of fathers and fathers' names).<ref name="s53" /> She concurs with Christopher Craft that Wilde's persistent subversion of the normal meaning of words undermines the norms of society, including the assumption that all men should be heterosexual and conventionally masculine, and that there is a natural path for a man's story that ends in heterosexual family life.<ref name="s53">Sedgwick, pp. 53–55</ref><ref>Craft, p. 38</ref>|group=n}}

[[Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick]], a proponent of queer theory, interprets linguistic aspects of the play as allusions to gay culture and stereotypes, such as references to the German language and the composer [[Richard Wagner]], both of which were associated with male homosexuality in Wilde's day.<ref name=":0">Sedgwick (1993), p. 59</ref> In 1990 [[Noel Annan, Baron Annan|Noel Annan]] suggested that the use of the name Ernest may have been a homosexual in-joke.<ref name="annan">Annan, p. 104</ref> In 1892, two years before Wilde began writing the play, [[John Gambril Nicholson]] had published a book of [[pederast]]ic poetry, ''Love in Earnest''. The sonnet "Of Boys' Names" included the verse:
{{poem quote
|text=Though Frank may ring like silver bell
and Cecil softer music claim
they cannot work the miracle
– 'tis Ernest sets my heart a-flame.<ref>Nicholson, p. 61</ref>}}

Annan speculated that "earnest" may also have been a private code-word among gay men, as in: "Is he earnest?" in the same way that "Is he musical?" is thought to have been used.<ref name=annan/> Eaton finds this theory unconvincing,<ref name=e220/> and in 2001 [[Donald Sinden|Sir Donald Sinden]], an actor who had met Lord Alfred Douglas and two of the play's original cast (Irene Vanbrugh and Allan Aynesworth), wrote to ''The Times'' to rebut suggestions that "earnest" held any sexual connotations:<ref name=sinden>Sinden, Donald. "Important to stop rot about Earnest", ''The Times'', 6 February 2001, p. 19</ref><ref>Hamilton, Alan. "Wilde's 'Earnest' plays it straight, says Sinden", ''The Times'', 6 February 2001, p. 3</ref>
{{blockquote|Although they had ample opportunity, at no time did any of them even hint that "Earnest" was a synonym for homosexual. The first time I heard it mentioned was in the 1980s, and I immediately consulted Sir John Gielgud, whose own performance of Jack Worthing in the same play was legendary, and whose knowledge of theatrical lore was encyclopaedic. He replied in his ringing tones: "No-No! Nonsense, absolute nonsense: I would have known".<ref name=sinden/>}}

===Bunbury===
[[Bunbury, Cheshire|Bunbury]] is a village in [[Cheshire]].<ref>Ekwall, p. 74</ref> Several theories have been advanced to explain Wilde's use of the name to imply a secretive double life. It may have derived from Henry Shirley Bunbury, a hypochondriacal acquaintance of Wilde's youth.<ref>Raby (1997), p. 197</ref> Another theory is that Wilde spotted the names of a Captain Bunbury and a magistrate, Mr Bunbury, in ''The Worthing Gazette'' in August and September 1894, found the surname pleasing and borrowed it.<ref>Wagstaff, John. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/45269170 "The Wildes In Worthing: Part 3: Why 'Bunbury'?"], ''The Wildean'', no. 7, 1995, pp. 35–39 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240817090350/https://www.jstor.org/stable/45269170 |date=17 August 2024 }}</ref>

A suggestion put forward by [[Aleister Crowley]] – who knew Wilde – was that Bunbury was a [[blend word|portmanteau word]], coined after Wilde had taken a train to [[Banbury]], met a boy there and arranged a second meeting at [[Sunbury-on-Thames|Sunbury]].<ref>D'Arch Smith, pp. 7–8</ref> Carolyn Williams, in a 2010 study, writes that for the word "Bunburying", Wilde "braids the 'Belvawneying' evil eye from Gilbert's ''Engaged''" with Bunthorne from Gilbert (and [[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]])'s 1881 comic opera ''[[Patience (opera)|Patience]]''.<ref>Williams, p. 156</ref>{{refn|It is sometimes thought that Gilbert's Bunthorne was a caricature of Wilde, but the Gilbert scholar Andrew Crowther calls this "a popular misconception". The opera was produced before Wilde was famous enough to be caricatured.<ref>Crowther, Andrew. [https://www.gsarchive.net/patience/wilde/wilde.html "Bunthorne and Oscar Wilde"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505013114/https://www.gsarchive.net/patience/wilde/wilde.html |date=5 May 2011 }}, Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, 2009</ref>|group=n}}

===Use of language===
Although Wilde had for several years been famous for dialogue and his use of language, Raby has argued that in this play the author achieved unity and mastery unmatched in his other plays, with the possible exception of ''Salome''.<ref name="Raby 1988:125"/> Raby comments that although the earlier comedies suffer from an unevenness resulting from the thematic clash between the trivial and the serious, ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' achieves "a pitch-perfect style" that allows these clashes to dissolve.<ref name="Raby 1988:125">Raby (1988), p. 125</ref> Raby identifies three different registers in the play: Algernon's exchange with his manservant conveying an underlying unity despite their differing attitudes. The imperious pronouncements of Lady Bracknell are as startling for her use of [[hyperbole]] and rhetorical extravagance as for her disconcerting opinions.<ref name="Raby 1988:125"/> In contrast, the discourse of Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism is distinguished by "pedantic precept" and "idiosyncratic diversion".<ref name="Raby 1988:125"/> The play is full of epigrams and paradoxes. Max Beerbohm described it as abounding in "chiselled apothegms – witticisms unrelated to action or character but so good in themselves as to have the quality of dramatic surprise".<ref>Beerbohm, pp. 509–510</ref>

===Characterisation===
Though Wilde deployed characters that were by now familiar – the upper-class dandy, the overbearing matriarch, the woman with a past, the puritanical young lady – his treatment is subtler than in his earlier comedies. Lady Bracknell, for instance, embodies respectable, upper-class society, but Eltis notes how her development "from the familiar overbearing duchess into a quirkier and more disturbing character" can be traced through Wilde's revisions of the play.<ref name=Eltis177/> For the two young men, Wilde presents not stereotypical stage "dudes" but intelligent beings who, as Russell Jackson puts it, "speak like their creator in well-formed complete sentences and rarely use slang or vogue-words".<ref name=jxxix>Jackson (1980), p. xxix</ref> Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism are, in Jackson's view, characterised by "a few light touches of detail", their old-fashioned enthusiasms and the Canon's fastidious pedantry pared down by Wilde during his many redrafts of the text.<ref name=jxxix/>

==Adaptations==
{{See also|Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde}}

===Film===
{{main|The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film)|The Importance of Being Earnest (1992 film)|The Importance of Being Earnest (2002 film)|}}

''The Importance of Being Earnest'' has been adapted for the English-language cinema at least three times, first in 1952 by [[Anthony Asquith]] who adapted the screenplay and directed it. The cast included [[Michael Denison]] (Algernon), [[Michael Redgrave]] (Jack), [[Edith Evans]] (Lady Bracknell), [[Dorothy Tutin]] (Cecily), [[Joan Greenwood]] (Gwendolen), [[Margaret Rutherford]] (Miss Prism), and [[Miles Malleson]] (Dr Chasuble).<ref>Minney, p. 133</ref>

In 1992 Kurt Baker directed a version using an all-black cast with Daryl Keith Roach as Jack, Wren T. Brown as Algernon, Ann Weldon as Lady Bracknell, [[Lanei Chapman]] as Cecily, [[Chris Calloway]] as Gwendolen, [[CCH Pounder]] as Miss Prism and [[Brock Peters]] as Dr Chasuble, set in the United States.<ref>Holden, Stephen. [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/14/movies/review-film-a-black-cast-in-a-present-day-earnest.html "Review/Film; A Black Cast in a Present-Day 'Earnest'"], ''The New York Times'', 14 May 1992, p. C20</ref>

In 2002 [[Oliver Parker]], a director who had previously adapted ''An Ideal Husband'', made another film. It stars [[Colin Firth]] (Jack), [[Rupert Everett]] (Algernon), [[Judi Dench]] (Lady Bracknell), [[Reese Witherspoon]] (Cecily), [[Frances O'Connor]] (Gwendolen), [[Anna Massey]] (Miss Prism) and [[Tom Wilkinson]] (Canon Chasuble).<ref>Best, Jason. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2002/08/21/the_importance_of_being_earnest_2002_review.shtml "The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)"], BBC, 3 September 2002</ref> Parker interpolated about twenty lines of his own into the script and restored the episode cut by Wilde before the premiere of the play, in which a solicitor attempts to serve a writ on the supposed Ernest.<ref name=Bostridge/>

A 2008 [[Telugu language]] romantic comedy film, titled ''[[Ashta Chamma]]'', is an adaptation of the play.<ref>Mamillapalle, Nischala. [https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/telugu-features/telugu-movies-12-years-of-nani-starrer-ashta-chamma-5-things-that-make-it-an-ideal-rewatch-mohana-krishna-indraganti "12 Years of Nani-Starrer Asta Chamma"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901131024/https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/telugu-features/telugu-movies-12-years-of-nani-starrer-ashta-chamma-5-things-that-make-it-an-ideal-rewatch-mohana-krishna-indraganti |date=1 September 2024 }}, ''FC-Ormax Power List 2024''. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref>

===Operas and musicals===
In 1963 [[Erik Chisholm]] composed an opera from the play, basing the [[libretto]] on Wilde's text.<ref>Mears, Caroline, and James May. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005630 "Chisholm, Erik"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901131057/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000005630 |date=1 September 2024 }}</ref> [[Gerald Barry (composer)|Gerald Barry]] created the 2011 opera ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest (opera)|The Importance of Being Earnest]]'', commissioned by the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]] and the [[Barbican Centre]] in London. It premiered in Los Angeles in 2011. The role of Lady Bracknell is sung by a [[bass (voice)|bass]].<ref name=nmc/> The stage premiere was given by the [[Opéra national de Lorraine]] in [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] in 2013.<ref>Barry, unnumbered introductory page</ref> A 2012 concert performance was recorded live at the Barbican by the BBC and released commercially in 2014.<ref name=nmc>[[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Griffiths, Paul]] (2014). Notes to NMC CD set NMC D197 {{oclc|896191170}}</ref> In 2017 [[Odyssey Opera]] of Boston presented [[Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco]]'s opera ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' as part of a "Wilde Opera Nights" series, a season-long exploration of operatic works inspired by Wilde's writings and world.<ref>Wells, Kevin. [https://bachtrack.com/review-castelnuovo-tedesco-importance-earnest-odyssey-opera-boston-march-2017 "Wilde about Castelnuovo-Tedesco: ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' at Boston's Odyssey Opera"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616220725/https://bachtrack.com/review-castelnuovo-tedesco-importance-earnest-odyssey-opera-boston-march-2017 |date=16 June 2020 }}, ''Bachtrack'', 21 March 2017</ref>

In 1964 [[Gerd Natschinski]] composed a musical, {{lang|de|Mein Freund Bunbury}}, based on the play.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150813030139/http://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/natschinski108.html "Komponist Gerd Natschinski gestorben"], MDR, 7 August 2015</ref> According to a study by [[Robert Tanitch]], by 2002, there had been at least eight adaptations of the play as a musical, though "never with conspicuous success".<ref name=Bostridge/> The earliest such version was a 1927 American show entitled ''Oh Earnest''. The journalist Mark Bostridge comments, "The libretto of a 1957 musical adaptation, ''[[Half in Earnest]]'', deposited in the [[British Library]], is scarcely more encouraging. The curtain rises on Algernon, strumming away at the piano, singing, 'I can play ''[[Chopsticks (waltz)|Chopsticks]]'', Lane'. Other songs include 'A Bunburying I Must Go'".<ref name=Bostridge/> Since Bostridge wrote his article, at least one further musical version of the play has been staged: a show with a book by Douglas Livingstone and score by Adam McGuinness and Zia Moranne was staged in December 2011 at the [[Riverside Studios]], Hammersmith; the cast included [[Susie Blake]], [[Gyles Brandreth]] and [[Edward Petherbridge]].<ref>Maxwell, Dominic. "Lady Bracknell the musical", ''The Times'', 17 December 2011, p. 35</ref>

===Stage derivatives===
[[Tom Stoppard]]'s 1974 stage comedy ''[[Travesties]]'' draws extensively on Wilde's play. Stoppard's central character, [[Henry Wilfrid Carr|Henry Carr]], was a real-life figure who played Algernon in a production of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' produced by [[James Joyce]] in Zurich in 1917.<ref>Bowker, pp. 246–247</ref> Stoppard reimagines him as an old man, reminiscing about the production and his days as a young man. The other characters include Carr's sister Gwendolen and the local librarian, Cecily; the action of the play, under the erratic control of the old Carr's fallible memory, continually mirrors that of Wilde's original.<ref>Cave, pp. 230–231</ref> Carr has an exchange with [[Tristan Tzara]] reminiscent of John Worthing's exchanges with Algernon,<ref>Stoppard, pp. 31–34</ref> Tzara has a scene with Joyce that draws on Jack's interview with Lady Bracknell,<ref>Stoppard, p. 49</ref> and Gwendolen and Cecily have a falling out on the lines of that of their namesakes in Wilde's play (though to the tune of "[[Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean]]" rather than in prose).<ref>Stoppard, pp. 78–82</ref>

In 2016 the Irish actor/writers Helen Norton and Jonathan White wrote the comic play ''[[To Hell in a Handbag]]'' which retells the story of ''The Importance'' from the point of view of the characters Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism, giving them their own back story and showing what happens to them when they are not on stage in Wilde's play.<ref>Brennan, Clare. [http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/aug/13/edinburgh-fringe-theatre-whales-revlon-girl-venus-adonis-half-breed-review "A world without borders, almost"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901131029/https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/aug/13/edinburgh-fringe-theatre-whales-revlon-girl-venus-adonis-half-breed-review |date=1 September 2024 }}, ''The Guardian'', 13 August 2017</ref>

===Radio and television===
There have been many radio versions of the play. In 1925 the [[BBC]] broadcast an adaptation with Hesketh Pearson as Jack Worthing.<ref>"Broadcasting", ''The Times'', 23 November 1922, p. 19</ref> Further broadcasts of the play followed during the 1920s and 1930s,<ref>"Broadcasting", ''The Times'', 3 May 1927, p. 25</ref><ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=first&q=%22The+Importance+of+Being+Earnest%22 "The Importance of Being Earnest"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref> and in November 1937 the BBC broadcast the first television adaptation of the play, in an abridged version directed by [[Royston Morley]].<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b25c1a45112641f284073d5f3bda54e8 "Television of the Week"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822093201/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b25c1a45112641f284073d5f3bda54e8 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Radio Times'', 29 October 1937, p. 18</ref> In 1942 BBC radio broadcast scenes from the play, featuring two members of the original cast: the programme was introduced by Allan Aynesworth and starred Irene Vanbrugh as Lady Bracknell.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/7ff6516341a3445eb5961ba9cf84f637 "Saturday for the Forces"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822093202/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/7ff6516341a3445eb5961ba9cf84f637 |date=22 August 2024 }}, ''Radio Times'', 8 May 1942, p. 19</ref> A 1951 broadcast of the complete three-act play starred Gielgud, Evans and [[Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies]].<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/be767d673655470a98449ccbaa56d6d7 "The Home Service"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816192642/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/be767d673655470a98449ccbaa56d6d7 |date=16 August 2024 }}, ''Radio Times'', 1 June 1951, p. 16</ref>

In March 1958 British commercial television broadcast a production of the play starring Michael Denison (Jack), [[Tony Britton]] (Algernon), [[Dulcie Gray]] (Gwendolen) and [[Martita Hunt]] (Lady Bracknell).<ref>"Play of the Week", ''TV Times'', 21 March 1958, p. 31</ref> A 1964 commercial television adaptation starred [[Ian Carmichael]], [[Patrick Macnee]], [[Susannah York]], [[Fenella Fielding]], [[Pamela Brown (actress)|Pamela Brown]] and [[Irene Handl]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150912021100/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6bfd4bd9 "The Importance of Being Earnest (1964)"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref> A BBC television version in 1974 starred [[Coral Browne]] as Lady Bracknell.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5628de1f900b43c0932f2fe0262558b8 "Play of the Month presents: The Importance of Being Earnest"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref> In 1977 [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast the four-act version of the play for the first time, with [[Fabia Drake]] as Lady Bracknell, [[Richard Pasco]] as Jack, [[Jeremy Clyde]] as Algy, [[Maurice Denham]] as Canon Chasuble, [[Sylvia Coleridge]] as Miss Prism, [[Barbara Leigh-Hunt]] as Gwendolen and [[Prunella Scales]] as Cecily. In 1988 a production of the four-act version was broadcast on BBC television, starring [[Joan Plowright]], [[Paul McGann]], [[Gemma Jones]] and [[Alec McCowen]].<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5edc167f3c5f4bfe8fdbccfbc85d394e "Theatre Night: The Importance of Being Earnest"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref>

In 1995, to mark the centenary of the first performance of the play, Radio 4 broadcast a new adaptation on 13 February; directed by [[Glyn Dearman]], it featured [[Judi Dench]] as Lady Bracknell, [[Michael Sheen]] as Jack, [[Martin Clunes]] as Algernon, [[John Moffatt (actor)|John Moffatt]] as Dr Chasuble, [[Miriam Margolyes]] as Miss Prism, [[Samantha Bond]] as Gwendolen and [[Amanda Root]] as Cecily.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/738a020266c94725b70973aed34b8aa7 "The Monday Play: The Importance of Being Earnest"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901131028/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/738a020266c94725b70973aed34b8aa7 |date=1 September 2024 }}, BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref> In December 2000 [[BBC Radio 3]] broadcast an adaptation directed by [[Howard Davies (director)|Howard Davies]] starring [[Geraldine McEwan]] as Lady Bracknell, [[Simon Russell Beale]] as Jack Worthing, [[Julian Wadham]] as Algernon Moncrieff, [[Geoffrey Palmer (actor)|Geoffrey Palmer]] as Canon Chasuble, [[Celia Imrie]] as Miss Prism, [[Victoria Hamilton]] as Gwendolen and [[Emma Fielding]] as Cecily.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9aee68868a7e47d9842ddd1d51f6cde3 "Sunday Play"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240816185136/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9aee68868a7e47d9842ddd1d51f6cde3 |date=16 August 2024 }}, BBC Genome. Retrieved 16 August 2024</ref>

===Commercial recordings===
Gielgud's performance is preserved on an [[EMI records|EMI]] audio recording dating from 1952, which also captures Edith Evans's Lady Bracknell. The cast also includes [[Roland Culver]] (Algernon), [[Jean Cadell]] (Miss Prism), [[Pamela Brown (actress)|
Pamela Brown]] (Gwendolen) and [[Celia Johnson]] (Cecily).<ref>WorldCat {{oclc|645708270}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/wilde-the-importance-of-being-earnest-1963-gielgud-evans "Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest – 1953 Gielgud Evans"], Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 September 2024</ref>

Other audio recordings include a "Theatre Masterworks" version from 1953, directed and narrated by [[Margaret Webster]], with a cast including [[Maurice Evans (actor)|Maurice Evans]] and [[Lucile Watson]];<ref>WorldCat {{oclc|10935711}}</ref><ref>Barranger, p. xvii</ref> a 1968 recording on the [[Caedmon Audio|Caedmon]] label with [[Gladys Cooper]] as Lady Bracknell and Joan Greenwood, [[Richard Johnson (actor)|Richard Johnson]], [[Alec McCowen]], [[Lynn Redgrave]], Irene Handl and [[Robertson Hare]];<ref>[https://archive.org/details/lp_the-importance-of-being-earnest_oscar-wilde-peter-wood-gladys-cooper-joan "The Importance of Being Earnest]". Internet Archive. Retrieved 1 September 2024</ref> a 1989 version by [[California Artists Radio Theatre]], featuring [[Dan O'Herlihy]], [[Jeanette Nolan]], [[Les Tremayne]] and [[Richard Erdman]];<ref>WorldCat {{oclc|36827267}}</ref> and one by [[L.A. Theatre Works]] issued in 2009, featuring [[Charles Busch]], [[James Marsters]] and [[Andrea Bowen]].<ref>WorldCat {{oclc|610192185}}</ref>

==Notes, references and sources==

===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
====Books====
* {{cite book | last=Annan | first=Noel | author-link=Noel Annan | year=1990 | title=Our Age: Portrait of a Generation | location=London | publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/ourageportraitof00anna | isbn=0-297-81129-0}}
* {{cite book | last =Barranger | first =Milly S.| title=Margaret Webster: A Life in the Theater|date =2004 | location =Ann Arbor | publisher =University of Michigan Press |url=https://archive.org/details/margaretwebsterl00barr_0/page/n19/mode/2up?q=Earnest | url-access=registration | isbn =978-0-47-202603-6 }}
* {{cite book | last=Barry | first=Gerald | authorlink=Gerald Barry (composer) | title=The Importance of Being Earnest: Opera in Three Acts | date=2013 | location=Mainz | publisher=Schott | oclc=828858722}}
* {{cite book | last=Beckson | first=Karl E. | year=1970 | title=Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage | location=London | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-7100-6929-0 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/oscarwildecritic0000unse }}
* {{cite book | last=Beckson | first=Karl E. | year=1998 | title=The Oscar Wilde Encyclopedia | location=New York | publisher=AMS Press | isbn=0-404-61498-1| url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/oscarwildeencycl0000beck/page/340/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book | last=Beerbohm | first=Max | author-link=Max Beerbohm | year=1970 | title=Last Theatres 1904–1910 | location=London | publisher=Hart-Davis | oclc=622626394 }}
* {{cite book | last = Bowker | first = Gordon| authorlink=Gordon Bowker (writer) | title = James Joyce: A New Biography| date = 2012| location= New York  | publisher =  Farrar, Straus and Giroux| url= https://archive.org/details/jamesjoycenewbio0000bowk/page/246/mode/2up?q=%22Henry+Carr%22| url-access=registration | isbn = 978-0-37-417872-7}}
* {{cite book | last=Bristow | first=Joseph | year=2008 | title=Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture – The Making of a Legend | location=Athens, Ohio | publisher=Ohio University Press | isbn=978-0-8214-1838-3 }}
* {{cite book | last=Cave | first=Richard | title=The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde | editor=Peter Raby | chapter=Wilde's Plays | date=1997 | location=London | publisher=Cambridge University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby/page/n1/mode/2up | url-access=registration | isbn=0-297-81129-0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Croall | first=Jonathan | authorlink=Jonathan Croall | year=2000 | title=Gielgud: A Theatrical Life, 1904–2000 | location=London | publisher=Methuen | isbn=0-413-74560-0}}
* {{cite book | last=D'Arch Smith | first=Timothy | year=1998 | title=Bunbury: Two Notes on Oscar Wilde | location=Bicary | publisher=The Winged Lion | oclc=41155817 }}
* {{cite book | last=Denisoff | first=Dennis | author-link=Dennis Denisoff | title=Aestheticism and Sexual Parody, 1840–1940 | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=0-521-02489-7 | date=2001 }}
* {{cite book | last=Dennis | first=Richard | year=2008 | title=Cities in Modernity: Representations and Productions of Metropolitan Space, 1840–1930 | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/citiesinmodernit0000denn/mode/2up | url-access=registration | isbn=978-0-521-46841-1 }}
* {{cite book | last=Ellmann | first=Richard | author-link=Richard Ellmann | year=1988 | title=Oscar Wilde | publisher=Penguin | location=London | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/oscarwilde0000ellm_i7q3/mode/2up | isbn=0-14-026501-5 }}
* {{cite book | last=Eltis | first=Sos | authorlink=Sos Eltis | year=1996 | title=Revising Wilde: Society and Subversion in the Plays of Oscar Wilde | location=Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | isbn=0-19-812183-0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Ekwall | first=Eilert | authorlink=Eilert Ekwall | year=1960 | title=Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0-19-869103-3}}
* {{cite book | last=Gagnier | first=Regenia | authorlink=Regenia Gagnier | title=Idylls of the Marketplace: Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public | year=1986 | location=Stanford | publisher=Stanford University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/idyllsofmarketpl0000gagn/page/132/mode/2up | url-access=registration | isbn=0-85967-730-3 }}
* {{cite book | last=Gielgud | first=John | authorlink=John Gielgud | year=1979 | title=An Actor and His Time | location=London | publisher=Sidgwick and Jackson | isbn=0-283-98573-9}}
* {{cite book | last=Gordon | first=Robert|chapter=Wilde's 'Plays of Modern Life' on the Contemporary British Stage | editor=Constantin-George Sandulescu | year=1994 | title=Rediscovering Oscar Wilde | publisher=C. Smythe | location=Gerrards Cross | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rediscoveringosc0000unse/page/156/mode/2up | chapter-url-access=registration | isbn=0-86140-376-2}}
* {{cite book | last=Hall | first=Peter | author-link=Peter Hall (director) | title=Diaries 1972–1980 | year=1983 | location=London | publisher=Hamish Hamilton | isbn=0-241-11285-0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Hayman | first=Ronald | authorlink=Ronald Hayman | year=1971 | title=Gielgud | location=London | publisher=Heinemann | isbn=0-435-18400-8}}
* {{cite book | last=Hischak | first=Thomas S. | year=2009 | title=Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows Through 2007 | location=Jefferson | publisher=McFarland | isbn=978-0-7864-5309-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzeiySJZXF4C&q=broadway+theatre+Hischak+Algernon+Moncrieff&pg=PT1823 }}
* {{cite book | last=Hudson | first=Lynton | year=1951 | title=The English Stage, 1850–1950 | location=London | publisher=Harrap | oclc=1851518 }}
* {{cite book | last=Jackson | first=Russell | chapter=The Importance of Being Earnest | editor=Peter Raby | year=1997 | title=The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby | chapter-url-access=registration | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location=London | isbn=0-297-81129-0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Jackson | first=Russell | chapter=Introduction | year=2000 | orig-date=1980 | title=The Importance of Being Earnest | location=London | publisher=A & C Black | isbn=0-7136-3040-X }}
* {{cite book | last=Koerble | first=Betty | year=1952 | title=W. S. Gilbert and Oscar Wilde: A Comparative Study | location=Madison | publisher=University of Wisconsin | oclc=55806177 }}
* {{cite book | last=Lyttelton | first=George | author-link=George Lyttelton (teacher) | author2=Rupert Hart-Davis | editor=Rupert Hart-Davis | year=1981 | title=The Lyttelton–Hart-Davis Letters, Volume Three | location=London | publisher=John Murray | isbn=0-7195-3770-3 | author2-link=Rupert Hart-Davis}}
* {{cite book | last=Mason | first=Stuart | year=1972 | orig-date=1917 | title=Bibliography of Oscar Wilde | location=New York | publisher=Haskell House | isbn=0-8383-1378-7 }}
* {{cite book | last=Minney | first=R. J. | title=The Films of Anthony Asquith | date=1976 | location=South Brunswick | publisher=A. S. Barnes | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/filmsofanthonyas00minn/page/131/mode/2up | isbn=0-498-01558-0}}
* {{cite book | last=Nicholson | first=John Gambril | authorlink=John Gambril Nicholson | year=1892 | title=Love in Earnest – Sonnets, Ballades, and Lyrics | location=London | publisher=Elliot Stock | oclc=8575205 }}
* {{cite book | last=Pearson | first=Hesketh | author-link=Hesketh Pearson | year=1946 | title=The Life of Oscar Wilde | publisher=Methuen and Co Ltd | location=London | oclc=819025 | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.209788/page/n7/mode/2up}}
* {{cite book | last=Raby | first=Peter | year=1988 | title=Oscar Wilde | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-26078-7 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/oscarwilde0000raby }}
* {{cite book | last=Raby | first=Peter | year=1995 | title=The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader's Companion | location=New York | publisher=Twayne | isbn=0-8057-8588-4 }}
* {{cite book | last=Raby | first=Peter | chapter=Wilde's Comedies of Society | editor=Peter Raby | year=1997 | title=The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde | publisher=Cambridge University Press | location=London | url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00raby/page/n1/mode/2up | url-access=registration | isbn=0-297-81129-0 }}
* {{Cite book | last=Ransome | first=Arthur | author-link=Arthur Ransome | title=Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study | oclc=1050260305 | url=https://archive.org/details/oscarwildec00ransuoft | publisher=Mitchell Kennerly | location=New York | year=1912}}
* {{cite book | last=Stedman | first=Jane W. | year=1996 | title=W. S. Gilbert, A Classic Victorian & His Theatre | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0-19-816174-3 }}
* {{cite book | last=Stoppard | first=Tom | authorlink=Tom Stoppard | title=Travesties | year=2017 | edition=third | orig-date=1975 | location=London | publisher=Faber & Faber | isbn=978-0-571-33925-9 }}
* {{cite book | last=Thomson | first=Peter | year=2006 | title=The Cambridge Introduction to English Theatre, 1660–1900 | location=Cambridge | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=0-521-54790-3 }}
* {{cite book | last=Wilde | first=Oscar | author-link=Oscar Wilde | title=The Letters of Oscar Wilde | editor=Rupert Hart-Davis | editor-link=Rupert Hart-Davis | year=1962 | location=London | publisher=Hart-Davis | oclc=460734743}}
* {{cite book | last=Wilde | first=Oscar | editor=Russell Jackson | year=2000 | orig-date=1980 | title=The Importance of Being Earnest | location=London | publisher=A & C Black | isbn=0-7136-3040-X }}
* {{cite book | last=Wilde | first=Oscar | editor=Merlin Holland | editor-link=Merlin Holland | title=Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters | date=2003 | location=London and New York | publisher=Fourth Estate | isbn=0-00-716103-4}}
* {{cite book | last=Williams | first=Carolyn | year=2012 | orig-date=2010 | title=Gilbert and Sullivan – Gender, Genre, Parody | location=New York and Chichester | publisher=Columbia University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/gilbertsullivang0000will_j4s2/page/156/mode/2up?q=braids | isbn=978-0-231-14805-4 }}

====Journals====
* {{cite journal |last= Adut|first= Ari| title = A Theory of Scandal: Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar Wilde| journal = American Journal of Sociology|volume=111|issue=1| date = July 2005| pages = 213–248|doi= 10.1086/428816|jstor= 10.1086/428816|pmid= 16240549|url =https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/428816 }} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal | last=Atkinson | first=Julia | date=July 2015 | title=An Author Not Just Now Familiar to Ears Polite | journal=The Wildean, A Journal of the Oscar Wilde Society | number=47 | pages=21–37 | jstor=48569055 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48569055}} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal | last=Craft | first=Christopher | title=Alias Bunbury: Desire and Termination in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' | journal=Representations | date=Summer 1990 | number=31 | pages=19–46 | doi=10.2307/2928398 | jstor=2928398 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928398  }} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal |last= Eaton|first= William| title = The Unsaid| journal = Agni| date = 2014|issue=79| pages = 219–231|jstor= 24582186|url =https://www.jstor.org/stable/24582186 }} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal |last=Fineman |first=Joel |year=1990 |title=The Significance of Literature: ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/778454 |journal=October |volume=15 |pages=79–90 |doi=10.2307/778454 |jstor=778454 |url-access=subscription }} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal | last=Fotheringham | first=Richard | title=Exiled to the Colonies: 'Oscar Wilde' in Australia, 1895–1897 | journal=Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film | volume=30| number=2| date=2003 | pages=55–68 |doi=10.7227/NCTF.30.2.4 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal | last=Pablé | first=Adrian | title=The Importance of Renaming Ernest? Italian Translations of Oscar Wilde | journal=Target | volume=17 | number=2 | pages=297–326 | year=2005 | doi=10.1075/target.17.2.05pab | url=https://benjamins.com/online/target/articles/target.17.2.05pab | url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal|last= Sedgwick|first= Eve Kosofsky| title = Tales of the Avunculate: Queer Tutelage in The Importance Of Being Earnest| journal = Tendencies| date = 1993| pages = 52–72|doi= 10.2307/j.ctv11hpmxs.6|url = https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11hpmxs.6|url-access = subscription}} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite journal |last=Snider |first=Clifton |title=Synchronicity and the Trickster in "The Importance of Being Earnest" |journal=The Wildean |date=July 2005 |issue=27 |pages=55–63 |jstor=45270141 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45270141}} {{subscription required}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box |about=yes |by=no }}
* {{Gutenberg |no=844 |name=The Importance of Being Earnest}} — Kindle, EPUB, and txt files
* {{cite web |title=''The Importance of Being Earnest'' playscript |website=Wikimedia commons (wikimedia.org) |date=12 October 2015 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_playscript_A4_pdf.pdf }} — printable PDF version, for paper size A4
* {{cite web |title=''The Importance of Being Earnest'' |website=[[British Library]] (bl.uk) |url=http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-draft-of-the-importance-of-being-earnest-by-oscar-wilde# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907170631/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript-draft-of-the-importance-of-being-earnest-by-oscar-wilde |archive-date=7 September 2014 }} — early draft manuscript at the British Library
* {{cite web |title=''The Importance of Being Earnest'' |website=[[Victoria and Albert Museum]] (vam.ac.uk) |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/t/the-importance-of-being-earnest/}}
* {{IBDB show|4660}}
* {{librivox book |title=The Importance of Being Earnest |author=Oscar Wilde}}

{{Oscar Wilde}}
{{The Importance of Being Earnest}}
{{Special Tony Award}}
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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Importance Of Being Earnest, The}}
[[Category:1895 plays]]
[[Category:Plays by Oscar Wilde]]
[[Category:Irish comedy plays]]
[[Category:British comedy plays]]
[[Category:Irish plays adapted into films]]
[[Category:British plays adapted into films]]
[[Category:Plays adapted into operas]]
[[Category:Irish plays adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:British plays adapted for television]]