Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest uses irony and humor to satirize Victorian social norms. The plot follows two friends, Jack and Algernon, who both pretend to have a fictional friend named Ernest to escape their social obligations. During the play their false identities are revealed which causes comic misunderstandings as the two women they are engaged to, Gwendolen and Cecily, will only marry a man named Ernest. In the end it is discovered that Jack's real name is Ernest, resolving the deception and allowing both marriages to proceed. Contemporary reviewers found the play clever but were unsure of its seriousness due to its lighthearted plot which did not tackle typical social or political issues of the time

1. Oscar Wilde’s
The Importance of Being Earnest

2. The Irony and British humor in the
Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
 Eder Müller Lima
 Ana Patrícia Lopes

3. The Author
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and died in 1900 in Paris.
During the first performance of the play, it was said that
Lord Alfred Douglas the son of the Marquess of
Queensberry planned to disrupt the play by throwing a
bouquet of rotten vegetables at the playwright when he
took his bow at the end of the show.
Oscar learned of his plan and canceled Queensberry’s
ticket and arranged a policeman to bar his entrance.

4. The Play
 Act I
 Algernon Moncliff’s flat
 London
 Jack (John) pretending to be Ernest
 Jack proposes to Gwendolen
 Act II
 The Garden of the Manor House, Woolton
 Countryside
 Algy pretending to be Jack’s brother: Ernest
 Algy proposes Cecily
 When Gwendolen arrives (ran away) the girls find out that there is no Ernest.

5. The Play Act III
 Morning-Room at the Manor House, Woolton
 Lady Bracknell (Aunt Augusta) arrives in persuit of her daughter.
 First she doesn’t agree with the engagement of her nephew Algy and Cecicly.
 The impasse is broken by the return of Miss Prim.
 When she is told about the inherence she changes her mind.
 Jack (John) doesn’t give his permission, unless she gives him the permission to marry
Gewndolen, her daughter.
 Aunt Augusta realizes that Jack is accpetable to marry Gwendolen only when they all
discover that Jack was her sister’s lost baby.
 However, Gwendolen insists that she’s only going to marry a man named Ernest, and
what would be her fiancé’s real name?
 Augustas says that, as the first born, he must have been named in honor to his father.
 Jack search the Army’s list and finds out that his name is really Ernest.
 So, pertence was reality all along.

6. The Reception
 The Reception
 In contrast to much theatre of the time, The Importance
of Being Earnest's light plot does not tackle serious social
and political issues, something of which contemporary
reviewers were wary. Though unsure of Wilde's
seriousness as a dramatist, they recognized the play's
cleverness, humor and popularity with audiences.

7. The End
"My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality."
"On the contrary, Aunt Augusta", he replies, "I've now realized for the first time in my life the
vital importance of being Earnest."