The importance of being earnest e The picture of Dorian Gray: riassunto

The importance of being earnest e The picture of Dorian Gray: riassunto

Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest: The story talks about the two lives of two young aristocratic men, John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. The first one, when he was an infant, was found in a black hand-bag in Victoria Station by an old gentleman, Thomas Cardew, who gave him that name because of the ticket of a seaside resort he had in his pocket. John lives in the country, where he has to take care of Mr Cardew's grand-daughter called Cecily, while, when he goes to London, he is known as "Ernest";

The importance of being earnest: analisi opera

here he falls in love with Gwendolen, whose mother, Lady Bracknell, is against their marriage because of John's unknown origins.

On the other hand we have Algernon, who lives in London but who often goes to the country with the pretext of visiting an imaginary friend called Bunbury. In the country he falls in love with Cecily.

The picture of Dorian Gray: analisi opera

This double identity of the two characters will cause a lot of funny situations, but in the end we will have a happy ending.

Talking about the meaning of this Play, we can start from the title; the word "Earnest" has two possible interpretations: in English "earnest" means "honest", "serious", but it also sounds like the name of the protagonist, Ernest.