{"id":404,"date":"2019-05-03T09:18:30","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T09:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/engp03.epgpbooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/?post_type=chapter&p=404"},"modified":"2019-05-03T09:36:54","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T09:36:54","slug":"404","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/ebooks.inflibnet.ac.in\/engp03\/chapter\/404\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Wilde : The Importance of Being Earnest"},"content":{"raw":"
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\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nLearning outcomes:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

The students will learn about the plot outline, characters, themes and other aspects of \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f by Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde is a celebrated playwright and literary genius. \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f was an artistic breakthrough for Wilde. It is a self-parody and deceivingly flippant observations on the dramatic genre in which Wilde had already a grand success. Wilde\u201fs genre of preference was the Victorian melodrama or \u201esentimental comedy\u201f. The students will grasp the basic essentials about Oscar Wilde and his famous. Multiple choice exercises will help them in assessing their knowledge and understanding of the work. Bibliography, list of websites and YouTube videos will help them in\u00a0their in-depth study and further reading. Critical quotes and quotes from the book will also help them in understanding various literary aspects of the book.<\/span><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n\r\nIntroduction:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n \r\n

The Importance of Being Earnest\u201f is a comedy play by Oscar Wilde that was first performed in 1895. The play is often performed in Britain, especially by amateur dramatics groups, and is much loved for its clever humour and comic situations. It is a story of a young man, Jack Worthing who wants to marry the daughter of Lady Bracknell. But Lady Bracknell rejects him because he tells her that he does not know his parents as he was found in a handbag at Victoria Station.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f was an early attempt in Victorian melodrama. Little satire with glimpses of comedy of manners and little intellectual farce, \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f was the last and greatest of Wilde's finished plays. \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f remains till date one of the greatest comedies in the English language. \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f is a sharp satire of the upper class Victorian society. In \u201eThe Importance of Being Earnest\u201f Oscar Wilde is at his best engaging, charming and wooing the readers and audience with sharp wit.<\/p>\r\n

Oscar Wilde \u2013 A Biographical Sketch:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854 to upper middle-class parents. His father was a reputed surgeon and his mother was a poet and Irish Nationalist. Oscar Wilde was a brilliant student of classical literature at Trinity University where he won scholarship to Oxford. There he developed his ideas about art. Then he moved to London after university study where he\u00a0worked as a journalist, lecturer and writer. Through his charm, wit and brilliant conversation, as well as his flamboyant dress and behavior, Wilde became a darling of Victorian high society in London.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

He became one of the most successful playwrights of the stylish London upper class theater scene with a series of \u201csociety dramas\u201d including \u201eLady Windermere\u201fs Fan\u201f (1892), \u201eA Woman of No Importance\u201f (1893), and \u201eAn Ideal Husband\u201f (1895). He was at the height of his success when \u201eThe Importance of Being Ernest\u201f came out in 1895. In this brilliantly witty comedy, Wilde used the conventions of society drama to mock the very things society drama had developed to uphold: The morality and values of high society. Wilde\u201fs abrupt fall and imprisonment came when Queensbury who was a pugnacious, homophobic and powerful man and hated Wilde, publicly attacked Wilde for his homosexuality. Wilde sued Queensbury for defamation to try to protect himself. Wilde lost the suit and was then prosecuted and convicted for homosexuality under British anti-sodomy laws. Wilde was imprisoned for two years. This humiliation ended his career as a playwright and his public life in London. So he moved to Paris after his imprisonment and died there in 1900 at the age of 46.<\/p>\r\n \r\n

\r\n\r\nOscar Wilde\u201fs Major Works:<\/strong>\r\n

Prose<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n