Facts about Oscar Wilde and The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

-Oscar Wilde's mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, was a poet who was closely associated with the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 and greatly influenced his writing

-Through his lectures, as well as his early poetry, Wilde established himself as a leading proponent of the aesthetic movement, a theory of art and literature that emphasized the pursuit of beauty for its own sake, rather than to promote any political or social viewpoint.

-He was a brilliant scholar but also increasingly rebellious. In one academic year he got rusticated for turning up to College 3 weeks after the start of term. Thus after a while he lost interest in pursuing an academic career in Oxford and moved to London.

Importance of Being Earnest Facts:

-Main Theme: The nature of marriage; the constraints of morality; hypocrisy vs. inventiveness; the importance of not being “earnest”.
Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, themes also include the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways

-First performed on February 14th, 1895 at the Saint James Theatre in London. The show was as a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious persona in order to escape burdensome social obligations.

- In part because of Wilde’s disgrace, the play was not published until 1899.