Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest

Victorian England at the Fin de Siècle: Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing both invent a personified excuse that allows them to escape from their daily lives. Algernon's sick friend Bunbury permits him the occasional trip to the countryside, while Jack's brother Ernest serves as his alibi for pleasure trips to the city. When both fall in love—Jack with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen and Algernon with Jack's ward Cecily—Gwendolen's desire to marry someone named Ernest and the insistence of Algernon's Aunt Augusta to find a suitable husband for her daughter lead to a series of ironic and comical situations. Oscar Wilde's last and most successful play, which premiered in 1895, addresses themes such as morality, truth, and social manners, ruthlessly exposing Victorian values as hypocritical.