the importance of being earnest essay questions and answers

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The Importance of Being Earnest

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Discussion/Analysis Prompt

Essay Questions

Exam Questions

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Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

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Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

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1. Analyze the theme of marriage in the play.

What does Wilde’s play say about the institution of marriage as it pertains to social status? ( topic sentence )
Identify 3 passages commenting on marriage and discuss these in defense of your topic sentence.
In your concluding sentence or sentences, briefly discuss what the theme of marriage suggests about Social and Familial Obligations or The British Aristocracy and Class Anxiety .

2. Consider Jack’s double identity as Ernest in the context of a play where identity is always shifting.

How is the alter ego of Ernest a character in its own right? ( topic sentence )
Identify 3 passages that feature information about the alter ego of Ernest and discuss these in relation to identity and character and in support of your topic sentence.
In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize what Jack’s alter ego of Ernest suggests about Alternate Identities .

3. Discuss the role of language and wordplay in the drama.

Generally, how does Wilde use language as a tool for social satire, humor, and character development? ( topic sentence )
Identify 3 passages illustrating the role of language and wordplay, and analyze the ways in which these examples support the idea offered in the topic sentence.
In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the extent to which language and wordplay are used to support the themes of the play with a briefly explained rationale.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. The characters of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest have much to say about marriage and love. Consider the representation of gender roles throughout the play. To what extent and in what ways do the male and female characters subvert or conform to the traditional gender norms of the Victorian Era? Cite specific quotations from the text to support your analysis.

2. Consider the title of the play and its significance to the plot, especially in connection with the last line of Act 3. What does the concept of “earnestness” mean in the play? Consider this concept in relation to the theme of Alternate Identities and the use of the name “Ernest” by Jack and Algernon throughout the play. Cite specific quotations from the text to support your analysis.

3. One of the central motifs of Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is “Bunburying.” Consider Bunburying in the context of the broader themes of Alternate Identities , Social and Familial Obligations , and The British Aristocracy and Class Anxiety . In a structured essay, discuss how Wilde uses the motif of “Bunburying” to develop one theme. Cite specific quotations from the text to support your analysis.

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The Importance of Being Earnest

By oscar wilde, the importance of being earnest study guide.

Oscar Wilde 's The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the St. James's Theatre in London on February 14, 1895, only a month after Wilde's previous success, An Ideal Husband . The packed-in audience rollicked with laughter at the on-stage caricatures. Considered Wilde's best play, many hail it as the greatest stage comedy of all time.

Part of The Importance of Being Earnest's success comes from Wilde's seemingly infinite supply of piquant epigrams. Though some of the concise, often paradoxical statements refer to contemporary events (the state of 19th-century French drama, for instance), most are universal, reflections on beauty, art, men, women, and class; they are endlessly quotable and continue to delight audiences with their blend of sophistication and absurdity.

One feature of epigrams which ensure their durability is that they can be separated from the play's narrative. Epigrams have little effect on the story because they encapsulate many of Wilde's beliefs on how art should function: above all, art should be beautiful and serve little use. The epigram is the epitome of this ideal; beautiful in its elegant construction, it is also dramatically useless to the play.

Beyond reflecting on beauty, the play is also a masterful send-up of Victorian manners, especially in regards to marriage and morality. Marriage had long been an important issue in English literature, and Wilde exposed its manipulative use as a social tool of advancement; except for Miss Prism , all the women in the play have ulterior motives when it comes to romance. As for morality, Wilde critiqued the starchy facade of politeness he observed in society; he details the "shallow mask of manner," as Cecily calls it, that aristocratic Victorians wore.

One of the chief sources of humor in The Importance of Being Earnest is the characters' confused sense of values. Wilde described the play as "exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality." Wilde directed his actors to speak all their lines in deadly earnest, without signaling to the audience that they were in on the joke. While it is in essence a comedy of manners, the play also uses overtly farcical techniques to downplay its seriousness, and the audience is willing to forgive the characters' irresponsibility and various indiscretions.

Within the play's framework of false identities, Wilde also planted several possible allusions to the male characters' homosexuality. By the time he wrote The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde was leading a dual life as a married man and an active homosexual. The play's original audience is reputed to have howled at the inside references to London's homosexual subculture. Unfortunately, the heady success ofEarnest was short-lived; the Marquess of Queensbury, father of Wilde's young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas ("Bosie"), showed up to the opening night. Though he was barred entrance, Wilde's infamous trial began soon after, and his life and career began to unravel.

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The Importance of Being Earnest Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Importance of Being Earnest is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What happened as a result of the following situation?

When Jack tells Lady Bracknell that Cecily will be a rich woman, Lady Bracknell immediately changes her mind about Cecily and decides that she will be a suitable wife for Algernon.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Algernon's throwaway quip to Lane that "anyone can play [piano] accurately but I play with wonderful expression" is a good thumbnail of Wilde's philosophy of art. Wilde was heavily influenced by Walter Pater and the other aesthetes of the...

What can I say about the NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE ?

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest , does not have a narrator.

Study Guide for The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest study guide contains a biography of Oscar Wilde, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
Character List

Essays for The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Maxims and Masks: The Epigram in "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Paradox through Pacing in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Sincere Triviality: The Comedy of Oscar Wilde
Structural Stereotypes of the Characters in The Importance of Being Earnest
The Institution of Marriage in Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles”