Study
Questions and Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. In
The
Importance of Being Earnest,
characters
often use words such as
bad and
wicked and
make pronouncements about what is and isn't acceptable behavior.
Do true virtue or wickedness appear in the play?
2. Gwendolen's
father, Lord Bracknell, never appears in the play, yet Lady Bracknell
mentions him often. What picture of his life and marriage do we
get from the things she and Gwendolen say about him?
3. A play
differs from a novel or film in that it requires a performance by
live actors pretending to be characters they are not before a live
audience that allows itself to be fooled. What is gained by the
fact that
The Importance of Being Earnest was written
as a play?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. What is the overall effect
of the play's references to death? How is death, as a theme, dealt
with in the play?
2. Is Cecily a more realistic
character than Gwendolen? Why or why not?
3. Which union—Jack's with Gwendolen
or Algernon's with Cecily—seems more likely to succeed?
4. Why or how is The
Importance of Being Earnest funny? Analyze some aspects
of Wildean wit. Is there a difference between being “witty” and
being “funny”?
5. Discuss the character of Miss
Prism. What kind of person is she and what seems to be her function
in the play?
6. Wilde originally subtitled The
Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial
People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.”
What is the difference between the two subtitles?
