Draw Connections: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Draw Connections: A scene from The Importance of Being Earnest and a scene from The Rivals

Both Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play The Rivals (1775) can be categorized as comedies of manners, a genre that pokes fun at the habits and mores of a particular social group, usually the well-regarded and well-to-do. Read the excerpts from the two plays and then answer the questions below. As you read, pay careful attention to what the plays reveal about the social conventions that govern institutions like marriage, family, and friendship. Both authors make great comedic use of their characters’ skewed and sometimes misguided attitudes toward these conventions.

Document links:

Annotated text of The Importance of Being Earnest

Annotated text of The Rivals

  1. Sheridan’s play, like Wilde’s, takes a fairly cynical view of married life. If flirtation is a pleasure, what is marriage? A business proposition? A social requirement? Discuss how the characters in each play talk about ending a courtship and beginning a marriage.

    Question

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  2. While the scene from The Importance of Being Ernest focuses on men, the scene from The Rivals gives us more of the women’s perspective. How much would Algernon and Mrs. Malaprop agree on the subject of marriage? What ideas does Mrs. Malaprop offer about a wife’s position or her responsibilities?

    Question

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  3. What does Algernon say, and what does his behavior suggest, about his duties to his aunt, Lady Bracknell? What does Lydia think of her duties to her aunt, Mrs. Malaprop? Discuss the way both writers represent the relationship between younger people and the elder members of their families.

    Question

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