The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde Neither Jack Worthing nor Algernon Moncrieff is especially interested in being earnest. Each, however, is desperate to become ERNEST. The fascination that has suddenly overcome these two idle bachelors is the prospect of love and marriage. The shared obstacle they face is that neither one is a Jack, the other is an Algernon, and neither is an Ernest. Contemporary critiques of Oscar Wilde’s THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST: “(I)n The Importance of Being Earnest… Wilde achieved a work of supreme genius.” – Robert Lynd, THE ART OF LETTERS (1916) “THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST… gives that peculiar exhilaration of spirit by which we recognise the beautiful. – Arthur Ransome, OSCAR WILDE, A CRITICAL STUDY (1912) ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ Theo LTTK Education
