Rashmi bookmarks “The Importance of Being Earnest”

Lady Bracknell.  Are your parents living?
Jack.  I have lost both my parents.
Lady Bracknell.  To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

- And that is just one of many, many sparkling gems in this funny, absurd and absurdly funny play by Oscar Wilde! ‘The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People’ is the story of John Worthing a.k.a. Jack a.k.a. Ernest and Algernon Moncrieff - ‘a’.a.k.a. Ernest, and the ridiculous extents they go to in order to combat archaic social obligations in this satirical, farcical comedy!

First of all, I have to say; I really enjoyed reading a play. For some reason, after college I did not read any … but as soon as I read, “FIRST ACT. SCENE Morning-room in …” I was immediately hooked!

I also really liked the theme and the presentation of the theme - this play is an obvious comment on the social conventions of the day, but presented (unlike The Picture of Dorian Gray - which, by the way, is one of my favourite books of all time) in such a witty and humorous manner, it made this a very refreshing read!

Creating this impossible world are such fantastic characters as the besotted Jack/John Worthing who believes pleasure is the only thing that “should bring one anywhere”; the irrepressible Algernon Moncrieff who sees nothing romantic in proposing, as that takes the excitement out of the relationship, and who is a staunch ‘Bunburyist’ - his “poor friend Bunbury” being the one thing that lets him out of any number of uncomfortable situations and into an equal number of pleasant ones; the forceful Lady Bracknell, who is always surrounded by an air of icy coldness, who knows that behaving well and feeling well never mean the same thing, and who does not “in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids” - being of the view that people should make up their minds if they were going to live or die; the prim and proper Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax who would rather not be called ‘perfect’ by an adoring lover, as “It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions”; the outspoken Miss Cecily Cardew who, in the words of Jack Worthing “is not a silly romantic girl … has got a capital appetite, goes on long walks, and pays no attention at all to her lessons”; and Lane, the Jeeves-like manservant, who has unwavering loyalty to his employer Algernon, and will concur with him in all matters from explaining missing cucumber sandwiches to agreeing not to talk of his own family as “it is not a very interesting subject”.

From an addiction to cucumber sandwiches, to the curiously bad health of Mr. Bunbury; from Lady Bracknell’s interview of Mr. Worthing backed by a note-book and pencil and a list of eligible young men, to a baby found in a black leather hand-bag in the cloak-room at Victoria Station on the Brighton line … and at the heart of it all - the supreme importance of being named Ernest in a world where no one really is in earnest … I really enjoyed this book a lot, and can see myself reading it many times over in the future!