Maysa Daoud

Mentor: Dr. Ellen Crowell

RIE Proposal
December 5th, 2016

The Importance of Being Earnest: Breaking Parameters of Publication and Perception

In August of 1894, Oscar Wilde was swiftly writing up a nonsensical play of no

serious interest with the hope that he could rake in a lot of red gold (Holland 603).
Desperate for a box-office success after a failed production at the Saint James Theatre,
George Alexander optioned Wildes new play as an opportunity to rake in gold for
himself. The Importance of Being Earnest then underwent a lengthy revision process,
during which Wildes originally four act manuscript was chopped down to three acts for
production. Finally put on stage for its first performance in 1895, The Importance of
Being Earnest went on to garner literary prestige as Wildes wittiest, most successful
play, and the first modern play ever written (Salmensky 74). Less than a year after the
first performance of Earnest at the Saint James Theatre, however, Wildes life took a
tragic turn. After a two year imprisonment for acts of gross indecency with other men,
Wilde passed away in 1900, unable to witness the success of his final play.

Oscar Wildes life and cataclysmic fall are integrated into both the four and three
act versions of The Importance of Being Earnest. The posthumous publication history of
Earnest and the understanding of the tragedy that befell Wilde in his life contribute to
apprehension of the play. The editorial process left cavities in the work that invite both
critics and the audience to write their own subtext into the play, allowing for a
continuous interpretive history. While the play is comedic, the tragic reality of the end of
Wildes career and life is written into it, often through the things that were excised in
revisions. This complex back and forth between composition, revision, and production
created a dramatic complexity that has kept Earnest on the radar of readers and critics
from 1895 to this day.

For my project, I intend to examine just how Oscar Wildes life is written into The
Importance of Being Earnest, and how the posthumous publication history of Earnest
allows for subsequent interpretations of the play. Therefore, I will closely assess the
implications of the revision process of the work from four to three acts. To do this, I will
offer a comprehensive comparison of both versions of the play with an evaluation of the
changes within each version. This will require examining the role of George Alexander
and others in the revision process. I will then assess public reception of the play. This
will allow for an understanding of how the public initially apprehended tragedy in the
play and the subtext that individuals have written into to the text as they engaged with it
over the course of the twentieth and into the twenty first-century. This will also provide
an understanding of how the piece is positioned in history as the first modern play, as it
allows for critics to lend deeper meaning to the seemingly farcical plot. By engaging with
both original manuscripts and first hand communications regarding the revision process,
I hope to understand how Wilde, Alexander, and critics of The Importance of Being
Earnest have shaped the play over the course of twentieth century.
 Bibliography

Primary Sources:
George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. "A Serious Comedy for Trivial
People" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1894.
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/bc59e2c0-f660-0131-5617-58d385a7bbd0

"Manuscript Draft of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde." The British
Library. The British Library, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Mann, Meredith. "A Trivial Blog Post for Serious People." The New York Public Library.
New York Public Library, 9 Feb. 2016. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Wilde, Oscar. Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 1999.
Print.

Wilde, Oscar, and Russell Jackson. The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy
for Serious People. London: Benn, 1980. Print.

Wilde, Oscar, Merlin Holland, and Rupert Hart-Davis. The Complete Letters of Oscar
Wilde. New York: Henry Holt, 2000. Print.

Secondary Sources:
Beckson, Karl E. Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970.
Print.

Craft, Christopher. Alias Bunbury: Desire and Termination in The Importance of Being
Earnest. Representations 31 (1990): 1946. Web. 15 Apr. 2016

Donohue, J.."The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by
Oscar Wilde (review)." Modern Drama 24.2 (1981): 236-238. Project MUSE.
Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Donohue, Joseph W., and Ruth Berggren. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being
Earnest : A Reconstructive Critical Edition of the Text of the First Production, St.
James's Theatre, London, 1895. Vol. 10. N.p.: Gerrards Cross Colin Smythe,
1995. Print. Princess Grace Irish Library Ser.

Mason, A. E. W. Sir George Alexander & the St. James's Theatre. London: Macmillan,
1935. Print.

Mason, Stuart. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. London: T.W. Laurie, 1914. Print.

Mendelsohn, Daniel. "The Two Oscar Wildes." The New York Review of Books.
NYREV, Inc., 10 Oct. 2002. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.
Mikhail, E. H.."The Four-Act Version of The Importance of Being Earnest." Modern
Drama 11.3 (1968): 263-266. Project MUSE. Web. 15 Apr. 2016.
<https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Pearson, Hesketh. The Life of Oscar Wilde. London: Methuen, 1946. Print.

Raby, Peter. The Importance of Being Earnest: A Reader's Companion. New York:
Wayne's, 1995. Print.

Raby, Peter. "The Origins of The Importance of Being Earnest." Modern Drama 37.1
(1994): 139-147. Project MUSE. Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Salamensky, S. I. The Modern Art of Influence and the Spectacle of Oscar Wilde. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.

Slover, Tim, Nola Smith, and Bob Nelson. "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Study
Guide." 5th ser. (1993): n. pag. BYU Theatre and Film. Web. 16 Apr. 2016.

Tanitch, Robert. Oscar Wilde on Stage and Screen. London: Methuen, 1999. Print