CliffsNotes on

The Importance of Being Earnest

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Play Summary

Oscar Wilde Biography

Early Years
Education, Travel, and Celebrity
Marriage and Commercial Success
A Playwright with a Secret Life
Disaster and Ruin
Last Years

About The Importance of Being Earnest

Summary, Analysis, and Original Text by Act

Act I: Part 1
Act I: Part 2
Act II: Part 1
Act II: Part 2
Act III

Character List

Character Map

Character Analysis

John (Jack) Worthing
Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff
Lady Augusta Bracknell
Gwendolen Fairfax & Cecily Cardew
Rev. Chasuble & Miss Prism

Critical Essays

Duty and Respectability
The Absence of Compassion
Religion
Popular Culture
Secret Lives
Passion and Morality
Courtship and Marriage
Perpetuating the Upper Class
Class Conflict

Study and Homework Help

Full Glossary for The Importance of Being Earnest
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How hot is Levi Johnston?

Sizzlin'!
Not bad. I've seen better.
He's taking the quick fame thing way too far.

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Summary, Analysis, and Original Text by Act

Act II: Part 2

effeminate having the qualities generally attributed to women, such as weakness, timidity, delicacy and so on; unmanly; not virile.

the Morning Post a newspaper read by the upper class because of its reporting on engagements, marriages and social gossip.

lorgnette a pair of eyeglasses attached to a handle.

"a restraining influence" the presence of servants that causes the principal characters to be careful in their speech.

machinations an artful or secret plot or scheme.

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