Importance of Being Ernest :: essays papers

Importance of Being Ernest Oscar WildeThe world has seen many talented literary writers. One of the more famous appeared in the late nineteenth century. Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on October 16, 1854. His life produced award-winning poetry and highly acclaimed plays. Although he had a troubled childhood, Wilde gained large popularity for his outlandish wit and compelling personality. despite his overwhelming public appeal as a playwright, Oscar Wilde ultimately died a sad and lonely death.Oscar Wilde grew up in small house in Dublin, Ireland. His develop was a well-known eye surgeon, and his mother was a poet a writer. On February 14---St. Valentines Day--1895, London was choked with a major snow storm. But this could not save the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest, at the St. Jamess Theatre, from being a major social event. This was in part due to the stunning popularity of Oscar Wilde in the theater of operations The Importance of Being Earnest was W ildes fourth popular West quit play in only three years, and An Ideal Husband had only undefendable a month before and was still playing to packed house at the Haymarket Theatre a few blocks away. Fashionable London was out in force, in their nearly elegant clothes. As a tribute to Wildes dandified aestheticism, women wore sprays of lilies as corsages and many young men wore lilies of the valley in the buttonholes of lapels of their tailcoats. Wilde spent most of the performance backstage, but he was nevertheless dressed in what one biography called the depth of fashion his coat had a black velvet intoxicate he carried white gloves a green scarab ring adorned one of his fingers a large bunch of seals on a black moir typewriter ribbon watch chain hung from his white waistcoat and, like the young men in the stalls, he wore lilies of the valley in his buttonhole. Audiences came dressed in evening nominal to opening nights then in fact, you had to wear evening formal dres s any night if you wanted to sit in the stalls (what we call the orchestra) or the dress circle (the first balcony). And this was true not only at the St. Jamess Theatre but throughout Theatreland, the entertainment district in the West End of metropolitan London.