The Importance of Being Earnest

Q: Do you think the women were really as foolish in love as they appeared to be with men by the name of Ernest?

A: Yes, I actually do. Though we are never really give a reason why these women are so smitten by men by this name, we do see that they're angry with one another when they hear that the other is to marry Ernest. Their instant friendship fizzles and a cat fight quickly ensues.

Q: Do you think Wilde had ulterior motives with his characters leading double lives?

A: I really can't tell. It's not too uncommon for literature to immitate life. I do think that he was trying to hint at how easy it is for a person to not necessarily decieve someone, but for people to not know someone as deeply as they think they do.

Q: Do you think the alter ego named Ernest is the reason the play was given it's title or was it just a name that was randomly picked?

A: I think it's a fairly obvious play on words and it was cute at the end.

My greatest difficulty was trying to figure out who each person was. If there are too many characters and/or names mentioned in a play, I generally tend to lose track of who's who.

I just liked how silly and carefree the play was. It was light and pleasant and there was depth, but not enough that made it overly serious. There was lots of mischief, which added a relatively cute part whenever it became "intense."