Critics of the importance of being earnest

It is a trivial comedy for seriouse people. Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland, to prominent intellectuals William Wilde and Lady Jane Francesca Wilde. Though they were not aristocrats, the Wildes were well-off, and provided Oscar with a fine education. Oscar was especially influenced by his mother, a brilliantly witty raconteur, and as a child he was frequently invited to socialize with her intellectual circle of friends. Wilde entered Trinity College in 1871 and focused his academic studies on the classics and theories of aestheticism.

In 1874, he transferred to Oxford and ...