History Theatre / TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest

* PassiveAggressiveKombat: When Gwendolen and Cecily mistakenly come to believe that they are both engaged to the same man, they engage in an incredibly vicious yet polite catfight. The unstated rule is that they must insult each other while maintaining the appearance of civility and the one who loses her temper first loses.

* Cross-CastRole: In contemporary theatre productions, the role of Lady Bracknell is frequently (although not always) played by a man.

* TheLawFirmOfPunPunAndWordplay: When Jack defends his ward Cecily's social status against Lady Bracknell's questions, he notes the late Thomas Cardew's three addresses (which "always inspire confidence, even among tradesmen," according to Lady Bracknell); in support of this fact, he adds that her solicitors are the firm of Markby, Markby, and Markby. They also meet with her approval ("A firm of the very highest position in their profession. Indeed I am told that one of the Mr Markby's is occasionally to be seen at dinner parties.")

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Played with; Gwendolen claims that her "first impressions of people are never wrong" when really they are ''consistently'' wrong.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Played with; Cecily claims that her "first impressions of people are never wrong" when really they are ''consistently'' wrong.

* InsultBackfire: How Cecily wins the catfight with Gwendolen.
-->'''Gwendolen''': This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.
-->'''Cecily''': I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.

-->'''Gwendolen''': When I see a spade I call it a spade.
-->'''Cecily''': I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social circles have been widely different.

* CoupledCouples: Jack [[spoiler:aka Ernest]] and Gwendolyn, and Algernon and Cecily.

* NoLovesIntersect: Played straight, but double subverted InUniverse when Gwendolyn and Cecily fall out when they both believe they are engaged to the same man.

** The Colin Firth film averts this. [[spoiler: Jack just lies. Lady Bracknell knows, but goes along with it.]] Surprisingly, they didn't have to change the dialog to make it work.

* TheIngenue: Gwendolen and Cecily are parodies. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Lady Bracknell for Gwendolen, and Jack for Cecily.

Jack, meanwhile, had "killed" his fictional brother Ernest, only to find that Cecily had already met "Ernest" in the form of Algernon. Not long after, Gwendolin arrives and meets Cecily, and the ladies soon find that both of them are engaged to a man named Ernest Worthing.

* NoLovesIntersect

* UpperClassWit: Algernon was originally the TropeNamer.

* MoralLuck: Lady Bracknell embodies this. She admonishes Jack for being an orphan because it shows "contempt for the decencies of family life"; disapproves of sympathising will ill people because "illness is hardly a thing to be encouraged"; and even congratulates an offstage character for finally "making up his mind" to die.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The whole play is supposedly full of elaborate puns on male homosexuality (though Wilde's contemporaries and John Gielgud have denied it), most of them are examples of GetTheeToANunnery now. Still, the whole 'double life' subtext is effective as ever today.

-->-- '''Algernon Moncrieff''', ''The Importance of Being Earnest''

Jack, meanwhile, had "killed" his fictional brother Ernest, only to find that Cecily had already met "Ernest" in the form of Algernon. Not long after, Gwendolin arrives and meets Cecily, and the ladies soon find that both of them are engaged to a man named Earnest Worthing.

Jack, meanwhile, had "killed" his fictional brother Earnest, only to find that Cecily had already met "Earnest" in the form of Algernon. Not long after, Gwendolin arrives and meets Cecily, and the ladies soon find that both of them are engaged to a man named Earnest Worthing.

* PunBasedTitle

Jack, meanwhile, had "killed" his fictional brother Earnest, only to find that Cecily had already met "Earnest" in the form of Algernon. Not long after, Gwendolin arrives and meets Cecily, and they find that both of them are engaged to a man named Earnest Worthing.

The play follows the lives of two best friends, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Jack lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew, but spends much of his time in London -- where he calls himself "Ernest Worthing," so that he can do as he likes without anything getting traced back to his real identity. Furthermore, as luck would have it, his girlfriend Gwendolen has always dreamed of marrying a man named "Ernest." Algernon finds out Jack's ruse, but keeps Jack's secret for his own mischievous purposes: since he knows that there is no such person as "Ernest Worthing," he can sneak off to Jack's country home and pose as "Ernest Worthing," where he meets and falls in love with Cecily. On the same afternoon as Algernon's jaunt to Jack's estate, the ''other'' Ernest Worthing -- Jack -- brings Gwendolen and her mother, Lady Bracknell, to his home to try to talk Lady Bracknell into letting him marry Gwendolen.