The Importance of Being Earnest
Two young men about London each maintain an imaginary person - an invalid friend in the country, a wicked brother in town - to license the absences their households would otherwise question. Both are courting, both women have independently resolved to marry a man called Ernest, and a handbag left years ago at Victoria Station turns out to have more to say than anyone present. Staged weeks before Wilde's arrest and the end of his career, it is the most durable comedy written in English since the Restoration.
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Lineage
- parallels ↑ The Picture of Dorian Gray
Attributes
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Symbol / motif
Conflict
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 74% · 13 shared
- 71% · 15 shared
- 71% · 14 shared
- 71% · 14 shared
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- 66% · 14 shared