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On her twenty-first birthday, Lady Windermere, a young wife of strict principles, discovers that her husband has been paying large sums to Mrs Erlynne, a…
On her twenty-first birthday, Lady Windermere, a young wife of strict principles, discovers that her husband has been paying large sums to Mrs Erlynne, a woman with a scandalous past, and that he insists on inviting her to the birthday ball. Wounded, she decides to leave him for the charming Lord Darlington and goes to his rooms at night, leaving behind her fan. Mrs Erlynne follows to bring her back, and when the men arrive, she makes a sacrifice that reveals who she really is and why she has come back into London society.
Context and significance
Oscar Wilde's first society comedy, subtitled 'A Play About a Good Woman', opened at the St James's Theatre in February 1892 and was a great success. Beneath its glittering epigrams, such as 'I can resist everything except temptation' and 'We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars', it questions the harsh moral rules of its world. It was followed by A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband.
About the author
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was born in Dublin, studied classics at Trinity College and Oxford, and became the most quotable man in London, the leading voice of the movement that preached art for art's sake. Between 1892 and 1895 his comedies filled the theatres, and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, caused a sensation.
At the height of his fame he was convicted for his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and sentenced to two years of hard labour, an experience he wrote about in De Profundis. He died in exile in Paris, poor and broken, at forty-six. The Importance of Being Earnest remains one of the funniest plays in English.