Editing The Importance of Being Earnest (section)

==Critical opinion==
[[File:Archer-Walkley-Wells-Shaw.jpg|thumb|Reviewers of the premiere, clockwise from top left: [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]], [[Arthur Bingham Walkley|A.{{space}}B.{{space}}Walkley]], [[H. G. Wells|{{nobr|H. G. Wells}}]] and [[George Bernard Shaw|Bernard Shaw]]|alt=head and shoulders shots of four middle-aged men in Victorian costume and varying degrees of facial hair. One (Walkley) wears a monocle.]]
In contrast with much theatre of the time, the light plot of ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' does not address serious social and political issues,  and this troubled some contemporary reviewers. Though unsure of Wilde's seriousness as a dramatist, they recognised the play's cleverness, humour and popularity.<ref name="Jackson 1997:172">Jackson (1997), p. 172</ref> Shaw found the play "extremely funny" but "heartless", a view he maintained all his life.<ref>Beckson (1970), p. 194</ref>{{refn|In 1950, months before his death, he wrote: "Do not let yourself be trapped into the silly cliché that The Importance is Wilde's best play. It's a mechanical [[cat's cradle]] farce without a single touch of human nature in it. It is Gilbert and Sullivan minus Sullivan".<ref>Beckson (1998), p. 341</ref>|group=n}} His review in the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'' argued that comedy should touch as well as amuse: "I go to the theatre to be moved to laughter, not to be tickled or bustled into it".<ref>Beckson (1970), p. 195</ref>

In ''The World'', [[William Archer (critic)|William Archer]] wrote that he had enjoyed watching the play but found it to be empty of meaning: "What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of an irrepressibly witty personality?"<ref>Beckson (1970), pp.189–190</ref> In ''[[The Speaker (periodical)|The Speaker]]'', [[Arthur Bingham Walkley|A.&nbsp;B.&nbsp;Walkley]] admired the play and was one of few to see it as the culmination of Wilde's dramatic career. He denied that the term "farce" was derogatory or even lacking in seriousness and said, "It is of nonsense all compact, and better nonsense, I think, our stage has not seen".<ref name="Beckson 196">Beckson (1970), p. 196</ref>

[[H.&nbsp;G.&nbsp;Wells]], in an unsigned review for ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'', called the play one of the freshest comedies of the year, saying, "More humorous dealing with theatrical conventions it would be difficult to imagine".<ref name="Beckson 1970:188">Beckson (1970), p. 188</ref> He also questioned whether people would fully see its message, "... how Serious People will take this Trivial Comedy intended for their learning remains to be seen. No doubt seriously".<ref name="Beckson 1970:188"/> The play was so light-hearted that some reviewers compared it to comic opera rather than drama. [[W. H. Auden]] later (1963) called it "a pure verbal opera", and ''[[The Times]]'' commented, "The story is almost too preposterous to go without music".<ref name=jackson171/> [[Mary McCarthy (author)|Mary McCarthy]], in ''Sights and Spectacles'' (1959), despite thinking the play extremely funny, called it "a ferocious idyll"; "depravity is the hero and the only character".<ref>Raby (1988), p. xxiii</ref>

As Wilde's works came to be read and performed again in the early 20th century, it was ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' that received the most productions.<ref>Gordon, p. 156</ref> The critic and author [[Max Beerbohm]] called the play Wilde's "finest, most undeniably his own", saying that the plots of his other comedies – ''Lady Windermere's Fan'', ''A Woman of No Importance'' and ''An Ideal Husband'' – follow the manner of [[Victorien Sardou]],{{refn|Sardou is described in ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French'' as a "Highly successful French dramatist, a brilliant manipulator of empty but complicated plots and spectacular theatrical effects ... the melodramas and historical plays are merely sumptuously dressed machines for producing {{lang|fr|[[Glossary of literary terms#Ce|coups de théâtre]]}}".<ref>John, S. Beynon. [https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 "Sardou, Victorien]", ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French'', Oxford University Press, 2005 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091615/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 |date=22 August 2024 }} {{Cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 |title=The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French |chapter=Sardou, Victorien |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-866125-2 |access-date=22 August 2024 |archive-date=22 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822091615/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198661252.001.0001/acref-9780198661252-e-4233 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>|group=n}} and are similarly unrelated to the theme of the work, while in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' the story is "dissolved" into the form of the play.<ref>Beerbohm, p. 509</ref> By the time of its centenary in 1995 the journalist [[Mark Lawson]] described the piece as "the second most known and quoted play in English after ''[[Hamlet]]''".<ref>Lawson, Mark. [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/out-of-gags-try-oscar-wilde-1573007.html "Out of gags? Try Oscar Wilde"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 14 February 1995</ref>