Great ornate carriages pulled by huge gallant horses, beautiful women dressed in striking outfits throwing grand parties, and five o'clock teatimes are common features of the Victorian era. This is the period that a person should imagine when reading many of the works composed by Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most important works written by Oscar Wilde. The setting takes place in London in the current period of its production, February 1895 in the Victorian era. Both main characters, John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, find an escape from their daily lives through a pseudonym or false identity. John, usually called Jack, uses the name Ernest to retreat to the city from his country life with his eighteen-year-old ward Cecily. The story begins with Jack informing his friend, Algernon, that he plans to propose to his first cousin, Gwendolen. After hearing this news, Algernon confronts Jack, who he knows as Ernest, with his discovery of Cecily. When Jack finally tells Algernon about his false identity in the town, Algernon also confesses to having an alias for the town. The plot unravels after Gwendolen accepts Jack's proposal, under the name Ernest, and Algernon decides to also use Ernest's identity to meet Cecily at Jack's country house. Conflicts arise when everyone ends up at Jack's house, each knowing each other by a different name. Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland, to an aristocratic family in the midst of the Victorian era. Wilde was considered a brilliant child, receiving scholarships to Trinity College and Oxford University. He preferred to talk and entertain about the importance of ideas in life and often attacked the... middle of paper... and the deception, Jack's anger with Algernon, and Miss Prism's finding of her purse are all events. surrounded by superficial statements from the characters. The characters and their actions are accurately depicted as superficial because they operate with an inability to develop ideas about the more important issues at hand. Each character focuses on the superficial meaning of the difficult situation they find themselves in. With this external, hasty and banal view of life, the characters are doomed to a life with little meaning for anything truly meaningful. Works Cited Meisel, Martin. "Wilde, Oscar." The World Book Encyclopedia. USA: Field Enterprises Educational Company, 1973. “Superficial.” The Dictionary of American Heritage. 2nd ed. 1982.Wilde, Oscar. The importance of being serious. Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.