SOURCE: Raby, Peter. ‘“The Persons of the Play’”: Some Reflections on Wilde's Choice of Names in The Importance of Being Earnest.” Nineteenth Century Theatre 23, nos. 1-2 (summer-winter 1995): 67-75.

In the following essay, Raby explores the sources and context of some of the character names in The Importance of Being Earnest.

On 14 February 1995, part of The Importance of Being Earnest was performed in Westminster Abbey, during the service of dedication of a memorial window to Oscar Wilde in Poets' Corner. This constituted a significant moment in the reacceptance of Wilde by the English establishment, a kind of re-christening. The geographical distance from the Abbey to the site of the St James's Theatre cannot be more than a mile; the social and moral distance rather further. Certainly for the late Victorians, the idea of Wilde being publicly received into the tribal temple would have seemed grotesque and irreligious. Yet a...