Which Irish playwright and wit wrote the razor-sharp 1895 Victorian comedic farce 'The Importance of Being Earnest', featuring characters creating fictional alter-egos to escape social obligations?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: D. Oscar Wilde

  1. Step 1: A brilliant proponent of aestheticism ('art for art's sake'), this author dazzled late Victorian London with brilliant epigrams and comedic dialogue.
  2. Step 2: Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest' satirizes social hypocrisy and marriage conventions through Jack Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, Lady Bracknell, and the practice of 'Bunburying'.
Answer
Oscar Wilde
Why not the others: 'George Bernard Shaw' George Bernard Shaw was a socialist playwright who won the 1925 Nobel Prize for plays like 'Pygmalion' and 'Saint Joan'; 'Samuel Beckett' Samuel Beckett was an Irish avant-garde dramatist of the Theatre of the Absurd, famous for 'Waiting for Godot' (1953); 'J.M. Synge' John Millington Synge was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival, best known for 'The Playboy of the Western World' (1907).

Practise more World Literature and Renowned Authors.

Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed General Knowledge mock tests.

All World Literature and Renowned Authors questionsTake a mock test

More World Literature and Renowned Authors questions