Importance Of Being Earnest: Comparing Film And Play

Oliver Parker’s (2002) film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is sadly completely consumed by the romantic comedy style, masking Wilde’s key concerns and detracting from important comic elements of the play. This can be observed through the varying representations of characters, the film’s lack of contextual jokes, the more prominent sub-plot between Dr Chasuble and Miss Prism, the addition of music and the way in which dialogue, while remaining true to the play, has lost meaning in the film.

Laughter is the medicine of life. Regardless of any bad day, laughter can lighten a mood consid-erably. There are different types of humor expressed in literary works; some humor is crude, some is dry, and some is lighthearted. George Meredith mentions a “thoughtful” laughter or humor. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are both satirical literary works that stir up “thoughtful” laughter in the audience or readers of the plays.

Throughout much of the play and especially the beginning, Wilde satirizes the setting in which both the characters as well as his audience live in. This satirization specifically requires that the audience be thoughtful whenever Wilde makes a joke, resulting in the thoughtful laughter which makes a true comedy. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is set during the late 20th century in Britain, a time period known as the Victorian Era, in which the British Empire was at its absolute peak. The dominance of Britain in world affairs resulted in a sense of

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde can be termed as a complete satirical work because of the path it chooses on harshly, but at the same time humorously criticizing and ridiculing social issues, such as marriage, wealth and death. The author approaches these issues with absurd mockery evidently with the intention of tickling his audience while driving his point home. Regarded as one of the most humorous and witty plays of all time, Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest has also been criticized for lacking meaning and being too farce. The author, however, does not seem perturbed or concerned with the criticisms hurled his way, but his is the agenda of correcting the social flaws noticed in his characters, such as the concern for trivial things as names over bigger and more important issues as serious relationships and true love, the love of money over morality and the carelessness of lying in order to “avoid unwelcome social obligation” (16).

The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde's play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others' lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they liberate

The Importance of Being Earnest is set in late Victorian England, a time of social reform. Society was rediscovering art in its many forms yet as a consequence, The Upper class continued their program of suppressed inferiority. The lower classes were treated with disdain and disgust and the animosity between the groups was easily visible. Essentially, the late Victorian era was the beginning of a mini cultural renaissance, yet Upper Class society, which forms the basis of the play was rigidly controlled by a set of unwritten rules, a code of conduct as it may, in which all were expected to conform with. This code referred to a number of things, including the way they ate, dressed, and spoke. The 19th

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, premiered in London in 1895 when Wilde was in the peak of his career. During this time of the Victorian Era, society was very moral and chaste, at least on the surface. There was a very specific code of behavior that governed almost everything, but focused mainly on the topic of marriage. This affected Wilde first-hand as he was married to a woman but also involved with men which was forbidden at the time. Using the themes of dualism and marriage, Wilde is trying to show the audience the ridiculous nature of Victorian society. Through the reoccurring theme of dualism, Oscar Wilde uses sizable amounts of satire to not only mock the trivial Victorian society, but more specifically to ridicule

The core of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest lies within the play-long pun that is conveniently introduced in the very title of it. The most important twist in the entire book is not only is no one being earnest, but no one in the book is actually named Ernest! It follows two characters, the protagonist and his foil, and primarily focuses on their opinions on the world that they live in. The two characters whom bunbury their way through town/the country in order to escape the responsibilities they have waiting for them at home. These two characters masquerade around with seemingly nothing going wrong until the issue of marriage is presented to them. Throughout the entirety of the play no one is at all acting up to the true definition

Every line, every character, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is set on supporting Oscar Wilde’s want for social change. The Importance of Being Earnest was written during the late period of the Victorian era. During this period social classification was taken very seriously. It could affect working and living conditions, education, religion, and marriage. Wilde explores the issues of social class and turns it into a comedic play. He humorously criticizes Victorian manners and attacking the society of the luxurious life. The audience becomes self-aware as the characters reflect on themselves. Plays such as this become successful because of the backgrounds the writers come from and the experiences they have had.

Elinor Fuchs sees the play as a world that passes in front of the critic in ‘time and space’; one that has elements that must be understood (Fuchs, 2004, p 6). These elements closely resembles Aristotle’s six elements of a play- plot, character, thought, diction, music and spectacle- elements that are clearly identifiable in Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.

Oscar Wilde’s play entitled “The Importance of Being Earnest” illustrates the concept of dual personality, fantasy, love, and lies. Jack, Algernon, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all live in lies. They are manipulated by their fantasies and desire for perfect relationship and love. Jack, the protagonist in the play, is the root of lies because of his imaginary brother named Earnest. Algernon uses the name to win Cecily, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are both fascinated by this name because it expresses strength and perfection of manhood. Due to their search and desire to have Earnest, the male and female characters escape from the reality. Therefore, Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest portrays a gender doubled

One of Oliver Wilde’s famous plays “The Importance of Being Earnest” follows two wealthy bachelors in love and webs of lies. Jack Worthing falls in love with a rich socialite Gwendolyn, but to leave a life of responsibility he made up a brother to visit the city, where he meet Gwen. So when Gwendolyn falls in love with the non existent brother, Jack is stuck in a double life predicament. When his poster boy bachelor finds out about Jack's real name and his young ward, Algernon decides to take on a second fake identity, to meet the young Cecily. Throughout the play Wilde uses humor to show the hypocrisy ways of the upper class; by uses satire through standards, appearances, and marriages.

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, there is a lot of humor that can be found. Specifically, developed behind the characters in this play that display many instances of irony and how important it was to fit into the “status quo” of this time period. There are specific behaviors from the characters of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon that portray Wilde’s opinion of society during the Victorian Age. The attitude of these characters is snobbish and their manners display double standards and superiority. The play’s use of mockery and irony of these satirical situations is meant to publicly ridicule the self- loving attitude of the upper class while exposing their true absence of intelligence which causes their absurd social behaviors

The characters in the play are the primary source of the humor and irony. In Otto Reinert’s “Satiric Strategy in the Importance of Being Earnest” he points out that, “Wilde's basic formula for satire is their (the characters) assumption of a code of behavior that represents the reality that Victorian convention pretends to ignore” (Reinert 15). The main character, Jack Worthing, is a prime example of this. To function in society he creates an alter-ego named Ernest. This way, he can be “Ernest in town and Jack in the country” (Wilde 1737). Jack represents his conventional Victorian side – he has responsibility as a guardian in the country, where it is his “duty” to “adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects” (Wilde 1738). Ernest, however, enables Jack to throw away his real life troubles and act carelessly, something he could never do as Jack. The dual nature of his character satirizes the hypocrisy in conventional Victorian

“The Importance of Being Earnest” was better as a movie in my opinion. I think this because in the book it was a play and I really couldn’t understand the character as much as I could in the movie. This is because, in the book we couldn't see their actions and in the movie we could see the actions they do that define their character. I think the book would be better as a play because when you just read it you don’t understand the character and his or hers feeling fully. In the movie they can also do a lot more than people in a play.