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The Importance Of Being Ernest

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“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play by Oscar Wilde, set in the late 1800’s. The actors are upper class citizens who are very self-absorbed. Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing are both smooth and deviant characters, and have “alter egos”. Cecily Cardrew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both upper class young ladies who are looking for love. Working together but separate all the same time, sets off this comical lovers quarrel. The play starts off with Algernon Moncrieff welcoming his friend Earnest Worthing in for a visit, when we all learn over a conversation he is actually Jack Worthing. Jack lives in the country leading a boring life. Jack must be the adult and take care of his ward Cecily Cardew. Meanwhile, Earnest (whom is Jack’s brother), …show more content…

When a writer is writing, they must not only see the words on paper, but envision the whole atmosphere and environment around the scene. The writers must be able to envision what the characters will look and act like, stage devices and other theatrical techniques for creating the audience's reactions (Mays 1380). The very first few lines of The Importance of Being Earnest set the setting and the scene for the story. The audience can visualize Algernon and Lane in conversation, while a piano is playing in the background (Mays 1603). Act II clearly sets the scene in the Garden at the Manor House (Mays 1619). Either way, one proceeds to construct this play, whether it be in the movies or on stage, the producer has a clear setting of how to set the scene. Dramas also include conflict, protagonist and antagonists, plot, setting, style and theme. The Importance of Being Earnest theme is Tragedy and Comedy. Tragedy is not only death. A tragedy in this play consists of growing up as an orphan, having to make up a new identity just to get away from the boring life in the country or imagining a romance with a person whom you have never met. John (Earnest) Worthing is the protagonist in this play. Although he is a responsible and respectable young man, he is also leading a double life. Everyone seems to dislike Lady Bracknell, leading her to be the

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In the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia W. Collier, dramatic characterization is used to deepen the meaning of the theme by making the readers analyze the story and the characters more critically. In “Marigolds,” Collier uses Lizabeth’s actions throughout the story to create depth as to who she is to make the readers see the theme more clearly. This would be when Lizabeth tears up the marigolds after all her emotions build up and she has to face Miss Lottie at the end. Collier does this to show Lizabeth’s final realization of the woman whom she is coming to be and how she is changing when going through losing her innocence. Secondly, the author Eugenia W. Collier uses dramatic characterization to tell the reader about

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This play is about, if nothing else, satire. Lady Bracknell 's attitude towards how people act adds a great deal of satire to this play. An example of this is when she states "but it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognized position in good society." (Wilde 14). In this quote Lady Bracknell expresses her opinion that because Jack was found in a handbag, there is no

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Oscar Wild's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", mainly revolves around the moral and social values of the Victorian society about marriage, gender, social status and morality. The play generally takes a comical tone in exploring the lifestyles of the people and the social values upheld at the time. Most reviewers argue that Parker's adaption of the play did not quite focus on the key concerns and comedic elements of the play. The most noticeable differences in Parker's adaption of Wild's play was lack of humor from the script to the movie, the cutting and adding of different scenes, the understanding of the Victorian era and the intended target audience.

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Lady Bracknell would be played by Bebe Neuwirth, Miss Prism by Angela Lansbury, and Brad Oscar as Chasuble. These are all actors I am familiar with and they came to mind while reading the script. They each have played a role similar to the ones in this script, and seem appropriate. This production of The Importance of Being Earnest is set in late 1800’s England, about rich and pretentious people who concern themselves with shallow and superficial matters.

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The lower classes were obliged to work hard in the factories and farms and make do with very low wages. It often resulted in friction between the classes bordering on social strife although it never erupted in a revolution the way it did in France. The injustice of the English society encouraged novelists such as Oscar Wilde to describe in moving terms the many hardships suffered by the common people and the many failures and follies of English life. Oscar Wilde’s great plays, The Importance of Being Earnest, incorporates some classical

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Foolishness is a theme that plays a huge part in Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Foolishness is defined as ‘lacking good sense or judgement’, and there is definitely a whole of that shown in many, if not most, of the characters in the play. This play is, however, a comedy, and when not taken seriously, all the empty-headedness adds a huge part in the hilarity of the play. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon are characters in this play who do an exceptional job of displaying their foolishness. Lady Bracknell is a very ignorant and superficial character as is made obvious in the way she deals with different circumstances.

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In the first act there is Algernon, who is play something that Lane his servant says, “I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir (Hall, 889). Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen are coming for a visit and Jack plans to purpose to Gwendolen but Algernon does not approve of their marriage till Jack explains to her. In line 80 Algernon says, “you are no married to her already, and I don’t think you ever will be” (Hall, 891). Jack says that this is nonsense and Algernon says , Before I decide to allow you to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question with Cecily. Jack does not like this.

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Oscar Wilde’s satirical play The Importance of Being Earnest, set in the late Victorian era, London, is a portrayal of British upper class society and its conventions surrounded by a strict code of conduct. In 1890’s class society, earnestness was desired; to follow the moral code and social obligations in order to keep up one’s appearance. Besides, there was a huge gender disparity between men and women. In the play, Wilde criticizes the social inequality and Victorian upper class standards. He characterizes Victorian personae making fun of their qualities; hypocrisy, arrogance and absurdism, ultimately the very vital state and lifeline of not being earnest at all in Victorian society.

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This piece is derived from Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest. In the story two main characters, Algernon and Jack, get caught up in their lies of being someone who they are not. Jack Worthing develops a method of lying about his brother who is irresponsible and needs his assistance in town often, allowing him to leave his country home periodically to live a separate live in the city. Algernon Moncrieff also has a method of lying for his own advantage, also a fake brother who is chronically ill to get out of his duties of dinner and other societal expectations. He also then fakes the identity of Jack’s made up brother in order to court Jack’s niece.

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Oscar Wilde’s Victorian melodramatic play The Importance of Being Earnest opened on February 14, 1895. Wilde used this play to criticize Victorian society through clever phrasing and satire. Throughout the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde displayed the themes of the nature of marriage, the constraints of morality, and the importance of not being earnest. One of the themes that Oscar Wilde includes in the play is the nature of marriage.

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Oscar Wilde saw an opportunity to turn the people of the Victorian era’s lifestyle into a satirical play. The drama “The Importance of Being Earnest” follows people of this era living secret lives so they can do as they please and hiding behind a supposedly perfect mask. The play criticizes many aspects of the Victorian period including how the women were perceived as naïve, ignorant, and shallow. The satire of the character Cecily exemplifies and criticizes a woman’s behavior and beliefs in this time period most significantly. For example, when Cecily is discussing a novel she says, “I hope it did not end happily?

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The Importance of Being Earnest written by Oscar Wilde is an excellent play which has many underlying themes and suggestions especially with regards to the Victorian era, during which this was written. Many themes within the play are reflective of Wilde and his life, including his secrecy and supposed “double life,” his interest in aestheticism, his life pertaining the mannerisms and social etiquette during his lifetime. Today, Oscar Wilde is often remembered in part due to his well known homosexuality trial of 1895 (Linderd, 1), but his “second life” per se had been speculated on for years prior to it, in fact many of his plays contain subtle yet effective implications towards a possible piece of his life kept hidden from the public eye. The Importance of Being Earnest mirrored this double life through the utilization of Jack and Algernon's “Bunburying,” and their motives for lying to the ones whom they love.

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In what ways does this statement reflect the Aesthetic Movement, which embodied Wilde’s artistic (literary) philosophy? What can you infer about Algernon's character by this statement, and how do the values and beliefs expressed explain his behavior in the play? At what points does Algernon’s behavior connect with the Aesthetic Movement? In the Importance of Being Earnest, many characters embody the central idea around the Aesthetic Movement.

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In the end, Jack/Earnest discovers that he is Algernon's older brother, but was unable to be rechristened Earnest for Gwendolen. When Lady Bracknell tells Jack he is named after his father, who was a military general, Jack looks into what his father's name was. In the play Jack's name is really Earnest, but the film twists this so that Jack/Earnest discovers his name is truly Jack. So, what does he do? Jack/Earnest lies and says his name is Earnest and lets no one look at the military registry where his real name lies.

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He is the guardian of Cecily and wants to marry Gwendolen, but is not allowed to because her mother does not approve of his being found as an infant in Victoria Station, which is a train station. Jack in “The Importance of Being Earnest” tells Algernon at the beginning of the play that “when one is in town he amuses oneself. When one is in the country he

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