The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: Comparison with Movie

Introduction

The Importance of Being Earnest was the most successful of Oscar Wilde's plays, Written for the stage and first played in 1895. It was the most popularly produced of his works throughout the 20th century (Siebold, 38). A stage play in three acts, featuring nine speaking roles, it is, from a staging perspective, a straightforward comedy of manners with simple identifiable sets (townhouse, garden, drawing room) and simple, unadorned entrances and exits. The play has also been presented in the form of movie in the year 1952 and again in the year 2002.

The importance of being earnest is a work of cynicism primarily on its perception of love. This paper presents a comparison and contrast of the play with respect to representation of above highlighted element of cynicism in the movie. The contrast between sarcasm and experience is the subject of great fun in The Importance of Being Earnest. In the play, the conflict plays out between the men's romantic intentions and the women's flirtatious reception of those intentions (Wilde, 53).

Discussion

The Importance of Being Earnest is certainly a satire of society, placing an inordinate and unsustainable value on heritage and background when the most worthy of the characters, Mr. Worthing himself, is stigmatized only for his problematic provenance, even if he is otherwise socially acceptable. Moreover, it is a satire of sensibility, of common sense, and of meaningfulness (Wilde & Richard, 46). Logic is overturned time and again for the sake of expediency, and insincerity is the standard behavior. Gwendolen perhaps sums it up best when she announces: “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing (Wilde, 79).”

The play itself is amusing revolves around the romantic encounters of two couples, Jack with Gwendolen and Algernon with Cecily (Siebold, 41). Like all comedies of this sort, the relationships are intentionally crossed. Striving to confound expectations of realism and probability, Wilde frequently turns to style to move the plot along. When Jack and Algy are exposed as frauds, the victims voice the apology for the conspirator. While the women's flighty and insubstantial morals prove humorous in context, it does not reflect any relationship with reality (Wilde, 66). The “sacrifice” of a christening should be considered a strenuous physical endeavor is an evident absurdity, and though it again plays well, the characters are sincere only through the author's facetiousness.

The dominant characteristic of Wilde's verbal wit is its carnival inversion. That is to say, in the carnival of the Middle Ages as Oscar Wilde shows us social status, propriety and order were reversed by being actually acted out, masters waiting on servants etc. Wilde does this verbally, but his outrageous iconoclasm is doubly subversive since its impulse is from within the ruling class (Nassaar & Oscar, 49). Obviously the humor derives from the diametric reversal applied by a member of the upper class from which came, or were supposed to come, examples of social decorum. 

The Importance of Being Earnest is more than just a showcase for Wilde to display his genius for epigrammatic ...