Movie time

As you have most probably noticed, I've already posted several videos from the movie The Importance of Being Earnest, and this time I should more deeply speak about movie reproductions of my play.

Speaking from my own experience, the movie is brilliant. The cast, script, etc does not much differ from the original version- the play. I am rather a visual type which needs to see things than hear or imagine. Yes, it's nice to read it over and over again, but come on, the movie gives it more life or existence in 3D world.

Watching the movie, I constantly laughed out loud. It's simply brilliant, it is not this kind of "based on the book" movie, in which they used only bits of the original play. It is totaly true to the play. Definitely, I support this sort of movies, well you know not everyone fancies reading, thus they may watch a classical play made very well and even at the same time enjoy it.

One  more thing that I indeed like about hte movie is the precisely same language they used for the script. I know, not using it it would be worth even making this movie. Still, I absolutely adore this 2002 version.

Here  are few clips, just so you can imagine.

7 reasons why to read O.W.

I willl over again repeat what I have already said - Oscar Wilde belongs to my top authors that will never ever bore me. This should be sufficient for my short reaction to this play.

To be more outspoken and descriptive and also to provide some support to my opinion, I will extend this brief comment.

Why to love Oscar Wilde's Importance of being Earnest? The plot is rather lame, yet its message makes up for this poor deficiency. Plot> 2 gentelmen fall in love > some sort of an obstacle > collision > a surprisingly expected happy end.  End of story.

What the play actually reveals is how all of the Britsh aristocracy, but I'd say it inclueds all of us these days, are playing some sort of a mask game. John is pretending to be Ernest throughout the entire play, but in reality he behaves far from being earnest. One of Wilde's sarcastic revelations, we all wish from the depth of our hearts to be moral, have some ethical values, to be  respected, loyal, etc.... but we don't have any of these traits. Just masks.

In the play, high class treats important issues as humbel, fussy chores of their daily life and at the same time what is obviously unimportant has a vital meaning. What a distorted attitude? Dismissing wars, political, economical crises and going crazy for the latest plate services which are in fashion.

7 quotes for which I have utterly fallen for:
" I don't play accurately - any one can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression"

this quote is uttered by Alge at the beginning of the play, see how hilarios it is? Why? The British aristocrats did not care about the accuracy, but appearance? It's crucial how you look, what will thers think, when they spot your face not glowing with perfection?

"All women become like their mother, That is their tragedy, No man does. That's his"

It's sad by true, just consider the amounts of jokes about mothers-in-law. Obsessive, pedant, unbearable they are, on contrary men ought to learn more from their mothers, instead we have blown-up egos walking around. 

"The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain." 

I believe it does not need my comments, it's quite self-evident. :D

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

We are not self-centered at all :D. What a conceived race humans are.

"The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means."
People often believe  what is true in books is appliable in a common life. Well, we are certainly mistakne about that. Not always good end happily, it is rather an example of rarity.

"It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don't mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind."

Hard work = an absolutely unimportant activity. Does it ring a bell?

"One must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life."

Why can't we live our lives with seriousness? Apperantly, we starve for any kind of significance which would shed light on our bleak existance. EGO! Without a serious treatment of life - it is dead. 

Any critical pieces?

Don't know if I should be feeling lucky or rather miserable. Well, searching for any critical piece about Wilde's play isn't that easy as it may seem at the beginning. It seems to me there's a huge essay business going out there. Literelly, I have found 2 pieces, excluding reviews of the book, in the end I will be grateful for so little to be found :P It's basically all the same - the same stuff all over again.

 To be clear from the start, there is not much to be said, only repetadly  stating all you already know.

The Importance of being Ernest has been kindly receinved from its premier in 1895, people of Victorian Era might have not properly understood Wilde's essential message or rather satyrical pinpointing of their life style.
In the first essay discussing Wilde's piece, I indeed liked the way the author writes about each character representing a certain ironic attitude of the society. The author nicely presents the play's real nature, such as the irony of its main topics: marriage, morality, intelligence, and the apperance versus its original meaning. Considering Algy and John, both of the living a way off the avarege, but never aprreciate the value of money, which are only a part of their inherintance. John symbolizes a case, when all people pretended to follow some sort of a code of morality, being earnest (nice, honest, ...) but to be true, he turns out to be a hypocrit, who makes up an alter-ego for ecusing his constant voyages to the city.

As another example the author takes Lady Bracknell represents the issue of apperances in the stucture of Victorian society. It was not important  to be inteligent whatsoever, it was porobably only useful to have some  wit in order to converse with others. Lady Brackenell belsses ignorance, and praises the social duty for adherence of given standards with a question. She stands agains education and speaks outl loud about the necessity  of submissivness and ignorance. Thanks to Lady Bracknell we may realize, that the upper class could not have enjoyed all the advatages and pompous life style, if the lower classs had recieves a firm education backgroud.

 "Each character is used to ridicule the state that society is in and morals that the Victorian era followed. Wilde is successful in satirizing Britian through sarcasm, wit and cynicism in the hopes of getting his opinion of society across." Wilde did manage to get his message across. I have encountered few ciriticism on the general plot of the play, however taking into account, the depth of his ideas portrayed in a simple plot, it could not have been done better. I believe there is no need to create an elaborate drama, if you wish to make people cry and laught at the same time. It would be rather disturbing to focus on the plot, with easy to imagine situation, human brain will actually absorb what is written between lines. Hopefully. 

Read more: http://bookstove.com/comedy/the-importance-of-being-earnest-essay/#ixzz1qFfOv9Ig

Good guy? CHECK - Band guy? Gone with the Wind

It is always nice two have the good guy, the knight on the white horse, kicking ... the damn evil ..... (fill in by whatever character pops up in your mind). Old fairytales and even today's top shows suck if they are missing the good and evil, well at least for the majority of Earths' population. Gosh, we entirely indulge in drama so freaking much, sometimes I wonder whether being nuts actually means being normal.

     All would be great only if Wilde would have had created a distinctive antagonist. Sorry, nothing like this is happening in my play or to put it other way it is not that obvious. I will repeat myself (I need to get  points >D) and for this reason this comes:

     Wilde wholeheartedly opposed, revolted against Victorian high society, ironically he was one of them - already know that, right? Hence, one may deduce that Wilde's main antagonist will be disguised and one will have to dig deeper to see the real nature of the roles. In the Importance of being Earnest, the protagonist is undoubtedly Jack-Ernest, the knight in the polished armour, as the plot unfolds he is forced to face challenges posed by that time social norms as well as some human traits pocessed by his beloved Gwendolen, whose life dream is to marry someone named Ernest.

It is not clear, at least for me, what the primary motivation is. Jack wants to marry Gwendolen, needs to persuade her witchy mother obssessing over the future son-in-law background, then there is Alby escaping his social obligations such as getting married and at the same time "killing" his imaginary relative thanks to whom he could excuse himself from family reunions with his aunt - Gwendolen's mother.

The way I understand this bad/good guy situation, Wilde's characters are the protagonists and the world created by them, the society in which they live, resembles wearing a too tight dress and at the same time to be hardly able to breathe in it. But you still keep it on, because this dress looks so perfectly on you.

For instance Jack, who has to create his alter ego, Ernest, in order to get closer to Gwendolen, believing that this way she would fancy him a way more. Regardless how much it makes his life complicated, he keeps pretending - the cherry comes with the ending, but I won't spoil this immense fun :P

"We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow."

This time I should introduce more or less Mr Wilde and his motives behind this particular piece, though I think I have done it partially in every single post before. Probably, it'd the best to simply tell you more about his life - briefly focusing on the intriguing stuff rather than on dull, hard-to-swallow info about his life time.

REMEMBER: an Irish playwright,  poet and an author of many novels and short stories. He was homosexual - unacceptable in his time society, hence he was imprisonned for awhile. You may found his grave in Paris where he exiled. During his life he was recognized as an ANARCHIST with a name associated with scandels and intrigues.

1. He came from an intellectual family - his mother also a playwright and a socialist organised countless intellectual reunions at their estate in Dublin. Wilde's father knighted for services to medicine

2. Attended Trinity College in Dublin, later accepetd ti Oxford after 2 years lost interessed in pursuing his studies at hte university and moved to London.

3. During his studies at Oxford, he was in particular popular due to his aesthetic and decadent movements - wore long hair and  openly dispiced manly sports, decorated his romm with peacock feathers, lillies, sunflowers and other objects of d'art.

4. Throughtout  the period of his life when he resided in  London,Wilde became famouse because he was famous - one of the early celebrities

5. Married - 2 sons

6. Homosexual - 2 years in jail

7. Never openly admitted any interest in politics, but generally supported the ideas of socialism.

Much of his work had to be influenced by his revolutionary orientated mother and intelectual father who had supported Wilde. Owning to his innate wit, lingusitic talent and hawk eyes he had the capacity to reasonably critisize and elegantly ridicule the Victorian society. Wilde could easily see through humans' surface and noctice the real nature of things.

For those who have found this post interesting and would like to learn more about Wilde's life.

So far so good or not all

As I wrote before, there are few significant themes which should be stressed out.

At the very beginning of the play, Wilde introduces his time society, in particular their lifestyle and the high-class manners, with one of  the major characters - Algernon whose ideas about life are rather superior and it may seem that Wilde protraits himself in this particular character. Algernon brings up topics such as marriage which he dispises and underlines its flaws, he was once married and as he says "it was in a consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person". ( page 7)  Obviously, Wilde did not like the generally perceived view of wedlock. In Victorian Era and I´d say even nowadays, marriages don´t mean much to people, in case they do, it is mostly at the beginning, when the time passes married couples tend to seperate, and degrade each other to a position of an absolute certanity or some piece of furniture. It will stay wherever you leave it. Take this as an evidence " The very romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I´ll certainly try to forget the fact." or "...in married life three is company and two is none."

However the major and simultaneously most profond topic-theme is the importanc eof being earnest, or better to say not being earnest. Throughout the entire play one encounters countless numbers of scenes, moments, dialogs in which Wilde emphasizes the ridiculous obsession of the whole society to BE IMPORTANT. He prsents the contorversy of triviality and seriousness. What SHOULD be important or taken seriously is not and the other way around. For example Algy is much more worried about cucumber sandwiches than the social issues.

  Lady Bracknell who will thouroghtly examine each suitor´s origin to make sure he comes from the RIGHT background.   Also the idiotic idea developed by Gwendolen that she has always wished to married someone named Ernest? - see Wilde´s ironic hint? Therefore she is even more enthusiastic about marrying Jack-Ernest.

The way I comprehend this play is people would fake their life stories, characters, they would invent alter ego and do God knows what mindless things just to have resonant reputation and admiration of their surrounding. How pathetic is that?????

WHAT A SCANDAL!!!!!!

I have finally finished my book,  it didn't take long with the barely 66 pages to get through :). I have to say I LOVE IT :D actually I love all Wilde's pieces. Simply, I can't help it, but his honest sarcasm nad sharp wit are irrestisible and I laught a lot while reading his books.

In my words, I'd say Wilde exposes how ironic and  tangledly simple life may turn out to be. One innocent conincidence and so much subsequent fuss.

I have already written more or less about the general plot of this play. I have to admit the more the plot unfolds  the more mindless it is :D. Don't worry, I won't tell you the entire story yet, I will take it step by step till the very end :)

So far John has proposed to Gwendolen ( love of his life), however  she knows him under his second town-name Ernest. What's more Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell, absolutely dismisses John's proposal. Later on, John comes around to Lady Bracknell's town estate and is  to be "investagated" by Gwendolen's mother. During this drilling session a particulary bizzar truth comes up - John was found, by chance,  in a dark leather bag in a cloak-room at Victoria Station by his guardian, Thomas Cardew.  All in all, John is a found child, basically with no known to him parents. This a disastrous news for Lady Bracknell, who at the beginning is satisfied with John's opulence and income, unfortunately in the end she is horrified and crosses out John's proposal of marriage.

Here is a peek from this particular scene:

Apart from this unpleasant situation, John has to face one more challange, his dear friend Algernon with whom he previously shared his double identity - John in country, Ernest in town. On another hand, Algerton confided in his invented relative Bunbury ( love Wilde's word plays). Both of them admitted their plans to "kill" Ernest and Bunbury. Moreover, John reveals the truth about Cecily, whose guardian he is, that she cares a way too much about uncle Ernest, which intrigues Algerton very much.

What can you expect to happen next? Very scandalous revelations. :D And of course, a great amount of laughter.

"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." -George W. Bush

Wilde's world and Our world

First of all, taking into consideration that Wilde's major focus is on the SOCIETY and HUMAN TRAITS in general,  it's pretty obvious that this play is closely related to our times as well as it was for its own period.

Wilde reacts, riducules and comments in any of his works on human beings and their characters. In The Importance of Being Earnest, by the way his most sparkling , witty and light-hearted comedy, his targets are arictocratic manners and high society.

One more thing, any book concerning humans will be ALWAYS related to temporary world. No matter how old it is. It simply deals with our innate traits, the most primitive, essential characteristics of each of us. Pure psychology.


In the play Lady Bracknell's only concern, in the issue of marrying her daughter off, is how respectable and affluent  a potentional suitor is. Even more she cares about his origin.Through Lady Bracknell ridiculous attitudes and manners Wilde satirizes the hypocrisy and silliness of the British aristocracy and their customs. He exposes what silliness, pointless views and manners they pocess - this could be compared to ridiculing today's political field, which has partially substituted that time aristocracy.

Lady Bracknell most values her ignorance ( a delicate exotic fruit" ). When she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to eat downstairs with the servants. Lady Bracknell may be as well characterized as a cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian and possibly most quotable character. By the way, does it ring you a bell?


There is a bunch of other moments and examples about which I could write endlessly. 


Here's a brief describtion of the entire play ( taken fro mthe back of my book)


 "To avoid family duties, Algernon Moncrief, a bachelor-about-town, has invented Bunbury, a sick relative who frequently calls him away. His friend Jack Worthing has invented a wicked brother called Ernest to disquise his own misdemeanours. When Algernon poses as Ernest, confusion takes hold and it takes the discovery of an old black handbag beofre Jack and ALgernon can discover the truth behind the deceit."  


LAST THING :)


In The Importance of Being Earnest, there are few themes that ought to be stressed, though: THE NATURE OF MARRIAGE, THE CONSTRAINS OF MORALITY AND HYPOCRISY VS. INVENTIVENESS, and last but not least THE IMPORNACE OF NOT BEING EARNEST.  

Wilde's portraits of society and constantly biting remarks bring to my mind one of  today's popular director-artists, Tim Burton. Especially his Corpse Bride. Again, someone is poking fun at the society and human attitudes. Naturally, the movie is full of sarcasm and definitely worth watching.

My point is that the world changes every single year - basically we are shaping it quite literally, BUT speaking about our species - homo sapiens sapiens, we quite suck :D It takes us a LOOOOOOOOT of time to change ourselves - in terms of society. Since the time when Victorian Era ended many years passed and still many of us are living copies of Wilde's characters. How sad is that?

Now tell me, how close these topics are to our current lifestyle??? We have definitely grown out of the never-ending obssesion of being important  and showing off how well-off we are, what a reputation we have and what a  high social status we occupy. Wilde even talkes about these little lies we make up in order to save our face and how in the end it does not pay off. What a blessed generation we are, thanks God! Not really self-centered :D

For me it's enough to now and then hang out with my friends at Stodolni. This needs no furhter comments.

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

Time to learn something more about my play and its characters.

John Worthing
Algernon Moncrieff
Rev. Canon Chasuble
Merriman, Butler
Lane, Manservant
Lady Bracknell
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
Cecily Cardew
Miss Prim, Governess


As it is Wilde's style, he always attributes certain "general human (rediculous) traits" to each of his characters in order toaccentuate their existance and presence among humans. Eventhough, Wilde lived in Victorian Age, you may still notice them as I wrote before.


Hypocricy, cynicism, self-importance, prejudice and many others are specific for these characters.
John Worthing, a nice, well-off  gentleman pretending to be someone else in his city life and another one in the countryside - city name Earnest, country side - John.

Algernon Moncrieff, John's odl friend. Without a sinlge penny leaving off his rich aunt's "reputation", lady Bracknell. Sometimes it seems that Wilde  personified himself into this specific character. No offense.

Lady Bracknell, a genuine lady, in terms of Widle's perception, who adores opulence, high-class life style. And regardless all would never ever let  Gwendolen Fairfax, whose guardian she is, marry someone of an obscure origine.

Cecily Cardew, is and 18-year-old young lady, whose guardien happended to be  John Worthing. She is portrayed as an always in cloud with head girl, who dreams about her glorious knight riding on a white stalion.


Nevertheless, the wheel of fortune is utterly unpredictable. Well and this is where all the fun begins. John has deeply fallen in love with  Gwendolen Fairfax and intends to propose, but nothing is as easy as it may seem at the first glance.  With such a bungle of lies the tension will hardly remain low :)

Here for your better understanding of characters and how they are related to each other:

Honesly, this play has ONLY 66 pages altogether and you basically read it cover to cover, at least I did  :D
But for those who fear books, nothing personal :D. lucky you, there was made a movie and I have to say it's perfect and makes it a way easier to comprehend the entire play and what's going on, espacially if you are a visual type.
Sneak peek :)

Meet The Importance of Being Earnest

For my last ever assignment, at least for my high school life, I have chosen one of my favourite authors' play - The Importance of Being Earnest ,written by well-know Oscar Wilde.


This play was written in 1895 and belongs to the one of Wilde's most famous and successful  plays. Generally, the entire plot is taking place in Victorian London ( 1837-1901), and as it is typical and classical for Wilde's work - it is entirely composed of a wide variety of gentle parody, sarcasm and sharp irony of all sorts. Nevertheless, this time Wilde ridicules the social conventions, in particular. 

On the whole, Wilde may be characterized as a complete anarchist, who steps up and emphasizes all of the silly and  ridiculous aspects of his time society and human traits with no exception. Moreover, all for which Wilde criticized people has not changed  much or in a better case improved since that time. Unfortunately, it seems that we are doomed to endlessly repeat  mistakes and wrongdoings of our ancestors.

Here, few of Wilde's quotes from this particular play. Just so you have some idea what I mean.

·         "Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read"

·         "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!"

·         "I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square."