"The Importance of Being Earnest"

Growing up, I never liked reading. In school, if there was a film version of a novel I was being forced to read I’d watch the film. However, “The Importance of Being Earnest” is the only exception. I loved reading the play. I thought the film we saw took liberties and was too different from the play. Nevertheless, some of the actors did a good job portraying the characters from the play. I like Colin Firth as an actor, so his portrayal of Jack was good. I liked Judy Dench’s performance of Lady Bracknell. She was harsh and was just how I imagined she’d be in the play. The actor who played Algernon did well in that he represented a real bachelor. I feel as if we really got to know his character. I thought the actress who played Gwendolen was fabulous; I felt like her portrayal of the character was lifted right from the pages of the play. I loved Reese Whitherspoon’s depiction of Cecily, however, I did not like the dream sequences and the images of Algernon as her knight in shinning armor.

Even though I rather enjoyed “The Importance of being Earnest,” reading some parts of the play infuriated me. Not taking into account the time period the play takes place in, I must say I do have a problem with the depiction of Gwendolen and Cecily as dim-witted, irresponsible women, who are not permitted to make decisions for themselves. I went through the play and annotated a few passages in which I think the attitude toward women is appalling. On page 25, when Gwendolen tells her mother, Lady Bracknell, that she is engaged to be married to Ernest (Jack), Lady Bracknell responds that marriage is not something that she “could be allowed to arrange” by herself. She explains that her future husband will be chosen by her and her father and she will have nothing to do with it. My problem with this is that marriage should be arranged by love of another, not by social standings. Gwendolen should be permitted as an individual human being to decide who she wants to be with. On page 29, Algernon states, “The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.” This one line represents how love is depicted throughout the entire play. The” love” in this play is really the men lusting after pretty girls like Gwendolen and Cecily. According to Pausanius in Plato’s “The Symposium,” these women and men will share commonplace love, which is vulgar and requires no intelligent exchange. It is horrible to only make love to a woman if she is pretty. Algernon’s character is superficial and atrocious.