The Real Cast of the movie

Having looked over the other posts, I feel there are many topics to discuss. However, I will focus on the “Bunbury” dilemma and add my personal preference as to who The Importance of Being Earnest, the movie, should have in their cast. Keep in mind that I have not yet watched the movie. I am still shocked from yesterday’s class discussion. Like most of the class, I did not catch on to the implied meaning behind “Bunbury” or “Bunburyist” at all. Its reference to homosexual sex makes sense to me now having read the play and looked over the parts where Oscar Wilde has Algernon use the reference in the play. I agree with KAM and the analysis in her post. Algernon is indirectly questioning Jack’s sexual preference. Jack does use the fact that he is going to get married as an alibi to Algernon’s convictions. It is extremely interesting to me that there was this sub-meaning in the play the whole time.
This is the way I would do it if I was in charge of putting together a cast for The Importance of Being Earnest and had an unlimited amount of money to spend on the actors. The protagonist playing Jack would have to be Johnny Depp simply because he can play virtually any role and can definitely handle having a double life in the film. Although he has played many humorous roles, I am not selecting him just for that. I believe he can be serious, secretive, and very sketchy, which would be perfect for Jack. Truthfully, if Al Pacino was 30 years younger I would have picked him. Algernon would be played by Jude Law because he seems to be a charmer and has played various roles in which he shows sophistication. He can be witty and amoral just like Algernon, and can play a bachelor just as well if not better than anyone else. My pick for Gwendolen would be Julia Roberts. She also can come off as intelligent, cunning, cosmopolitan and shallow, in regards to her obsession with the name Ernest. Julia Roberts would also give Gwendolen a positive feminine flare. Cecily Cardew would be played by Cameron Diaz because she would be a perfect combination of beauty with an imaginative and mischievous personality…in some roles. She could adapt to a not so modern time role and emphasize the creativity and attractiveness of Cecily. Lady Bracknell would be played by Meryl Streep. She could act brutally honest and cold-heartedly being the exceptional and experienced actress she is. She is not too old yet and would be a perfect fit in my mind. The roles of Mrs. Prism, Lane and Dr. Chasuble could be filled by random actors seeing as they do not have a huge role and there is no way every character could be played by the elite actors in the business.

While reading the book I didnt like it at all, although towards the end i was really excited to see how the end would turn out. After finishing the play and talking about it in class I found the play to very interesting. I thought all the double meanings were cool how Oscar Wilde did it. I thought the movie did a good job of portraying the characters. One part in the movie that i found odd was when Gwendolen got a tatoo. At the same time i thought that it really made the book more modern in a sense. The tatoo played on the fact that even though she didnt really know Jack she went ahead and assumed they would marry. I find that this book has a twisted sense of how marriage should be. In the begining i think Algernon is like Eros in the sense of being a bachelor but then he changes once he heard of cecily. Throughout this book i find all of the underlying means, such as the word "bunbury", very intriguing. I think Oscar Wilde's play in well written and great piece of literature.,

Love in "The Importance of Being Earnest"

In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” there is a clear satirical tone throughout. Wilde seems to be satirizing the idea of love and romantic relationships. The love that Wilde portrays in his work is somewhat silly, unrealistic and superficial, with the characters often falling “passionately” and “deeply” in love with one another at first sight. This kind of instantaneous love that is predominant throughout the play appears to lack true meaning, emotion and depth, and instead, seems to simply remain at the surface level.

This mockery of love that Wilde develops in his work can certainly be seen in the overly romantic language the characters use when declaring their love and devotion. For example, when Algernon falls madly in love with Cecily after being just introduced to her, he declares, “I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection” (Wilde 44). He goes on to say, “Cecily, ever since I first looked upon your wonderful and incomparable beauty, I have dared to love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly” (Wilde 44). Knowing that they had just met minutes prior, Algernon’s sudden romantic devotion seems incredibly ridiculous and laughable.

Much of the same sentiment is expressed by Jack and Gwendolen when they declare their love for one another. Jack states, “Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl…I have ever met since…I met you” (Wilde 23). Gwendolen later responds by saying, “…my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.” (Wilde 23). The love relationship between Jack and Gwendolen seems so unrealistic and superficial. To fall so passionately in love with someone simply based on their name is an utterly absurd concept.

Earnest

Frankly, I enjoyed the play a lot. The Importance of Being Earnest is now one of my favorite plays ever written. Oscar Wilde is hillarious and I am shocked not only because I have not read more of his work or this play until now. One of the most interesting things about the play is the amount of double-meanings. I know we discussed this in class but I am impressed by immense number of them in the play. The funniest is the word "bunbury". After discovering what this word meant in class, I could not help but snicker when I heard the word spoken in the movie. I liked the movie extremely well and I don't think than there is anything to change. The comedic aspects of the play are still funny to the modern viewer. The characters are over-the-top and everything about the movie seems over-the top. When I read the play, I knew that the plot was exaggerated, however the movie tis this in a very visually pleasing manner. When usually watching period movies, they r for the most part serious, so this was welcomed. The thing that the movie does that cant be seen in the play is the way the different storylines are more intertwined. You don't have to wait to see the characters, you pretty much see them all from the beginning. I am still slightly confused by algy, jack, and lady bracknell's. I do not quite understand how they are related. I have a vague understanding.
On a final note, "bunbury" is still pretty funny. The ending of the movie is quite interesting. The fantasy visions are quite random and funny. I like how Algy never had to tell the truth about Bunbury, and how he has a grave and how everyone went to his funeral.

"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.

Importance of Being Earnest

Like the play, I thought the movie was entertaining and I enjoyed it very much. The movie accurately portrayed the play, and captured the humor prevalent in the play. The characters were well cast, and I specially loved Judy Dench as Lady Bracknell. Judy Dench portrayed Lady Bracknell exactly as I had imagined with her presumptuousness and brashness. The actor that played Algernon also portrayed him very accurately. His character is illustrated and shines through even though the movie makes slight changes from the play. The movie changed the setting from Algernon’s flat to places throughout London in the first Act. Although I would have kept Act 1 in Algernon’s flat for a more intimate setting between Algernon and Jack, the movie does a good job of reiterating the bachelorhood of Algernon and showcasing his character in the beginning of the movie. Algernon and Jack attend several places, such as a cabaret type setting where there are showgirls dancing on stage. Gwendolyn and Cecily were precise also showcasing their characters very well, and I particularly liked how the movie often showed Algernon as Cecily’s “knight in shining armor.” Despite the first Act, there is nothing that I would have done differently about the movie. The movie was very accurate in staying with the script, and the characters were all perfect for their roles. Besides changing the order of a few scenes, the movie did a great job portraying the play and keeping the humor and satire intended by Oscar Wilde. The frivolousness and shallowness of the characters is seen in the movie as intended in the play.

What's a Bunbury?

During our last class, we discussed the issue of a Bunbury with regards to the book, The Importance of Being Earnest. The word and significance of a Bunbury had no importance to me while reading, which made the class discussion change the entire meaning of the book for me. Bunburying, as I was informed in class, is defined by anal penetration. This definition refers to sexuality in terms of homosexual behavior. The relationship between Jack and Algernon takes on a new meaning during the first act. Algernon refers to Jack as being a Bunburyist, which has an underlying meaning suggesting that Algernon has an attraction to Jack and is, in a way, forcing Jack to thinks that he is homosexual. Jack refuses to identify with being a Bunbury because he believes that if he is to marry Gwendolen he will never be accused or want to be a Bunbury. The homosexuality element in the book transform the meaning of marriage by implying that it is something that is a social norm instead of an act of passionate love. Figuring out the meaning of a Bunbury made the already confusing story that much more of a mystery. The blog member, Wednesday, also stated that the implication of a Bunbury was surprising. I felt that many students didn’t understand the term while reading the book, which changed the entire meaning of the book for them as well. I have yet to watch the movie; however, I feel that when I do I will have a better understanding of the story and will be able to connect certain elements of the book together.