The Importance Of Being Earnest: Film Vs. Text Essay

The Importance of Being Earnest: Film vs. Text

Oscar Wilde’s highly popular play, The Importance of Being Earnest, elicits numerous dramatic elements which fall under one of the two major dramatic modes, comedy. Throughout the play there are many miscommunications, errors in judgment, and failures by the characters which are displayed in a humorous fashion. With this brilliant play available as text or a film version, one may wonder which medium truly conveys Wilde’s witty characters and genius comedic satire more accurately.   Through extensive analysis and in depth research, it is apparent that the film version trumps the text by delivering the play more precisely and grabbing the audience from start to finish with its vivid visual aspects, powerful sound additions, and convincing dialogue.
      The bountiful similarities between the text and film provide a difficult decision in choosing one over the other.   Both the text and film version provide strong dialogue delivered by multifaceted characters who “never stop being flippant; their flippancy is their whole nature and not… the mocking mask of enlightened irony in a pompous society” (Reinert 14).   Both versions make use of these lighthearted characters to assist in conveying the overall theme of the play.   The characters’ frivolous outlook on marriage and betrothal conveys Wilde’s portrayal of society’s views on these two events in everyone’s lives as something that is very meek and insignificant vs. giving it the significance it deserves.   He expresses this through Jack and Algernon’s proposals to women they barely know, both of which under the false name, Ernest, which it turns out is the only reason Cecily and Gwendolen even want to marry them.   Marriage is almost a joke in this play because it has no solid ground and is tossed around as if it were an agreement to have lunch.   The text and film version have so many similarities because “the casting and performances” in the film “do enjoyable justice to...