Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Mária Heribanová

The Importance of Being Earnest: A Comparative Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s Play and Two of Its Film Adaptations

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, PhD.

2017

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Hardy for his kind guidance and valuable advice, and my family and friends for their support during the writing.

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Table of Contents

Introduction...... 5

1. Life of Oscar Wilde……………...... 8

1.1. Early Years...... 8

1.2 Major Works...... 11

1.3. Queensberry and Jail………………………………..……………..……………13

2. Manners, Gender, and Sexuality in The Importance of Being Earnest ……….…….16

2.1. The Appearance and Manners…………………..………………………………16

2.2. Men and Women…………………………………………………….………….18

2.3. The Androgyne of Manners…………………………..………………………20

3. Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation………………………………...………..25

3.1. Theory of Adaptation………………………………………...………………….25

3.2. Approaches to a Film Analysis………………………………………………..28

4. Analysis of the Two Film Adaptations ………………………………...……………31

4.1. The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) by Anthony Asquith……...………….31

4.2. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) by Oliver Parker…………...………...37

Conclusion………………………………………………………………...……………44

Works Cited……………………………………………………….…………...... 46

Resumé (English)………………………………………………………………………50

Resumé (Czech)……………………………………………………………….………..51

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Introduction

Oscar Wilde is a famous Irish writer of the 19th century. He is the author of essays, articles, fairytales, a novel, and famous plays, which sustained their popularity to the present day and are still played all around the world. The audiences are attracted by his brisk, witty humour, as well as the smartness and depth of his plays. They often offer many options how they may be perceived, based not only on how they are written, but also how actors portray them. Because of this, it can happen that Wilde’s original ideas are misinterpreted or entirely omitted in works that adapt his and deliver a completely different meaning to the audience.

This thesis is dealing with a play by Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being

Earnest with a focus on gender and sexuality, and how they were depicted in two of its film adaptations. The two film adaptations in question are The Importance of Being

Earnest from 1952 by Anthony Asquith and The Importance of Being Earnest from

2002 by Oliver Parker. These adaptations were chosen, as Asquith’s adaptation is considered to be one of the best film adaptations of a play, while Parker’s represents a more modern take on this play.

A book to film transition can not only be different in its medium, it can also mean a shift in portrayal which may lead the audience to a different conclusion. The goal of this thesis is to compare the original play to two of its film adaptations and analyse the differences. It will analyse Wilde’s ideas captured in the film adaptations to see, whether there is something concerning gender and sexuality that is portrayed differently and could mean a twist in perception of the films as opposed to the original play.

The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter offers a biography of

Oscar Wilde’s life, from his early years, through the time of his greatest productivity

5 and popularity as a writer, to his downfall and death that followed soon after. Wilde’s works often resemble his life and various similarities can be found between them. In connection to Earnest these aspects are: homosexuality, Wilde’s interests in aesthetism and decadence, just like his passion for words and appearance. The aim of this chapter is therefore to provide a better understanding of the play in relation to the author. This is done with the help of his biography by Frank Harris who was his friend and contemporary, and therefore reports an authentical portrayal of Wilde. A biography by

Richard Ellmann is also essential for this chapter, as it is one of the most respected biographies of Wilde.

The second chapter offers analysis of the play from the point of manners, gender, and sexuality in Earnest, as all of these aspects are closely intertwined in this play. This chapter provides the evidence of the presence of these elements in the play. It also serves as a guide to analysis of the same themes in the two film adaptations in Chapter

4. This chapter heavily draws from Camille Paglia and her work Sexual Personae, where she is dealing with sexuality in various works including Importance of Being

Earnest. Here she shares valuable insights regarding the play and the argument of

Sexual Personae that is further analysed in this chapter.

Chapter three offers an introduction to the film theory, to give the reader a better idea how to judge the film adaptations of the play. Its aim is to emphasize, that an adaptation should be considered another piece of art, not only a mere copy of the original literary work, as it is often misjudged. The goal of this chapter is therefore to lead the reader to a more objective conclusion. It also mentions the differences between the two mediums that should be taken into consideration upon judging the two adaptations. The fundamental source for this chapter is a lecture “From Page to Stage to

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Screen: The Age of Adaptation” by Linda Hutcheon, where she is dealing exactly with the issues listed above.

Finally, in the last chapter, an analysis of the two film adaptations is provided: first both films are compared to the play in a general manner to provide a better picture of the differences between the two mediums and then they are both analysed from the point of manners, gender, and sexuality.

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Chapter 1: Life of Oscar Wilde

The opening chapter of this thesis provides a detailed background to the life of

Oscar Wilde. Wilde, apart from being a famous playwright, is also known for his intimate relationships with various men, most famous of which is Lord Alfred Douglas.

Hints of these relationships, still prohibited in the 19th century, translated into Wilde’s works what often made them scandalous at that time. Similarly, Wilde was known as an aesthete, which is another aspect that reflects in his writings. Therefore the information mentioned in this chapter is important for a better understanding of the play and the analysis later provided in this paper, as Wilde’s life in many occasions mirrors his literary pieces.

This chapter firstly focuses on Wilde’s life as a student, the years that followed soon after he graduated, and his first works. This is followed by a section listing his most famous works, as these were all created in a very similar time, and a short analysis provided to some of them. Lastly, the focus moves back to happenings in Wilde’s life, his lover Douglas, the time in jail, and the exile before his death.

1.1. Early Years

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, also known simply as Oscar Wilde, was born in October 16th, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland to a family of a protestant origin. His father was a known doctor and his mother, who was of an Italian descent and known under her penname “Speranza” (Italian for “hope”), was a poet. As Joseph Bristow mentions in his short biography of Oscar Wilde, Lady Wilde was an Irish nationalist who was famous for writing poetry for the revolutionaries (1). This character trait transferred to Oscar, whose works were also revolutionary in the question of homosexuality at that time. According to Joachim Zelter, in his paper on Wilde “Oscar

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Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish”, Wilde’s mother used to treat him and dress him as a girl when he was a child (6). This could be one of the factors that helped to attract him to beauty and art later in his life.

Wilde was at first educated at home until the age of nine and afterwards started attending the Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, located southwest in the Northern

Ireland. Frank Harris, who was also Wilde’s contemporary, managed to obtain for his biography of Wilde a description of him as a student by his peer, Sir Edward Sullivan.

He claims that Wilde was: "Even as a schoolboy he was an excellent talker: his descriptive power being far above the average, and his humorous exaggerations of school occurrences always highly amusing” (24). According to this, Wilde was already showing a potential for writing early in his life. After Portora, Wilde continued his education on a royal scholarship at the Trinity College in Dublin where he studied the classics. Here he became more interested in Greek ideal and Greek literature, thanks to professor Mahaffy. Wilde described him as “an artist in vivid words and eloquent pauses” (41) and who had, according to Bristow,” a surprisingly liberal view of homosexuality in ancient Greece” (1).

At Trinity, Wilde excelled as a student and won a gold medal for Greek and a demyship, a form of scholarship awarded at Magdalen College, Oxford, which allowed him to study there. Here, Wilde became acquainted with the works of Algernon Charles

Swinburne, which were a source of inspiration for Wilde’s own work, Poems, a collection later published in 1881. Oxford was also the place where Wilde became enlightened by the philosophy of aestheticism, introduced to him by two of his professors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin (2), along with New Hellenism, English

Renaissance and the role of beauty (Zelter 2). He was also recognised in his

9 involvement with the decadent movement, which is further discussed in The Last

Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd.

Wilde successfully graduated from Oxford in 1878 with double first in B.A. of

Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores, as mentioned a biography of Oscar

Wilde by Richard Ellmann (94). However, he was not successful in obtaining a professional post at Oxford or Cambridge and he moved to London, where he resided for some time. Soon afterwards, he spent a year touring America to deliver lectures on

English aestheticism and to bring attention to Patience, a comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, that deals with and caricatures aestheticism and whose main character, Bunthrone, resembles Wilde. Ellmann argues that Wilde was partially a model for Bunthrone (135).

After his return, Wilde resided for a couple of months in Paris before staying in

London again. Meanwhile, he made a short trip back to America to see his first play,

Vera, come to live in a New York premiere. However, the play failed to meet the expectations of the audience and was soon abandoned (Harris 80). In 1881, Wilde met

Constance Lloyd, a daughter of a wealthy Queen’s Counsel. Three years later, when

Wilde was giving a lecture in Dublin, they met again. After a few months they got married in May, 1884 in London. They had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan (Bristow 3).

Later, in 1885, Wilde became more involved with journalism, writing reviews and articles for The Pall Mall Gazette and other journals (Harris 103). He also became an editor of The Lady’s World magazine that he later renamed to The Woman’s World. He also changed its content while besides fashion and arts he also added topics of culture, politics, and other more serious matters. His wife and Lady Wilde also contributed to this, being a source of inspiration for some of his articles (Ellmann 276).

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1.2. Major works

Eventually, Wilde left the work as an editor. Although, before he did he published

Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888, a series of fairy-tales that was later followed by two more collections in 1891: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories and The

House of Pomegranates. In 1889 he also released “The Decay of Lying”, a critical essay related to the works of Walter Pater and Matthew Arnold (Bristow 4).

Before The Portrait of Dorian Gray one more, a less famous “portrait”, of his was published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine: The Portrait of Mr. W.H.. It is a short novel based on the theory that Shakespeare’s Sonnets were dedicated to Willie Hughes, who is portrayed as a young boy actor that played female roles. As Nicholas Lezard observes, who wrote an article about this play, Wilde plays here on the idea that

Shakespeare was romantically interested in men, supported by innuendos in Sonnets

(par. 2).

The end of the 1880’s and the beginning of the 1890’s was Wilde’s most productive time as a writer. In 1890, his only novel, Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. According to Ellmann, there were few works displaying homosexuality before, Picture of Dorian Gray therefore being one of the first ones of this kind (319).

The story of Picture of Dorian Gray starts as a painter, Basil Hallward, and his friend, Lord Henry Wotton discuss Hallward’s newest work, a portrait of a young aristocrat – Dorian Gray. Lord Henry admires the perfection of the painting and the man on it, admires his beauty a compares him to Adonis. He belauds the importance of beauty and wants to meet Gray, something that Hallward does not approve of very much, but Lord Henry meets him anyway. Eventually, Lord Henry persuades Gray to

11 see world more from his point of view. When the painting is finished, Gray is devastated that he will not be forever beautiful as his painting and makes a deal with the devil, similar to the one Faust made with Mephistopheles in Doctor Faustus. From this point on, the painting records not only Gray’s age, but also his sins. Gray then sets himself to life of joy and pleasures, where, though, the distinction between good and evil plays little role. Over the years, while Gray’s face remains beautiful, his heart becomes awful, mirrored in the painting that becomes more and more horrible (Dorian

Gray).

This novel soon became the object of strong criticism of its “indefensible homoerotic content”, whereas nothing similar was mentioned in connection of his previous work The Portrait of Mr. W.H. (Bristow 4). In reaction to these claims, Wilde revised and extended Gray and it was published as a separate novel in 1891 with an added preface that states: “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (Dorian Gray 6-7), claiming, that his work should be judged solely as a work of art and not as neither offensive nor immoral.

Another Wilde’s work created around this time, Salomé, also underwent a strong criticism, before it was successfully released. Salomé is a one act play, a tragedy originally written in French and inspired by works of Gustave Flaubert and Stephanie

Mallarmé (Bristow 4). It tells the story that originates in Bible. Salome, the daughter of

Herodias, falls in love with Jokanaan who, however, does not return her feelings and kills himself. She then requests his head from her stepfather after she dances for him the

Dance of the Seven Veils. She is granted her wish, after which she talks to the head and kisses it (Salomé).

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In 1891, the preparations for Salomé’s premiere in London began, however it was soon cancelled because of “showing biblical characters”, while other sources hint that it was “too much for the Victorian public” with the play hinting on necrophilia and that the play is “Half-biblical, half-pornographic” (Bristow 4). It was later released in 1893 but was not staged until 1896 in Paris, during the time when Wilde was in prison. In

London it was not played until 1905.

Apart from Picture of Dorian Gray and Salomé, at this time Wilde also created his popular social comedies. Lady Windermere’s Fan successfully premiered in 1892.

A Woman of no Importance followed with a premiere in 1891 and was later officially published in 1893. An Ideal Husband premiered in 1895 along with The Importance of

Being Earnest, both plays being very successful.

1.3 Queensberry and jail

In 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, a young aristocrat with whom

Wilde later started meeting regularly and had a very intimate relationship. However,

Douglas’s father, Marquess of Queensberry, suspected there was more than just friendship between them and disapproved of their relationship. According to Ellmann, he many times openly spoke his mind to them and threatened Wilde, to which Wilde responded defensively (421). Although at this time, homosexuality was not punishable by death anymore, the Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act from 1885 said that all homosexual acts of “gross indecency” were illegal (parliament.uk).

Later, Queensberry sent Wilde an offending note that stated: “To Oscar Wilde, posing as Somdomite,” including the false spelling in the last word (Bristow 5).

Encouraged by Douglas, Wilde reacted to this by filling a prosecution for libel against

Queensberry that was followed by a trial. However, Queensberry’s lawyers led by

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Edward Carson started investigating the truth behind the note and researched evidence against Wilde (Ellmann 415) who then had to drop the charges and the costs of the trial made him bankrupt (Bristow 6).

His friends urged him to quickly flee the country, but it was of no use as he was arrested soon after for committing “gross indecency” with other men. A trial against

Wilde followed; with the jury being unable to draw a conclusion and the final judgement being postponed. Finally, the last trial took place in May 1895, concluded with a sentence of two years of hard labour for Wilde. After this, Wilde’s family fled to

Europe and his wife changed the surname of her and their sons to “Holland”. Even after he was released, Wilde never saw them again (Bristow 6).

During his time of imprisonment, he was relocated a couple of times. Probably the most unfortunate was his stay in Wandsworth Prison in London, where he injured himself when he fell down due to illness and starvation and had to spend two months in the infirmary. This injury was part of the reason responsible for his death later in his life

(Ellmann 465). While in prison, Wilde finished his work “Epistola: In Carcere et

Vinculis” (“Letter: In Prison and in Chains”), a letter to his lover, Douglas. He later gave this manuscript to Robert Ross, his former lover and friend, who edited it and omitting Douglas’s name from the text published it for Wilde post mortem in 1905, under the title De Profundis (Out of the Depths) which became an immediate success

(Bristow 6).

After his release, Wilde left the United Kingdom and sailed to France, spending the rest of his life in exile. There he finished his poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, in

1897, the last two words of which are homonym for “Reading, Jail”, the last place of his imprisonment. It tells the story of execution of one of his fellow inmates. As Wilde’s

14 own name was infamous at that time, the poem was published as the creation of “C33”

– Wilde’s number during imprisonment. However, it was soon discovered that he is the author and the seventh edition of this poem was published with his name (Ellmann 526).

In the following year, his also revised and published his two plays An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, which will be discussed in Chapter 2.

Afterwards, Wilde struggled to continue his literary career while his health slowly decayed and in 1900 he died of meningitis. He is buried at graveyard Père Lachaise in

Paris. In 2017 he was granted a posthumous pardon for his “crimes” along with approximately other 50,000 gay men, under the “Turing’s Law”, as homosexuality is no longer illegal in the UK (McCann, par. 1).

To summarize, this chapter provides the reader with a background into the life of

Oscar Wilde. It starts with his early years in school and mentions the most influential professors. Then it mentions his time in America and his early works, which were not very successful. This period was followed by his marriage to Constance Lloyd and a work as an editor. Afterwards, his works became more successful so he could officially become a writer. Meanwhile he met Alfred Douglas who was his lover and later the reason why Wilde was sent into jail. The chapter finishes with Wilde’s life in the exile and his death.

Because of this, it is easier to notice certain themes in Wilde’s work, such as aestheticism, homosexuality, or Wilde’s passion for beauty. This is further analysed in the following chapter.

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Chapter 2: Manners, Gender, and Sexuality in The Importance of Being Earnest

This chapter analyses original play of Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being

Earnest from the point of manners, gender, and sexuality. These aspects of the play are closely intertwined and therefore they are analysed together. It analyses the presence of these elements in the play subsequently complemented with evidence from the text. It also serves as a basis for the following analysis of the two film adaptations in the last chapter. The first part of this chapter focuses on the importance of manners and appearance in the play, both of which are greatly emphasized. Mainly analysed in this case are women, as they are more prominent to make a point of their manners.

Next, the analysis moves to the problem of gender roles, where the roles of the genders are compared. Finally, the conclusion is reached with the interchangeability of the two genders.

2.1. The Appearance and Manners

The importance of appearance and manners in the play is predominantly set by the time when it was written – the late Victorian era. It was the era when it was more important how one looked than what one was doing, as lady Bracknell says in the play; it is “an age of surfaces” (Wilde 134). This is thoroughly analysed in a work by Camille

Paglia from 1990, the Sexual Personae, in a direct connection to the sexuality in the play, as can be seen in the following paragraphs.

In the play, there are several occasions where the importance of appearance over anything else can be pinpointed. These moments can be easier to spot if one takes the time to have a closer look at words such as “to look” and “to be seen”, or generally any words with a meaning similar to those mentioned in the text. An example, also mentioned by Paglia, is when Gwendolen requests bread and butter from Cecily, rather

16 than a cake, reasoning that “Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays” (Wilde

106). It is worth noticing, that the word used by Gwendolen in connection with the cake is “seen”, not “eaten”, meaning that the cake has simply more importance as a decoration rather than an actual food (Paglia 537). Likewise, Gwendolen rejects

Cecily’s offer of sugar, as it is “not fashionable anymore” (Wilde 106). The taste is of no importance, the appearance is everything. Even sugar and cake can be taken as “the mark of caste” (537), which exaggerate and underline the proposed pettiness.

Another similar case is when Lady Bracknell tells to Jack that: “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness” (Wilde 38). It is a tragical incident that makes a tremendous impact on one’s life, yet here it is considered merely a flaw in the social prestige. Lady Bracknell, a representor of the high caste, makes appearance of great importance and it reaches the extent when even the chins are “arrogantly “worn” like a piece of clothing because the human figure is merely decorative” (Paglia 537). This serves to show just how important the appearance is and how, again, petty can the high caste be in every detail.

Finally, even the expression of feelings, the confession of love, can be translated into a form of a social merit, either by being written down or repeated several times.

Ultimately, the goal is not to be affectionate, but to record these confessions forever.

When Jack and Algy reveal their affection towards either Gwendolen or Cecily, both cases follow the suit. After Jack confesses his love to Gwendolen she says: “I hope you will always look at me just like that, especially when there are other people present”

(Wilde 32). Here, it is of importance that there is always someone watching, an audience that witnesses this moment and is, ideally, going to pass the information until everyone else knows. Yet, if there is nobody around to witness this confession, despite its sincerity, it becomes of little importance, as the one thing Gwendolen is after is “not

17 emotion but display, the theatre of social life” (Paglia 536). In a similar fashion, when

Cecily is confronted by Algy’s confession of love, rather than showing any emotion of delight or surprise, she decides to record the moment into her diary that she intends to make public one day (Wilde 87-88). Diaries are treated in a unique, impersonal way.

Gwendolen describes hers as “something sensational to read on a train” (Wilde 63) an exclusive piece of writing that is a form of entertainment, rather than a memory or a tool for retrospection (Paglia 540).

However, as comical as the aristocrats in Earnest may seem, it is important to emphasise that Wilde was not trying to make a reflection of the contemporary society.

Rather than that he created his own society that was only partially inspired by the real one. This allows us to review the society from the aesthetical manner, with focus on their wit and speech as it was meant to be, rather than from the historical one with the focus on truthfulness, and it puts even greater emphasis on the role of manners.

The evidence provided so far has focused mainly on the importance of appearance and manners in play. As it can be seen, it is a crucial trait of the play and it can serve as a further guidance to the analysis of the play. To connect the manners with the portrayal of sexuality, it is first necessary to assess the genders roles which are more complicated than they seem at the first glance and are also quite unusual if compared to the contemporary norm.

2.2. Men and Women

Gender roles are another interesting aspect of this play. As far as social standards go in the Victorian era, normally, the gentlemen would be the ones expected to claim the leadership role in the relationship and generally to be the confident ones who set the pace. However, in the play, the opposite seems to be true. The men are less expressive

18 and more passive than the women in the play. Gwendolen states this point when she says that “The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man” (Wilde 98), implying, that a man belongs to the household, ergo the exact opposite of what was the true in the contemporary society. On the other hand, women are never taken aback by any situation, and they present themselves in a highly educated manner and act stronger than men. This is a theme discussed both by Paglia (569) and also by Magdalena

Nigoević and Katarina Perišić, in their work “Who’s the Bigger (Wo)man in Oscar

Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest?”(129).

In the poem The Angel in the House by Coventry Patmore, the Victorian women were described as “charming”, “utterly unselfish”, and “above all, pure”.

As Nigoevic observes, “In performance, both Gwendolen and Cecily seem to escape the conventions of this late-Victorian profile” (128).

To state the difference of the unusual portrayal of gender roles, we can take a look at the scene at the beginning when Jack wants to propose to Gwendolen. We are presented with a man who is quite shy, self-conscious about formulating words and nervous about confessing his feelings. Gwendolen, on the other hand, is quick to react to his confession and is, in fact, very straightforward and open about her feelings. She is also very clear as to why she is so affectionate about him:

Jack. [Nervously.] Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than

any girl . . . I have ever met since . . . I met you.

Gwendolen. Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at

any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always had an

irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you [….]

and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is

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something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first

mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.

(Wilde 28).

In this example, we can see the confident Gwendolen who presents herself without any coyness, as opposed to the shy Jack who struggles to express himself.

Gwendolen is confident in what she wants, making it clear that the name Earnest is one of the ultimate conditions of their relationship, “her suitor thus dictating the pace of relationship” (Paglia 559).

Similarly, this type of confidence, one may even say “dominance”, can be found in Cecily when she speaks to Algernon. For instance, in the situation when they meet for the first time and casually, she fearlessly questions him if he is “good enough” for this world (Wilde 67). Cecily is bold and feels in no way insecure in a conversation with a complete stranger.

This type of behaviour can also be observed when Gwendolen and Cecily learn the truth about Jack and Algernon, that is, that neither of them is called Earnest. The women, feeling betrayed, are quick to judge, switch sides, and storm out of the room, leaving the two men behind and baffled, with barely any further chance to explain themselves (Wilde,110). According to this evidence, it can be said that the women in the play are extraordinarily confident, resolute, and seem to have the upper hand in the relationship.

2.3 The Androgyne of Manners

However, if the idea of almost strangely confident women is taken a step further, it may look like the females in the play have masculine secondary behavioural traits.

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This idea is the main theme of Camille Paglia’s treatment of the play in Sexual

Personae.

In her study, Paglia claims that the main theme in Earnest is the “Androgyne of manners”, as she calls it, a well-behaved individual who however, does not carry distinct traits of only one gender:

The androgyne of manners inhabits the world of the drawing room and recreates

that world wherever it goes, through manner and speech. The salon is an abstract

circle where male and female, like mathematical ciphers, are equal and

interchangeable. Personality becomes a sexually undifferentiated formal mask

(531).

This, again, supports the point of the importance of manners, claiming that personality is only a “mask”. It also serves as an explanation of the unusual relationships between man and women in the play. Another, more specific, description of the androgyne of manners may be that it is “the male feminine in his careless, lounging passivity” and “the female masculine in her brilliant, aggressive wit” as presented by Paglia.

If we take a look at the manner in which the women speak, one may notice that their self-presentation is rather harsh: “The salon dialogue of the androgyne of manners is a duel of "cutting" remarks. Language is used aggressively as a tool of masculine warfare to slash, stab, pierce, and penetrate” (Paglia 544). This rampant theme is more common in the male world, rather than the female one, effectively removing a part of feminine traits from the women in the play.

Another theme worth considering is the women’s reaction to unexpected or emotional situations. In this case, it may be expected of them to become stunned or

21 emotional. Yet, their responses are filled with brisk reactions that seem almost calculated to make them meet their desired standards of appearance. Examples already mentioned serve well as a proof to this point as well, for example when Jack asked

Gwendolen to marry him:

Jack: Gwendolen, we must get married at once. There is no time to be lost.

Gwendolen: Married, Mr. Worthing?

Jack: Well…surely. You know that I love you, and you led me to believe, Miss

Fairfax, that you were not absolutely indifferent to me.

Gwendolen: I adore you, but you haven't proposed to me yet. Nothing has been

said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on.

Jack: Well… May I propose to you now?

Gwendolen: I think it would be an admirable opportunity. And to spare you any

possible disappointment, Mr Worthing, I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly

beforehand that I am fully determined to accept you (Wilde 31).

Not for a moment does Gwendolen lose ground under her feet and to minimalize even a possibility of such happening, she takes control of the conversation. That is something more expected of a man, rather than a woman. Paglia claims that women in the play are “creatures of indeterminate sex” (Paglia 536). The men, on the other hand, are missing the traits mentioned and are, in a way, more feminine. Algy, for example, takes a great interest in arts, fashion, and poetry, elements, that are usually more observed and discussed by women rather than men (Nigoevic 126).

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Of course, then there is Bunbury, Algernon’s fictional brother who, however, is often is seen as something more. When he speaks of him, Algernon sounds very affectionate, on a closer level than one may speak of their brother:

Algernon. Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury, and if you ever get

married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know

Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time

of it. (Wilde 20)

In this case, Bunbury sounds more as a concept or a way of life, rather than an actual person. That also leads us to the concept of “bunburying”, which allows one who practices it, to be immoral while it is thought that they are doing something else that is perfectly moral (Nigoevic 127). To take this a step further, or perhaps, to be more specific, “bunburying” may be referring to a sexual practice as in “burying in the bun”, in reference to homosexuals (127).

Additionally, bunburying as in leading a double life is a situation mirroring

Wilde’s real life as well. He was leading one life as a loving husband and father of two children, a life that was very much accepted by the society; and then a second life, a time spent in the company of young men, the secret lovers, a life that was being frowned upon and forbidden at that time of Victorian society. If the same is true for the two dandies of the play, it explains the need of using a different name while bunburying, to allow them to fully develop their two personalities: one, for the life conforming to the norms of society, and the other, for life that is not.

What is more, at the end of the play when Jack says that Algy has never before treated him as a brother (Wilde 150), it may mean that their relationship before was

23 either less than that, which does not seem to be the case in the play, or a more intimate relationship, that seems to be more hinted upon (Nigoevic 128).

It is also Algernon’s stance towards marriage that is a little suspicious. At the beginning of the play he already that states that he is no way interested in marriage, believes that one cannot have love inside marriage and that “divorces are made in heaven” (Wilde 9). He supports this argument by saying that with marriage, the relationship loses its spark. However, he could be hinting on something else. If homosexuality was illegal at the time of the play, the same was true for same sex marriages. This may make homosexuals uninterested in marriages, as they could not make it official, or, as in Algernon case, they would be completely against marriage.

Now if we compare both men and women in the play, each gender seems to have some traits of the other one. If this is true, androgynies are the ruling theme in The

Importance of Being Earnest and the genders are interchangeable, as claimed by Paglia, and the lines between men and women being blurred, it can be said that the play is an indirect portrayal of homosexuality all along (Nigoevic 130).

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Chapter 3: Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation

Adaptations are often strongly criticised and are judged solely as copies of the original sources. As opposed to this view, this chapter will look at this problem from another point, and that is judging a film as a new piece of art. It aims to present the reader with a better insight to the topic as it is essential for the film to be judged more objectively. For the most part, it is considering the translation from any literary work to a film and not solely a play to film, as it leads toward almost identical conclusion with only minor differences. At the beginning, this chapter will discuss how adaptations are usually perceived and why, considering both sides of the problem. Later, the focus will shift to specific points or guidelines that one should bear in mind when analysing a cinematic adaptation of a literary work. This chapter is based mainly on The Theory of

Adaptation and a lecture on film analysis “From Page to Stage to Screen: The Age of

Adaptation” by Linda Hutcheon; and Novel to Film, a work by Brian McFarlane.

3.1. Theory of Adaptation

Both the twentieth and the twenty first century are considered to be the age of adaptation, as there are many modern devices that enable the creation of a wide range of adaptations. These can be for example a radio play, a film, or an online game - some of which would be unthinkable even couple of decades ago. However, adaptations have always been here. Linda Hutcheon deals with this topic one of her lectures and claims that adaptations can be dated all the way back to the age of Shakespeare and further. At this time, one literary work inspired the creation of another and copyright was not an issue. Shakespeare himself borrowed ideas for his works from various authors of his time, only couple of them being his original product (39).

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As nowadays there are more technological options, there are also more adaptations, more criticism and more comparisons between them. Adaptations are often disliked for being different from the original (39). Brian McFarlane, who also deals with this issue in his work Novel to Film, states that it often happens that the adaptation is judged as “untrustworthy” and “unfaithful” to the original source and some are even called a “violation” to it (12). In her lecture, Hutcheon mentions Robert Stam, who argues that the reasons behind this may be “iconophobia”, a mistrust or a fear of the visual, and “logophilia”, love for the text, favouring of the written word (Stam in

Hutcheon, 40). This may not necessarily be the reason every time, although it does provide some enlightment and explanation of the problem.

There are various aspects that influence the impact of an adaptation and its final form. These are: the transferring between the mediums, individual contributions of each member of the production and actors, and the individual perception of the audience

(Hutcheon 41).

Each medium has specific attributes that characterise it, therefore when a translation between a two of them happens, there are necessarily some drawbacks, as one medium may lack some of the other’s attributes, but also improvements, as the new medium has a different way of expression that the original may not have. That being said, Hutcheon states that: “Transposition to another medium (or even within the same one) always means change: there are always going to be both gains and losses” (40) although, this also allows us to see the original work from a different light (40).

Another influential factor, in this case for a film adaptation, is the production team: including the director, the actors, the cameramen and all the staff that works

26 backstage. Each one of these people puts an individual contribution into the work, based on how each of them perceives it (40).

Even a theatre performance of a play can be considered an adaptation. The text of the play often does not tell the actors how they should talk, what voice pitch to use or what gestures to make (Miller 48). Each performance can therefore be considered unique as it is affected by each specific individual that is present to its creation

(Hutcheon 39).

That being said, a crucial difference between the creation of a film and a play is that the former is a production of what can be hundreds of people, whereas a play is a creation of only one person (46). In this respect, during filming it may be harder for a group of people to portray one idea of the original author, as each of them may perceive and imagine it differently.

The last factor in how an adaptation is perceived is the audience. This solely depends on how each individual member of the audience, their experiences, thoughts, how and what they liked in the original text, etc., as Hutcheon says “Gender and racial politics, as much as national, cultural or temporal change, can play a role in the reception of these adaptations” (48). Thanks to this, both positive and negative feedbacks may be drawn from different members of the same audience (41). An adaptation that is considered to be great in every aspect by one person may be seen as completely bad by another.

It is also crucial how much the audience is acquainted with the original work. If the adapted work is not very familiar, the production has a free hand to do bigger alternations to adaptation. However, if the adapted work is well known, there are certain expectations from the audience that the adaptation should negotiate. Hutcheon says:

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If the adapted text is well known, however, there is frequently a palpable tension between

the audience's desire for fidelity to the beloved literary work and the creator's desire for

autonomous reconfiguration or even critical commentary (48).

Because of this, the directors have to be well aware of the popularity of the work they want to adapt, to be aware of the consequences and bigger or smaller change may bring to the final work.

All this being said, based on the reasons listed above, this subchapter explains how adaptations are normally perceived, presuming the feedback is often negative. It aims to explain this phenomenon and why the adaptation should be judged as a new piece of art, rather than just a copy of the original work, or perhaps to at least see the original work from another perspective. The following subchapter explains how one may analyze an adaptation.

3.2. Approaches to a Film Analysis

One of approaches used to analyse a film based on a literary work can be found in the work Novel to Film by Brian McFarlane. The primary idea is that when a novel is transferred to screen, the process can be divided into two parts. The first part is composed of the components of a literary work that are easily transferable, for instance the main confrontation. The second part involves the aspects that are more complex and require an adaptation, such as the portrayal of characters. This is an idea mentioned in

“Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives”, written by a French literary critic Rolland Barthes.

McFarlane engages with this scheme while referring to a semiotic system, the system of meaning and communication (Shepperson 160). In this sense, he divides the elements of a novel into two categories:

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1. Those elements of the original novel which are transferrable because not tied to one or

other semiotic system–that is, essentially, narrative, and

2. Those which involve intricate processes of adaptation because their effects are closely

tied to the semiotic system in which they are manifested–that is, enunciation (McFarlane

20).

This draws a clear distinction between the transferable and the adaptable. This is to inform us that when analysing an adaptation of a literary work, one has to bear in mind that while some aspects may be same as in the original work (the transferable elements), other aspects may be adapted in various ways, for example alternation of behaviour of some characters or their complete omission in case of smaller characters, slight changes in the setting, etc. Similar idea can be found in work of Hutcheon (40).

Hutcheon also emphasizes the attributes distinctive for a film, namely the music and soundtrack, language, and visual images (43). These attributes are also often mentioned in literary works through description, yet their use in both mediums is different. To support this claim, Hutcheon uses as an example the work of E.M. Foster,

Howard’s End, in comparison to its film adaptation. At the beginning, the writer describes Beethoven’s fifth symphony and how it emotionally impacted the main character. The film adaptation is different, as we can actually hear the music but we cannot see what’s happening inside the main character’s head. Therefore, this scene was altered and the sound of the orchestra becomes background music to complete the next scene where the main character meets another person, rather than to focus solely on her own emotional experience (Foster in Hutcheon 44).

When it comes to the dialogues between characters, oftentimes they have to be shrunk or even omitted. This is because the saying of a spoken word takes longer time

29 than the reading of a written word. A book that may take hours or days to be read has to be compressed into about two hours on the screen. This is also the reason why some characters have to be altered or completely omitted and smaller or bigger changes to the plot need to be made (Hutcheon 44).

This chapter presented the reader with ideas as to how to analyse a film adaptation and this information will be used in the following chapter to analyse two film adaptations of The Importance of Being Earnest.

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Chapter 4: Analysis of the Two Film Adaptations

The final chapter of this thesis deal with the film adaptations of Earnest, namely the first film adaptation of the play from 1952, directed by Anthony Asquith and then the second, more recent adaption from 2002, directed by Oliver Parker. The goal of this chapter is to show, how a translation of the play from one medium to another affects the final outcome of how the play is perceived and whether a viewer can come to a different conclusion after seeing the film version, as opposed to a reader who read the original, written version.

The two adaptations are analysed separately, each judged firstly by the additional elements that are brought by the film medium, especially the acoustic and visual elements, such as speech, music in the background, costumes, scenery, and so on.

Afterwards, each is analysed in a similar fashion as the play itself in chapter two: the spotlight is mainly on the manners the characters use to present themselves, the portrayal of the two sexes, the interactions between them.

4.1. The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) by Anthony Asquith

Antony Asquith is a famous English director who lived from 1902 to 1968.

Besides Wilde he also made adaptations of Shaw and Rattigan, for example Pygmalion

(1938), French without Tears (1940), Winslow Boy (1948), or The Doctor’s Dilemma

(1958). His adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest1 is considered to be one of the best of all filmed plays. This and more information about him can be found in

Anthony Asquith, a critical study of his works by Tom Ryall.

1 The cast of this film adaptation is following: Michael Redgrave as Jack Worthing, Michael Denison as Algernon Moncrieff, Joan Greenwood as Gwendolen Fairfax, Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell, Dorothy Tutin as Cecily Cardew, Margare Rutherford as Miss Prism, and Miles Malleson as Dr. Chasuble.

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The composition of this film is very reminiscent of that of a play. It is distinctly divided into several scenes, the final number of which is close to that one would find in the play. Thanks to the fact that the scenes do not change as often they normally would in a film, the viewer can appreciate other aspects of the play, that could normally be overshadowed by a lot of action on the screen.

For example, one of the aspects of the play the viewer can appreciate more thanks to this is the manner of speech and wording used in the play. In the original work, it was

Wilde’s intention to make the words and speech dominant in the play, its importance preceding the actual plot. To complement this, a The New York Times review of this film from 1952 states that: “"The Importance of Being Earnest" is not saying very much, but it says it deliciously” (nytimes.com).

The replicas of the characters in the film are very faithful to the ones used in the original source. However, some adjustments were necessary, for the film to follow and not exceed the standard running time. Yet, the important lines were kept; therefore the core of the play is very identical to the one of the original play.

Another element that draws the film closer to a theatre play is music. Normally, there is no music in a theatre play, or close to none. This element is likewise very rare in this film adaptation and it was used with utmost carefulness. Music is playing during the opening of the film, a playful, light melody fitting for a comedy, to put the viewer into the right mood since the very beginning.

Apart from that it is also used a couple of times to underline or emphasize a certain scene, to add some depth and make it more dramatic. As an example to this can serve the moment when Lady Bracknell questions Jack to decide whether he could be

32 an eligible future husband for Gwendolen. The dramatic moment starts when he confesses that his history is a mystery and that he was found in a handbag. After Lady

Bracknell digests this information, she raises, music starts playing to dramatize her decision, that Jack cannot marry her daughter, unless he produces at least one parent, one of the central conflicts to the plot of the play. A different type of dramatic music also plays while Jack is realising these consequences. However, as the play is a comedy after all, the dramatic moment is mocked by Algernon a moment after Lady Bracknell exits, when he starts playing the “Wedding March” on the piano, when it seems that

Jack will not be able to marry Gwendolen (Asquith 00:25:08-00:28:10).

The last musical aspect that can be observed in the film is the singing of Algernon and Jack. In the first case, Algy is singing at the beginning instead of playing the piano, as he is in the original play (00:10:17-00:10:25). Another example is when Jack and

Algernon enter the room with Cecily and Gwendolen inside, after the two ladies realise that neither Jack nor Algernon are named Earnest. The two men enter the room singing, instead of whistling, as is stated in the original play (01:12:45-01:12:58). These slight alternations, however, do not make a meaningful impact to the play. For example, in the first case, Algernon is singing out of tune, which allows him to state: “I don’t sing in tune —anybody can sing in tune—but I sing with wonderful feeling” (00:10:35), almost the same line as in the play.

Otherwise, one can scarcely hear music in the film at all, which emphasizes the feeling that one is watching a theatre play, rather than a film. The only sounds that are dominant in the film are the voices of the actors.

A factor that greatly supported the play is the scenery that was sophisticated and worked through to the smallest details, that were quite abundant: “decor is lavish-

33 perhaps too much so, for often the spectator finds himself attending to details of background rather than to the players and their lines” (Smith 73).

In many cases the scenery and the costume of the characters are in a perfect harmony. For example, in the scene at the beginning when Jack and Algernon are in

Jack’s apartment, one can observe that the room they find themselves in is predominantly in green and yellow tunes. These tunes reflect in the costumes of the two gentlemen: in Jack’s greenish gown and Algernon’s yellow vest (00:08:06).

Another example of this can be found in the following scene, when Lady

Bracknell and Gwendolen appear for the first time. They are both wearing fashionable, and maybe even a bit extravagant, robes in vivid colours, each complemented by a hat with flowers on top and a big butterfly in the middle. Interestingly, when the ladies start talking to Jack and Algernon, one can observe that the men hold teacups with little butterflies on them, similar to the ones on the hats (00:12:03-00:16:15). Both of these examples emphasize the idea of perfection that goes to the extent when even the surroundings match the characters.

The depiction of the Victorian society follows the suit given by the play: the aristocracy is mocked both with the lines from the play and additional elements from the film. In the film, the voice pitch of Lady Bracknell, who is played by Edith Evans, is jumping up and down in very short intervals and some syllables are strangely prolonged or stressed, which makes her speech sound affected and quite comical, although she is presenting the Victorian caste. This can be observed for example during the already mentioned scene when she questions Jack about his origin. The moment when asks: “A handbag?” to confirm where he comes from, is indeed quite memorable (00:25:08-

00:28:00).

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Similar comical voice pitch alternations can be observed with other characters as well, though they are not as remarkable as Lady Bracknell’s, the extra pitch change of whom can probably be assigned as she is a character of a higher age (Smith 73).

Most of the lines from the play that mock aristocracy have been presented in this adaptation, for example Gwendolyn’s comments that “sugar is not fashionable” or

“cake is not seen in the best houses anymore” are present (01:05:20-01:06:10).

Although the examples listed above are mocking Victorian society and are meant to be humorous, they still present the idea, that appearance and manners were of great importance to the contemporary people, therefore it presents the same idea as the original play.

Another aspect to be analysed is the portrayal of women in the film. They seem to be mostly presented as dominant, as are their original counterparts. Various examples of

Gwendolen and Cecily prove this point.

First of all, this can be seen in the scene when Jack, kneeling down, asks

Gwendolen to marry him. As they are about to kiss, they are interrupted by Lady

Bracknell. Jack wants to rise immediately but Gwendolen holds him in place and tells

Lady Bracknell that they are not finished yet. Here, while Jack is unsure and embarrassed, Gwendolen seems to be confident and to have full control of the situation.

Also, after Lady Bracknell orders Gwendolen to leave the room, she cheekily blows

Jack a kiss, while he fails to send her one as well. This scene shows that Gwendolen has the upper hand (00:20:15-00:20:35).

Second of all, Cecily shows no sign of submission when she is supposed to study and rather does whatever crosses her mind, be it collecting the flowers or writing into her diary (00:30:50-00:34:20). Few minutes later, when she meets Algernon, she is very

35 vigorous as she leaves him no place for self-defence when she states that he is “wicked” and she seems to be the one leading the conversation, especially at the beginning

(00:38:10-00:42:00).

Then, when Algernon, pretending to be Ernest, meets Jack, which upsets him,

Cecily is the one who steps in and makes them reconcile, taking control of both the situation and the two men (00:45:45).

Last example to support the above stated argument is the scene when Cecily writes Algernon’s love confession into her diary, who seems to be surprised by the situation, but soon follows without any complaints. However, in the play, where the exchange is only portrayed by the lines of the two characters, Cecily seems to be stronger, than in the film. When the acting is taken into consideration, the scene gives off a hint that although Algernon lets Cecily have the power in this case, it is only his good will and if he changed his mind, it would not be so (00:48:05-00:55:30).

Despite the last example being a little controversial, overall the women are shown as confident individuals and are dominant to the men. The men on the other hand seem to be simply following the wishes of the women, although normally it should be the man who has the last word.

Also certain chemistry can be observed between Jack and Algernon. A good example of this is the scene when they are alone after Algernon pretends to be Jack’s brother, Ernest. When Algy states that he has “never allowed his duty as a gentleman to interfere with his pleasures to any degrees” (00:46:27), he is standing very close to Jack and leans in to emphasize the last part of the sentence. Similar examples can be observed all throughout this scene (00:46:12-00:47:32). This scene depicts a very close proximity between the two men that could be more than a friendship.

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However, throughout the film there are not many similar moments, while it is rather focused on the relationships of Gwendolen and Jack; and Cecily and Algernon.

There is a hint of homosexual interaction between Jack and Algernon, yet it is quite subtle compared to the original play. It is also Algernon’s costume that maybe should have been more extravagant. Although it is not unfashionable, he is not “always overdressed” as Jack states in the last scene mentioned (00:46:12-00:47:32). If he was, it could lead the viewer to see him in a more homosexual light.

To summarize, this film adaptation offers an experience fairly similar to the one that can be drawn from the original play. The high class is mocked in a similar manner, for example via acting and the manner of speech of Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen.

The role of the two sexes seems to be uncertain as in the play, with women wearing some masculine traits, for example the superiority in most situations, while men remain quite submissive. This presentation along with the scenery mostly set in the drawing room supports the idea of “Androgyne of Manners” by Paglia. Only the interaction between the two men seems to be somehow meeker as in the original play. Besides that, this film adaptation is very faithful and the viewer may draw similar or the same conclusion from it as the reader. This film seems to be the midpoint of transition between a theater play and a film, as it has kept elements of both.

4.2. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) by Oliver Parker

Oliver Parker is an English director born in 1960. Besides The Importance of

Being Earnest2 he also adapted other works by Wilde such as An Ideal Husband (1999) and Dorian Gray (2009) (imbd.com).

2 The cast of the film is following: Colin Firth as Jack Worthing, Rupert Everett as Algernon Moncrieff, Frances O’Connor as Gwendolen Fairfax, Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell, Reese Witherspoon as Cecily Cardew, Anna Massey as Miss Prism, and Tom Wilkinson as Dr Chasuble. 37

This film is very different from the preceding adaptation, its fifty years older counterpart. The difference is obvious five minutes after the film starts. The scenes are altered, cut into smaller parts, some are extras that were not in the original play and they change more often, following a format that is close to a normal film rather than a play.

There are also many alternations to the lines of the characters, which depicts them and the story slightly different as in the original play.

Extra scenes are included in the film to deepen the nature of the play in either humorous or dramatic manner. An example of this can be found at the very beginning in the opening scene, when Algy is running away from loan sharks. This makes the viewer feel as if they are watching an action film rather than a casual comedy (Parker,

00:00:45-00:01:18). A similar addition was also made for Jack, as he is shown investigating his origin (00:29:30-00:29:40; 00:42:50-00:43:10).

Another example of extra scenes are the ones that represent Cecily’s daydreaming. Cecily is dreaming of her love that she has not yet met, is presented by an image of a “knight in the shining armour” riding in the very first scene with Cecily

(00:09:38-00:09:42) and later again, in a more humorous manner, when she imagines that is bound to a tree and her fictitious knight is saving her (00:19:22-00:19:34). Lastly, a scene with a knight in armour repeats, but this time we know that it is Algernon, lying in Cecily’s lap (00:53:10-00:53:28).

Cecily was already a daydreamer in the original play, as she invented the love story between her and Algernon before it happened. The extra scenes that actually show her daydreaming emphasize this character trait relaying without using any words, a technique that profits from this cinematic medium. It also suits is a means of additional humorous element.

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Last scene that will be mentioned here is the first meeting of Jack and Algernon.

The first time they see each other in a public place similar to theatre, not Algernon’s home as it is in the place (00:04:00-00:05:45). A slight connection between Asquith’s and Parker’s adaptation can be seen here, as both place the opening scene elsewhere (In

Asquith’s case, it was Jack’s home in London).

All the extra scenes are usually added to add extra humour to the story, however, because of this; there is less space for presentation of lines of the original play. In

Parker’s adaptation, the lines were altered much more than in the previous one, many of them simplified to fit the light mood of a comedy. However, it’s questionable if this move did not degrade a high comedy created by Oscar Wilde to a regular one.

Musically, this adaptation is also much closer to a regular film than the previous one, as majority of scenes are accompanied by musical background, and in cases where

Asquith’s adaptation used music to dramatize the moment, this film used camera.

A good example of this is, again, the moment when Lady Bracknell questions

Jack about his eligibility to become Gwendolen’s husband (00:22:40-00:28:20). During this scene, the camera is moving when Lady Bracknell is talking, perhaps to depict the crushingly slow passing of time as seen by Jack at that moment. However, the camera stops moving when a question is asked and Jack is unsure about Lady Bracknell’s reaction, to symbolize the feeling of a time that stopped. This is a technique that perfectly underlines the moment, something that cannot be seen in Asquith’s adaptation, which is understandable, as his adaptation is much older.

The Costumes are very rich and detailed, again especially in case of Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell and their outstanding hats, as can be seen in their first scene on the screen, for example 00:11:05-00:11:35.

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As the scenery in this film is often changing, it serves well to portray the

Victorian era. An extra scene added that was not in the original play is Lady Bracknell’s house, where Lady Bracknell questions Jack. Upon his arrival, the viewer is presented with a depiction of great, rich mansion with many servants. The setting of the questioning is also very expressive; during which it looks as if Lady Bracknell was sitting on a throne (00:21:50-00:28:20). This entire setting serves the emphasize Lady

Bracknell’s social status as the aristocrat, an almost palpable difference between her and

Jack.

Unfortunately, the characters in this adaptation are not using strange and comical voice pitches to exaggerate mocking of the Victorian society as was presented in

Asquith. However, as was stated before, it makes use of the additional scenes to do that.

An example is when Jack is trying to find any information that could give him a clue about his origin. As he reads the newspaper, the screen presents the viewer with a section titled “Missing persons”, one part of which states that a “Lost. A beloved

Pekinese dog… A reward of four guineas is offered” (00:29:39). This is mocking

Victorian standards, where a lost dog is as important as a lost person.

This is further supported by lines kept from the original play, again the scene where Gwendolen asks for no sugar in her tea, as it is not fashionable (01:00:10-

01:00:15). Despite some of the lines that address this subject missing, such as when

Cecily tells Gwendolen that “this is no time to wear the shallow mask of manners”

(Wilde 103), the ridiculous image of Victorian society remained, although it is shown differently.

The women in this film seem to be less confident and dominant as they are in the original play or Asquith’s adaptation.

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For instance, in the scene where Jack confesses his love to Gwendolen, she is speaking much more than him, as in original play, however, she does not seem to have a complete power over the situation. Although, when it comes to action, she seems to regain this power, as she is the one who initiates a kiss multiple times (00:14:45-

00:17:25). Afterwards, when they are interrupted by Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen holds

Jack in place, although she seems to be unsure and embarrassed, as opposed to

Gwendolen in Asquith’s adaptation who was in the same situation completely calm.

Additionally, when Gwendolen is leaving, she and Jack do not blow kisses to one another as they originally do, because they are both too shaken by the how the situation is evolving (00:17:25-00:18:15). This portrays her somehow weaker than her original counterpart. In contrary to this, Gwendolen in the preceding adaptation does not hesitate to blow a kiss to Jack in the same situation (Asquith, 00:20:15-00:20:35). Yet, later when Jack arrives to Lady Bracknell’s house, Gwendolen calls on him from around the corner and blows him a kiss when no one sees (Parker, 00:22:15-00:22:18). This could mean that she is dominant and confident, although these traits are only revealed when she is alone with Jack.

Last moment to be mentioned is the one when Jack and Algy are collecting flowers for the ladies in the forest, who are still angry at them for lying about their identity. Gwendolen and Cecily suddenly appear, riding horses, and smudge the two unfortunate men and laugh at them, an act of superiority of the two women and an utter humiliation for the men (01:05:35-01:05:52). This contradicts the fact that women are portrayed weaker, again supported by an extra scene. It seems that the women act strong when they have a special motive for that, such as anger, or they are so when they are alone with their men, yet it does not seem to be their overall characteristic trait.The men themselves seem to agree with the women and fulfil their wishes. Although, they often

41 do not seem to be submissive to the women, as opposed to Asquith’s version, they seem to be on the same level in communication and relationship.

In this adaptation, Algernon seems to be better portrayed as a fashionable, vain dandy than he is in Asquith’s version. A support to this offers the scene at 00:39:15-

00:39:40, when Jack is informed, that Algernon wishes to stay at his estate in the country. Here, it is described in detail that Algernon carries as much luggage as a woman, if not more: “Two portmanteaus, two dressing cases, two hat boxes and a large luncheon box”.

The relationship between Jack and Algernon in this film is portrayed solely as a playful and brotherly, with no hidden meaning. Even the example mentioned in the previous adaptation, where Algy states that he “never allowed his duty as a gentlemen to interfere with his pleasures to any degrees” (Asquith, 00:46:27) is completely omitted and replaced with a humours scene where Jack is trying to choke Algernon (Parker,

00:40:30).

To summarize, the second adaptation analysed is very different from the first one, as it is altered in many ways, primarily in the number of scenes and lines used, the use of music in the background, etc. The speech was often simplified and humorous remarks were replaced by humorous scenes. Because of this, the speech was not in the foreground as was the case in the original play. The witty dialogues were secondary to the action happening on the screen, the focus was more on the storyline.

As to the themes, the absurd portrayal of Victorian society is altered and told in a slightly different manner, yet is still delivers the same message. The women of the play seem to be confident and dominant as in the original play when they talk to their significant other, yet, outside of their relationships they do not display much superiority.

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The men seem to be less submissive as in Asquith’s adaptation. Except for Algernon’s abundance of luggage, the men do not seem to carry any distinctively feminine traits, and the interaction between them is nothing more than friendship.

Although this adaptation is a good comedy, it is presented differently as the original play. Apart from the story, the viewer may miss the additional qualities of the play.

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Conclusion

The aim of this thesis was to analyse Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being

Earnest from the point of manners, gender, and sexuality and then compare it to two of its film adaptations by Anthony Asquith and Oliver Parker, to see if the film adaptations portrayed the play in a different manner.

The first chapter focuses on life of the author, Oscar Wilde. Firstly it offers information about the early years in his life and the influence of his teachers and professors. It also provides information about his one-year stay in American and information about his first works. Afterwards, it provides information about his major works created between the years 1888 to 1895, with short analysis to some of them.

Finally, it provides information about his persecution, imprisonment, and final years of his life. This information enables the reader to better understand his work, as an example can serve the importance of speech and beauty portrayed in Earnest, as well as hints on homosexuality.

The second chapter analyses the play itself, primarily with the help Camille

Paglia’s Sexual Personae. This work emphasizes the importance of manners and beauty in the play, and proposes the existence of the “Androgyne of Manners”. Each gender is analysed with the conclusion, that women carry some masculine traits, while the men in the play carry some feminine traits. With men, it goes to the extent where one may doubt their sexuality with a conclusion that they may be homosexual.

The third chapter focuses on the introduction to the film theory. When judging an adaptation of any kind, it is important to keep in mind that the adaptation is a new work of art, and it should not be judged merely as a secondary, worst version of the original

44 source. The second part of this chapter focuses more specifically the different elements that play a role when a literary work is transferred into a cinematic one.

Based on this information provided in the first three chapters, the final chapter analyses the two film adaptations by Anthony Asquith and Oliver Parker. With the help of chapter of three and the film theory it compares each film to the original play. Then, based on the second chapter it compares each film to the play again, with the focus on manners, gender, and sexuality.

The final conclusion is that two films are very different in how they portray the play. The first film by Anthony Asquith, is very faithful to the original source, it kept most of the lines and scenes unchanged, even though slight changes were made. The portrayal of manners and genders is very similar to the one in the original play, with a small exception to the sexuality of the men, although there is still a hint of chemistry between them. A viewer of this film may perceive it almost the same as a reader can perceive the original play.

The second film is more modern and in order to stay faithful to filmography, it was more altered and carries less signs of a play. Many scenes and lines very added, edited, or completely omitted. The storyline remains the same, however the purpose of this work changes. A viewer would sooner admire the storyline than the wording of the character’s speech, which is in the case more in the background. The portrayal of

Victorian manners is very similar to that of the original play, although slightly altered.

The portrayal of men and women is different; as women are dominant only in their private sphere and men are not as inferior as in the play. The relationship between the two men is downgraded to solely friendly. Because of this, a viewer of this adaptation perceives it differently as a reader would perceive the original play.

45

WORKS CITED

PRIMARY SOURCES

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. The Plays of Oscar Wilde. London:

Harper Press, 2011. Print.

The Importance of Being Earnest. Dir. Anthony Asquith. Perf. Michael Redgrave,

Michael Denison, Edith Evans, and Joan Greenwood. The Rank Organisation,

1952. Film.

The Importance of Being Earnest. Dir. Oliver Parker. Perf. Rupert Everett, Colin Firth,

Frances O’Connor, Reese Witherspoon, and Judi Dench. Miramax Films, 2002.

Film.

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gay-bisexual-men-receive-posthumous/ . Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

Ackroyd, Peter. The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. Penguin Books, 1993. Print.

Bristow, Joseph. "Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)." The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis

Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2010. Web.

http://1890s.ca/HTML.aspx?s=wilde_bio.html. Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. New York: Vintage Books, 1988. Print.

Foster, E.M. Howard’s End. London: Edward Arnold, 1910. Print.

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Harris, Frank. Oscar Wilde: His Life, Confessions and Confessions. Harvard: University

of Harvard, 1916. Print.

Hutcheon, Linda. “From Page to Stage to Screen: The Age of Adaptation”. Great Minds

at the University of Toronto: The University Professor Lecture Series, 2002-2003,

edited by Michael Goldberg, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto,

2003, pp. 38-52. Print.

Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.

Print.

Lezard, Nicholas. “The Portrait of Mr W.H”. The Guardian. 29 March, 2003. Web.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/29/classics.oscarwilde. Accessed

10 Nov, 2017.

McCann, Kate. “Turing's Law: Oscar Wilde among 50,000 convicted gay men granted

posthumous pardons”. The Telegraph. Jan 31, 2017. Web.

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gay-bisexual-men-receive-posthumous/. Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

McFarlane, Brian. Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1996. Print.

Milier, Jonathan. Subsequent performances. London: Faber and Faber, 1986. Print.

Nigoević, Magdalena and Perišić, Katarina. “Who’s the Bigger (Wo)Man in Oscar

Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest?” Linguistics and Literature. Pp. 125-

32. Web. http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal201202/lal201202-07.pdf. Accessed 10

Nov, 2017.

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“Oliver Parker.” Imbd. Web. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0662529/bio. Accessed 10

Nov, 2017.

Parton, Coventry Kersey Dighton. Angel in the House. London: Cassell & co., 1891.

Print.

Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily

Dickinson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. Print.

Ryall, Tom. Anthony Asquith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.

Shepperson, A. and Tomaselli, K.: Semiotics in an Africal Context: "Science" vs.

"priest-craft" - "semiology" vs. "semiotics". Acta Semiotica Fennica II: On the

Borderlines of Semiosis, edited by E. Tarasti. Imatra: International Semiotics

Institute, 1993. Print.

Smith, John Harrington. “Oscar Wilde's "Earnest" in Film”. The Quarterly of Film

Radio and Television, vol. 8, no. 1, 1953, pp. 72–79. Web. JSTOR, JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/1209913. Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

Stam, Robert. Paraphrase of “Dialogics of Adaptation” in “From Page to Stage to

Screen: The Age of Adaptation” by Linda Hutcheon. Great Minds at the

University of Toronto: The University Professor Lecture Series, 2002-2003,

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2003, pp. 38-52. Print.

W.,A. “Oscar Wilde Contributes to Film Fare.” The New York Times. 23 Dec, 1952.

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678389649EDE. Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

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Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1908. Print.

--. Salome. Branden Books, 1989. Print.

Zelter, Joachim. „Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish“. Standing in their shifts

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Importance-of-Being-Irish.pdf. Accessed 10 Nov, 2017.

49

Resumé (English)

This bachelor thesis is dealing with the play The Importance of Being Earnest by

Oscar Wilde and provides a comparative analysis of the play with two of its film

adaptations. The two film adaptations in question are an adaptation from 1952 by

Anthony Asquith and an adaptation from 2002 by Oliver Parker, both of which share

name with the original play. The main research question is, whether a book to film

transition means only a difference in its medium, or whether it can also mean a shift

in portrayal which may lead the audience to a different conclusion. The goal of this

thesis is to compare the literary work to the two films and analyse the differences.

The focus is mainly on the portrayal of gender and sexuality in these works, to see

whether there significant differences in the portrayal that could mean a twist in

perception. It is divided into four chapters. The first chapter presents a detailed

information on the life of Oscar Wilde, as his works often resemble it and various

similarities can be found between them. It provides information about his early life,

works, as well as about his relationship with Douglas and subsequent custody. The

next chapter analyses the play itself from the point of manners, gender, and sexuality,

as all of these aspects are closely intertwined. It provides evidence about these

elements in the play and also serves as a guide for the analysis of the films in Chapter

4. The third chapter offers an introduction to the film theory, to give the reader a

better idea how to judge the film adaptations. Its aim is to emphasize, that an

adaptation should be considered another piece of art, not only a mere copy of the

original literary work. Finally, the last chapter an analysis of the two film adaptations

is provided: first both films are compared to the play in a general manner and then

they are both analysed from the view of manners, gender, and sexuality.

50

Resumé (Czech)

Tahle bakalářská práce se zabývá hrou Oscara Wilda, Jak je důležité míti Filipa a

následně poskytuje komparativní analýzu této hry a jejích dvou filmových adaptací.

Filmové adaptace vzaté v potaz jsou adaptace Anthonyho Asquitha z roku 1952 a

adaptace Olivera Parkera z roku 2002, přičemž obě sdílejí jméno s původní hrou.

Hlavní otázka, kterou se tato práce zabývá, je, zdali je přechod od knihy k filmu

rozdílný jenom v použitém médiu, nebo jestli taky dochází k rozdílu v zobrazení díla,

který pak může vést publikum k utvoření si jinému závěru z díla. Cílem této práce je

porovnat původní literární dílo s již zmíněnými adaptacemi a analyzovat rozdíly

mezi nimi. Pozornost je věnovaná především zobrazení pohlaví a sexuality v těchto

dílech. Účelem je zjistit, jestli se v jejich zobrazení nacházejí jisté signifikantní

rozdíly, které by znamenaly rozdíl ve vnímání těchto elementů. Tato práce se skládá

ze čtyř kapitol. První kapitola se do detailu zabývá životem Oscara Wilda, jelikož

jeho díla často do určité míry odrážejí jeho život a mohou se mezi nimi najít různé

podobnosti. Poskytuje tedy informace jak o jeho mládí a jednotlivých dílech, tak o

jeho vztahu s Douglasem a následným uvězněním. Následující kapitola analyzuje

samotnou hru z pohledu způsobů, pohlaví a sexuality, jelikož všechny tyto aspekty

jsou úzce provázány. Je v ní dokázána prezence těchto elementů ve Filipovi a rovněž

slouží jako návod pro analýzu filmů ve čtvrté kapitole. Třetí kapitola poskytuje úvod

do filmové teorie, čímž umožní čitateli lépe posoudit filmové adaptace. Cílem je

zdůraznit, že adaptace by měla byt souzena jako nové dílo a ne pouze jako kopie díla

původního. Poslední kapitola na závěr analyzuje už zmíněné adaptace této hry:

nejprve jsou analyzovány všeobecně a následně z hlediska způsobů, pohlaví a

sexuality.

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