Thursday, August 16, 2012

Algernon Moncrieff on The Importance of Being Earnest


Digital Art / Drawings / Illustrations / 
Conceptual ©2012 ~mbeau.com
Algernon is the most complex character in this play. In a way he shared a similarity to his friend Jack Worthing (in creating an imaginary character to hide himself in), however for the rest, he was completely different to Jack. Algernon was a dandy young man—who I think was similar to Oscar Wilde himself (and I can’t think but to see Wilde’s presence in Algy!). Jack described him as ‘over-dressed’ and ‘always feels hungry’. Algernon’s passion in food was ridiculous in this play, that he could eat all cucumber sandwiches that were supposed to be served for his aunt, and had to tell lie to his aunt that there have been no cucumbers available in the market! And the scene of him had a fight for muffins with Jack…oh..that was so….funny!!

Algernon was a selfish, indifferent, immoral and cynical man. Like Jack, he too had an imaginary character called Bunbury, which he used every time he needed to avoid some events he disliked. However, unlike Jack, Algernon was so irresponsible and indifferent, that he stole Ernest’s (second identity of Jack) identity for his own interest, without slightest care to what that would have affected Jack. Algernon was also snob, his vanity of fashion and education was perhaps the perfect picture of Victorian society at that time (Wilde’s critics?).

What made him more similar to Wilde (which I also found in The Picture of Dorian Gray’s Lord Henry) was the nonsense and paradoxes he often said along the play.

“You never talk anything but nonsense.” ~Jack.



Other similarity with Wilde’s other work, Algernon was immoral and has unromantic and cynical (sometimes rather absurd) idea about love, relationship and (especially) marriage.

“Algy, you always adopt a strictly immoral attitude towards life.” ~Gwendolen.

“It is very romantic to be in love, but there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. The very essence of romance is uncertainty” ~Algernon

In short, Algernon was a man who was never serious, funny yes, but irresponsible and very selfish. Algernon lived for the pleasures, not for life itself; a kind of character I hate the most!


10 comments:

  1. I just finished reading & watching The Importance of Being Earnest. I felt the same way, that flashes of Oscar Wilde peeked through Algernon.

    Yes! The muffins scene is comical! And the part when Bunbury 'dies' always makes me chuckle.

    "The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live...-- so Bunbury died."
    "He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians."

    I also think Lady Bracknell had a sneaking suspicion that Bunbury wasn't real.

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    1. Agree, Lady Bracknell seemed to suspect something from Bunbury...

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  2. A selfish, indifferent, immoral and cynical man <-- lengkap banget nyebelinnya -___-

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    1. Yup! Tapi tanpa tokoh kayak gini, Importance akan jadi kurang 'berwarna'

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  3. Baru mau baca Mbak bukunya,walau menyebalkan tapi keliatannya konyol ya :p

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    1. Yup, tanpa Algernon, kamu gak bakal tergelak2 bacanya.. :))

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  4. Love the muffin scene! :))
    Do you think he's serious about Cecily?

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    1. He's serious to win Cecily's heart yes, but I think he will get bored of her very soon after their marriage. Like you don't know that Wilde! :P

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  5. Oh, but I love Algy - he's one of my favourite Wildean creations. Yes, he does embody all the negative traits you mentioned, but he's also so damn lovable and it's so easy to forgive him. And I think Rupert Everett is perfect in the role.

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    1. Oh yes, Algy is that kind of characters who we supposed to hate but love instead. And without Algy, Importance wouldn't have been quite interesting...

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