Bunburying

Having finished Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays I was struck by a peculiar thought (well several actually, but who's counting?) ...

~Am I some one's Bunbury?. What if?

~Isn't blogging just a modern form of Bunburying? I mean some of us are making personas who are quite different from our real life personalities.

~How many of the people I know are Bunburys or are Bunburyists (Bunburiers?)? You could be one right now... and does it make a difference?

Salome - It's been several years since I've read the New Testament, but I'm pretty sure that Salome doesn't kiss John's severed head. The play does make Salome's character more fleshed out, if monstrous. In one hand I thought that she was acting out of rejection and then spite, on the other I have to consider that she was acting very much like a child... not knowing the consequence of her actions nor comprehending the permanence of Death.

Lady Windermere's Fan - utterly unpredictable. In the end, I think Mrs. Erlynne the better of the two main female characters. Being willing to suffer humiliation and the frustration of her plans in order to save her (unknowing) daughter from a mistake, I think, is a more innately "good act" than faithfulness, constancy, and saving social face. I wonder if that form of social tallying still exists today... do people still really judge you on who you know and the society you keep?

The Importance of Being Earnest - In a word - charming. Right from the start, you can foresee the difficulties that the setup will engender. And that's without the meddling of Algernon. Because of Algy's meddling and his views the story becomes completely delightful.
~ "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his"
~" One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them"
Had me quietly chuckling. I suspect that he has met his match with Cecily, though.

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