How Does Oscar Wilde Create Tension In The Importance Of Being Earnest

Imagine a play in which characters develop soloy through direct narration to the audience. It would be impossible to have full or complex characters or hold the audience's attention, let alone spark their interest. There are many aspects a playwright must take into consideration when creating a play that will gives the audience a strong theatrical experience, the interaction between characters being one of the most important. Watching a character develop in a number of different situations holds the audience’s attention and helps them connect with the character, making them more involved, and in turn increasing the involvement with the play and theatrical experience. The enhancement of the theatrical experience in Oscar Wilde's The Importance

Highlighting differences between the characters allows the audience to combine what they have learned about each of the individuals to quickly gain to insight into the characters, making this technique one of the best ways to show development. When it is introduced that Jack and Algernon have created an imaginary person, whom they can visit when they desire leave home without questions from family, the audience can compare Jacks and Algernon’s reasons for using this excuse. Jack created an imaginary brother, whom he pretends to visit when he plans to do something that would set a bad example for his ward, because, according to him, “when one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects.” (I) Comparatively, Algernon created a invalid called Bunbury that gets terribly sick whenever Algernon has an appointment he does not wish to attend, allowing him to miss the appointment by pretending to visit his sick friend. From this situation, the audience could easily form new opinions on each character. Rounded, complex characters are developed when the audience is given opportunities to understand the characters through motive comparisons, like this one, in turn enhancing the audience's theatrical

Like any play, or even real life, the characters in The Importance of being Earnest do not directly say what they are thinking, however, what is lost through verbal language is made up through, body language and emotion. Subtext play a major role in making the characters in the play believable to the audience, and in turn develops a fuller, more realistic character. Subtext is present in all lines of the play but, usually do not appear obvious; one of the few times the subtext is stated in the dialogue is when a character is thinking out loud. When Algernon discovers that Cecily will not marry him unless he is called Earnest, he decides he needs to secretly get rechristened. Algernon does not plan to tell Cecily the real reason he needs to visit the Rector, but instead accidentally tells her that he “must see him [the Rector] at once on a most important christening.” (II) In this example, the audience is shown subtext when Algernon says what he was thinking before correcting