Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s humour in the play The Importance of Being Earnest is overall very witty and brought up in a “smartass” fashion. To me the character that plays the part of Algernon appears to be the wittiest character in the play, followed by Jack. To play the part of Algernon, you have to be a very high class character, have an enormous ego, and be clever.
Algernon from the start displays very high intelligence by outsmarting Jack when they talk about the double-character business. He’s always right on top of his game and seems to be one step ahead of the opposition. The tone in which he would talk would be slowly and very obnoxious in the sense that if he commented on anything you said at all, you would already know he was going to be a smartass. I can picture Algernon to be a fancy, rich character that is very luxurious.
The one person I picture right away to be comparable to Algernon is Michael Cane in the movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”. Michael Cane and Steve Martin in this movie bet for a woman’s money. Whoever steals all her money first, wins. Cane as his character is a high class, luxurious living person who will never show frustration, only appreciation for a challenge, just like Algernon. They have too much pride in their own being that they are almost ignorant of what is actually happening.
The personality for the person playing the part of Algernon should be a very polite, intelligent, and extraordinarily proper man. He will make no social mistake and will always make sure he’s being polite but is able to let people know they are inferior to him. He does show his ego by constantly outsmarting others and being proud of his “victories”.