Just a couple weeks ago, I finally got around to playing the copy of Marvel's Spider-Man that I had laying around. Zowie, it's so good. Also around the same time, my aesthetics and history of cinematic arts class got the assignment requirements for the final paper of the class. We'd have to look at scene(s) from a movie that'd impacted us, and use the knowledge we gained in class to examine it.
I was initially headstrong to write about The Land Before Time. In fact, I still want to write about it in some capacity. Goodness knows I haven't posted anything on Academia since I got the account in the first place. However, I was dissuaded against doing so. Not by my Mother, who seemed to have some kind of vendetta against it in favor of Jurassic Park.
I won't go into the stuff that my paper cover about the different shots in the scene, or the elements of cinema they use, etc... because I realized something else while going through the scene selection to rewatch my chosen scene. (I wanted to refresh my memory a bit, and maybe find a few new things to discuss.)
I remembered one of the lines that I'd repeat from the movie was from the scene in which Mary-Jane is caught off-guard by the presence of a Mr. Peter Parker. "I am glad" or something to that effect. The play in question is The Importance of Being Earnest. When I first saw the movie, I'd never seen or read the play before. I just knew that MJ was in some kind of play that Peter missed the first time.
It was only when I was reminded of its presence in the movie now that I could start connecting some points. I have, since then, read it as a class assignment for two classes at two different colleges, and watched a filmed version of it for the later class. It was interesting to watch because it featured Paul McGann as one of the title Earnests. In fact, it was rather amusing to watch, rather than read, because the subtext became clearer.
But that's all getting off track.
One key concept that I will take away from Aesthetics and History of the Cinematic Arts is the idea that nothing on the screen happens by accident. Similar to a "Chekhov's Gun," if something's on-screen, then it's there for a reason. Or, in this case, if Wilde's long form pun is in a movie, then it's there for a reason.
(Since this is a plot/story point, I probably wouldn'tve been able to discuss it in my final paper. But I can here!)
Why is The Importance of Being Earnest featured as MJ's starring play? To answer this, let's take a look at the play itself for a bit. Earnest is a comedy of manners written by Oscar Wilde sometime in 1895. In it, spoiled people stand around and talk about themselves, and there's a "long-lost brother" plot-line somewhere in there.
OK, maybe that's a bit of a reduction.
Two central ideas are that of identity and deception. Who IS Ernest? He leads a double life - Ernest in town to his friends and relations, but Jack to his ward and acquaintances in the country. Similarly, his friend Algernon also leads a double life, and is prompted to further deceive Jack/Earnest's ward by making an unwelcome appearance as "brother Ernest," Jack's supposed relation. By the end of the play, the reversal is again reversed, as Ernest is found to have actually been Ernest the whole time.
The Importance of Being Earnest makes two significant appearances in the movie. First, when Peter is still struggling with his double life as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and he is the "empty seat" to which MJ sadly looks. At this point in the play, Cecily (here played by MJ) discusses with Gwendolen whether or not Jack-Ernest and Algernon-Ernest should be forgiven for deceiving them as they had. Our last glimpse of the play ends with Cecily's reply to the question "Then you think we should forgive them?" - "Yes. I mean no." A bit of indecision reflecting MJ's own struggle with her relationship with Peter.
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| I am glad |
We see Earnest for a second time after Peter has hung up his mantel, becoming "Spider-Man no more." In fact, MJ is caught off-guard by his presence and misses her cue. This scene is earlier in the play than the previous excerpt. Here, Cecily is meeting Algernon aka "Ernest" for the first time. Because of what she's heard about him, she chided him and wishing "I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy."
Whose "double life," though? (Besides the characters in the play itself, I mean) True, the obvious answer would be to point to Peter Parker and his role as the masked vigilante Spider-Man. However, it would be just as easy to point to MJ herself. She's engaged to be married to J. Jonah Jameson's Son, The Astronaut, but she still harbors a deep connection to both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. In effect, she is the collectively imagined Ernest - simultaneously set to be involved with two people.
Wowie!
Back in 2004-2014, I would have never thought or known about the play, let alone the relevance it had as a plot point in the movie. I feel like I could connect the two better with a more concerted study of the film and play. For now, I think I'll leave it there.
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Screencaps from Marvel's Spider-Man camera mode and movie-screencaps.com/spider-man-2-2004
