If you could be any one...

...of Wilde's characters, who would it be and (briefly) why?

Personally I would like to be (or do) Dorian Gray. I think it would be awesome to experience 'owning' the greek-god-like beauty he had.

I would have a difficult time choosing between Lady Gertrude Chilton and Mrs. Cheveley in An Ideal Husband - the first as rigidly righteous and pure, as the second is so fluidly evil and conniving. Clearly, Wilde used the extreme opposites in their nature and behavior to epitimize the duplicity that lives within each of us.

But, after thinking about all of this from my female point of view, I decided that if I were a man I would want to be Lord Goring, He is absoutely delicious in his temperment, absurdity, quick wit and deviousness -- perhaps Wilde's testament to the coming obsolescence of the idle, yet amiable rich members of the royalty.

I would want to be Henry Wotton. I'd get to look at Dorian Gray all day and I'd have the enviable gift of gab.

Yes would have to be Henry Wotton, Lord Goring, Algernon, Mrs. Erlynne -- those characters where Wilde put in something of himself; they have all the best lines. Shudder to think you would want to be Dorian!

Hehe, there's a little wickedness in all of us. Besides it would only be a day. And being Lord Henry to watch Dorian works the other way around as well. As Dorian I could listen to the music of Henry's 'gab'.
I certainly wouldn't want to be Dorian for more than a week at any rate. :)

sorry but the price of admission to "being Dorian" is eternity!

Oh, as you wish. If that is the case then I would rather be Algernon from the Importance of Being Earnest. Algernon is one of the reasons I fell in love with Wilde.
I love how much of a dandy he is.

I would also love to be Algernon because you have to hand it to someone who comes up with an entire fictional person just to avoid some boring lunches. I'd love to use go "Bunburying" sometimes to get out of a situation.

I think my immediate answer would be Algy too! Although I think that's probably because I think of him as a kindred spirit in our reverence of muffins. And there's something very tempting in being able to eat all the cucumber sandwiches without feeling the teeniest bit of guilt... I feel a connection to Basil Hallward as well, but I wouldn't like to be him...

No, I'd be Lady Gertrude. I love her need to be perfectly good. I could do with some of her good natured, if sometimes wrong-footed, determination. :3

It has got to be Algy. He is so fun to act therefore he would no doubt be fun to be.
I was first introduced to the work of Wilde at about the age of seven when a recording of a stage version of The Importance of Being Earnest starring Ruth Cracknell as Lady Bracknell was shown on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and I have loved both the actor and author since. Inspired by Cracknell's performance (which I still watch at regular intervals:), a friend and I had a marvellous time performing the 'handbag' scene for our English class.
I thought Bracknell must be the most enjoyable character to play until I began my first unit of Theatre Studies at University. A fellow student and I were offered the chance to perform the 'muffin' scene in front of our peers and I pounced at the role of Algy. On the night of the performance, I found it amusing that in the scene Algy says: 'You can't possibly ask me to go without having some dinner, it's absurd. I never go without my dinner, no one ever does except of vegetarians and people like that.' Guess what this vegetarian didn't do when she got home? She didn't have any dinner. I would have proved him wrong only I was far too over the moon to eat (I couldn't reach from up there:).
I am usually known to be quite the opposite but that night I was in some danger of becoming Algy. For days after I was using the same facial movements and way of speaking. In preparation for the part, I had practiced eating many a muffin (perhaps a little too much) and it took quite a while to stop eating like him too. Such energy! Such exuberance! Algy's the chap to be!

I am in fact Mrs. Allonby
The manner in which she fires back at just about any answer, and her complete disregard for the illusion of the perfect Victorian woman suit me to a T

Hi Rowenya,
I'm currently a high school student in Melbourne studying Australian actors of past and present and will soon be doing a project on Ruth Cracknell. I was wondering if it were possible to see, borrow or purchase your recording of Ruth's Earnest as I can't find it anywhere else.
Thanks for your time

Her_Appleness has, in a sense, scooped me. All my friends -- that small but happy band -- know that I am Lady Bracknell. And the rest of you are showing definites signs of triviality. Come, Gwendolyn!