'The Importance Of Being Ernest'

In The Importance of Being Earnest, to be “Earnest” is to be “honest, and “truthful”. Which was what the protagonist and main character Jack Worthing used to slip away from responsibilities he had to face. Oscar Wilde used the name earnest but the characters act completely different from it. It's a pun on the word earnest, when the title is the importance of being earnest but they do the opposite. Such as lying, being hypocritical, etc. They generally agree that it’s important to be earnestness but they completely represent the opposite of it.
Jack played the …show more content…
Although being earnest is being truthful Jack however was the total opposite. In the play, Jack had responsibilities and duties that he needed to take care of, however Earnest didn’t. All he knew how to do was get into trouble. Taking responsibilities can be defined as the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone. A person who has many responsibilities can be someone for example, a principle, captain of some sort, anyone who has qualities to lead or discipline while being in charge. As stated earlier Gwendolen was in love with Jack who she knew as Earnest. Readers may ask, “If Gwendolen knew Earnest as Jack would she still have the same feelings as him”? In life today, some people tend to act like someone they’re not to perhaps, fit in, get people to like them, even make themselves feel better or …show more content…
The moralism of Victorian society—its self-satisfied and self-importance—impels Algernon and Jack to invent fictitious alter egos so as to be able to escape the strictures of propriety and decency. Gwendolen wants to marry a man called Ernest, not caring if the man actually possesses the qualities that define earnestness. Not to mention she was quick to forgive Jack’s deception. In embodying a man who is initially neither “earnest” nor “Ernest,” and also forces beyond his control, he eventually becomes both “earnest” and “Ernest,” Jack is a living paradox and a complex symbol of Victorian hypocrisy. The double life is the central metaphor in the play, embodying in the notion of “Bunbury” or “Bunburying.” As defined by Algernon, Bunburying is the practice of creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility. Jack’s imaginary, brother Ernest is a device not only for escaping social and moral