Alternate Reality In The Importance Of Being Ernest

Jack Worthing lived a double life where his alter ego was Ernest Worthing. This alter identity lived in the city and acted as a gentleman to impress a young lady named Gwendolen. Jack’s true identity resided in the country caring for Cecily. Cecily believed that Ernest was Jack’s troubled brother, therefore it was comprehensible that Jack would leave the country suddenly to go to the city to visit his brother. Jack’s double life had remained secret until Algernon discovered a cigarette case with Jack’s name on it, forcing Jack to reveal that his name is “Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to [him] in the country” (Wilde 12). The alter identity developed by Jack was merely a dream. The dreamer archetype allows dreamers to

Jack illustrates the purpose of deception by using Earnest to escape his role of Cecily’s warden. When Algernon finds Jack’s cigarette case, he is shocked to find the name Jack graven inside. Jack attempts to explain by saying, “[M]y name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country” (Wilde Act I). As Jack, he has to be a responsible adult and take care of his niece Cecily but as Ernest he is able to live the wild life of a young bachelor. By pretending to be Ernest in town, Jack is freed from the restrictions of being a caretaker, yet he still fulfills the duties of one as he resides in the country. While explaining why he has two identities to Algernon, Jack states that being a guardian does not “conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness” (Wilde Act I). Jack has to take care of Cecily, be responsible for her, and set rules and guidelines for her to follow. In his role of guardian, he finds himself unable to have fun, so he creates an irresponsible, carefree

Algernon is demonstrated as a comical character. He is also shown to be a liar and this is seen when he tells Lady Bracknell that there were “no cucumbers in the market” to make the cucumber sandwiches; when he ate them all. He is also very open with women and engages is physical contact before permission from Cecily’s guardian, Jack. Algernon also meets Cecily in a wrong manner as he runs off to Jack’s country house uninvited; which isn’t reflective of an Ideal Victorian man at all.

Jack is more conservative when it comes to his lifestyle in the country. He does not want a boring life that’s only meant for business so he makes up a fake brother named Ernest. This leads him to live a double-life because he goes by the name Ernest when

In order to pay off his debts Algeron came up with the elaborate scheme, that he believed he could get away with. One afternoon, Mr. Moncrieff showed up at his friend Jack Worthing’s residence pretending to be his brother calling himself, Ernest Worthing. Algernon was only doing it for the money. He knew Mr. Worthing had a young, 18 year old, ward in his care.

In the Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde creates two completely different identities for two of the main characters, in two entirely different settings. One of the settings takes place in a town in England and the other takes place in Hertfordshire, in the country. I believe that Wilde purposely did that to reflect on the characters that he wanted to portray. When Jack Worthing is in the country, where he resides, he is a well-respected, wealthy man that a lot of depend on. He is a major landowner and Justice of the Peace in Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate. He received his good fortune and respectability from his adopted father. Coming from this, he must know the rules and behaviors of polite society. He is extremely witty

The main character of Wilde's story, Jack Worthing creates an elaborate deceit in which he invents a brother in the city but also reinvents his entire self. He created his fake brother to get away from the country and go live a more exciting life in the city. However, his deceitfulness leads to him being completly honest with himself, and finding a true love. Something genuine. There one would see the dichotomy in Jack, or as he's known in the city, Ernest.

Gwendolyn and Cecily act as friends until they learn that they are supposedly engaged to the same person. Then they learn neither of them are engaged to anybody named Ernest, and are friends again. In act three, we discover Jacks history, including that he is Algernon's elder brother. In the end, despite several lies, arguments, and much turmoil, everybody gets married.

Jack: “If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly won’t want to know Bunbury” – This shows that Jack does want to settle down and is very much in love with Gwendolen. He feels that if he has her in his life, he will no longer need to escape out of where he lives to have fun and be wilder, as he won’t want that anymore.

One thing that Jack and Algernon have in common is that they both have these false faces. Algernon’s alter ego Bunbury is a version of himself used in the country but he uses Ernest to marry Cecily. The story deals with Ernest, this immorally imaginary man that both Cecily and Gwendolyn become engaged to, it exemplifies the irony within the name. Most of the irony comes from this character. One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Gwendolyn said “No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces

insinuates the importance of being honest and truthful, while playing on the male name, Ernest. The pun in the title is a case in point. The earnest/Ernest joke strikes at the very heart of Victorian notions of respectability and duty. Gwendolen wants to marry a man called Ernest, and she doesn’t care whether the man actually possesses the qualities that comprise earnestness. She is, after all, quick to forgive Jack’s deception. In embodying a man who is initially neither

Jack illustrates the purpose of deception by using Earnest to escape his role of warden to Cecily. When Algernon finds Jack’s cigarette case, he is shocked to find the name Jack graven inside. Jack attempts to explain by saying, “[M]y name is Ernest

By stating that he did not know anyone by the name of Cecily, Jack initiates his own debacle. He has to clarify that Cecily is actual his ward. Nonetheless, Jack bears no anguish to dissembling to his closest companion. Jack’s morality has been impaired by his lies and it implies that his animalistic qualities control him. Yet, he falls in love and he must tell Gwendolen, his sweetheart, of his morally wrong character. In order to do so Jack has to disclose that Ernest was not in fact his real name but a mere alias created to cover up his dastardly ways. He can think of no other way than to “kill” his brother. Wilde shows how Jack’s urbane nature begins to be marred by his animalism since he was willing to kill a man, fictional or not. Ensuing in the play Jack is speaking with Algernon and he begins to ponder on how to commit the murder. He states “My poor brother Ernest is carried off suddenly in Paris, by a severe chill. That gets rid of him” (Wilde 16). Though fictional, Jack’s murder of Ernest still seems to carry the same implications further into the book. This murder eventually skews his reputation once his lies become known. Wilde proves how Jack’s lies soon catch up to him and flaw his esteemed moral persona. Later in the play Algernon sets off on a trip to Jack’s country estate and claims he is Ernest Worthing. Later when Jack arrives Cecily informs her caretaker that his brother Ernest is in his room. Jack replies

Jack and Algernon start their friendship with deception and lies. In the beginning of the play, they are alone in the morning-room and the lies, between the two friends, is are brought to the table. They have both been great friends for some time now. Jack visits with Algernon in the city where he goes by the name “Ernest”. He feels that going by a different name will let him live and experience a different lifestyle. When visiting with Algernon, Jack has become very interested in Gwendolen. Jack is expressing his love for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen, and tells how he wishes to marry her. Before Algernon gives his consent, he wants to know who Cecily is. Cecily is the name engraved on the cigarette

The relationship between philosophy and the city of Athens would be characterized as a relationship between a parent and adolescent. Philosophy, the love of wisdom, questions and teaches ideas that have been contemplated humankind over the years. Philosophy is the parent, teaching and allowing the adolescent to learn themselves. The city is viewed as an adolescent that has not yet learned the greater meaning of humankind and is being questioned on their knowledge of their world. As the city of Athens cares solely for personal gain and their wealth to create a prosperous life; philosophy is on the quest to share and question the city’s wisdom. Through a dialectical method, the parent and the adolescent can begin an argument through rationality