The Importance Of Being Earnest Humour Essay

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The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedic play, bringing humor to readers through sarcastic and witty words, ironic situations, and foolish ideals. Jack, best friend of Algernon, guardian to Cecily, and respected man of Hertfordshire, is surrounded by humorous situations and people. Jack himself creates a comical situation through his scapegoat, Ernest, who has a lady in love with him. Oscar Wilde fabricated the classic and very humorous play, The Importance of Being Earnest, through cucumber sandwiches and an engagement, a man with a double life, and a naive girl who has fallen in love with an imaginary man.
At the very beginning of the play, as he is preparing for Lady Bracknell’s visit to his home, Jack remembers the significance of having cucumber sandwiches as he entertains the snobbish lady along with his long time best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When Lady Bracknell arrives, there are no sandwiches presented. The two men, who ate the sandwiches, are consumed with worry over Lady Bracknell’s reaction to the absent sandwiches. The seemingly trivial sandwich situation takes predominance over the real problem: Lady Bracknell’s daughter, Gwendolen, and Jack’s …show more content…

However, unknown to his hometown friends, Jack lives a crazy double life through a man named Ernest from London. Jack and Gwendolen Fairfax are very much in love with each other, but Gwendolen knows Jack by his other personality, Ernest. Gwendolen’s “... ideal has always been to love someone of the name Ernest,” (Wilde 1458) so Jack is faced with a serious dilemma. Eventually Jack, who does not known his birth name because he was adopted as a baby after being found in a handbag, discovers his christened father’s name really was Ernest. The couple became engaged and the play leaves the readers with a optimistic resolution for the two after all of the humorous

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