The Importance Of Being Ernest Dishonesty Analysis

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Recommended: Oscar Wilde's literary criticism

Everyone lies throughout their lives. As humans we can’t help it. Lies may help us to reach new opportunities or could allow us to avoid responsibilities. As human we may lie because we have realized something we could do better in a given situation that we did not do. Dishonesty is a temptation that we, as humans, cannot resist. A lie not closely monitored may become out of hand and turn into something undesired. In the satirical play The Importance Of Being Ernest, the playwright Oscar Wilde shows through irony that dishonesty if not carefully maintained, can snowball into an uncontrollable predicament.
The Importance Of Being Ernest mocks the Victorian values of being honest, to uphold responsibilities and to live life earnestly. This is …show more content…

Much like all these terrible poisons we call lies, this lie has been eating away at Miss Prism since she lost Jack. This is shown when Lady Bracknell catches sight of Prism and calls to her about the child. Many instances of irony are shown in this act such as when Lady Bracknell explains to Jack, “You are the son of my poor sister, Mrs. Moncrieff, and consequently Algernon’s elder brother.” This is ironic because after lying so long about Ernest being his brother he is told that Algernon is in fact his younger brother. This later becomes more ironic when Jack asks for his Christian name and after searching through army records they find his Christian name to be Ernest just as he has been saying through the whole play. Irony is wrapped up in the book by Jack’s statement, “Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?” This is shown that after all these lies Ernest feels like none of them were actually lies as they all turned out truth. When Gwendolen answers, “I can. For I feel that you are sure to change.” This one line shows the true irony of the play. It shows that in this time period in England, where Victorian values are so precious, they go against their strict social code of

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