"The Importance of Being Ernest"

“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde focuses on the petty social customs and comical acts of deception in the late 1800s. The ironic comedy lends for a light tone. The movement of John Worthing, also known as Jack and Earnest, between Hertfordshire to London exposes the meaning of the work as a whole, the consequences of deception and lying. 

At Hertfordshire, Jack is known as Jack to his ward Cecily. Jack had conjured up a story that he has a brother, known as Ernest, that he goes to visit in London. This brother does not actually exist, but allows him to visit the lovely Gwendolen in London. In London, Jack is known as Ernest as to impress and court Gwendolen. This separation between reality and lies proves to cause comical issues throughout the play, as Cecily and Gwendolen figure out that Jack is not who he claims to be. The two different locations, London and Hertfordshire aid in this confusion. The distance and disconnect between Hertfordshire and London allows Jack to live two separate lives. 

The same way that Jack uses the two locations to be two different people, Algernon, Jack’s friends and Gwendolen’s cousin, uses the two locations to create two different personas as well. In London, Algernon is Algernon, but once he arrives at Hertfordshire, he pretends to be Jack’s “brother” Ernest. Again, the two different locations allow for deception. The comical conflict, if it can be called a conflict, is caused by engagement of Ernest to Cecily and Ernest to Gwendolen, an ironic situation. Once the two men attest to the usage of two identities, the conflict is then resolved in proper fashion, over the discussion of muffins.

A final example of the use of two different locations to create deception is created through the use of “Bunburying”. Algernon uses the term “bunburying” as a way to escape town and social events to visit his “sick friend” Bunbury. The distance between “Bunbury” and London allows Algernon to distance himself from London when he feels the needs to remove himself from social situations.

This play uses physical distance to create dissection. Algernon and Jack use the physical separation to live double lives, whether its be Jack as Ernest or Algernon visiting Bunbury, and to manipulated women through double personalities and names. The physical distance created confusion. The consequences of deception and lying, which in petty late 1800s upper-class style are just the two woman that they love refusing to speak to them for a short while, are caused by the separation between Algernon and Jack’s live’s in London and live’s in Hertfordshire.