The Impotance of Being Earnest Commentary

Va Thao
Ms.Peifer
10 IB English
19 May 2009

"Algernon. The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Modern life would be very tedious is it were either, and
modern literature a complete impossibility!
Jack. That wouldn't be at all a bad thing.
Algernon. Literary citicism is not your forte, my
dear fellow. Don't try it. You should leave that to
people who haven't been at a University. They do it so
well in the daily papers. What you really are is a
Bunburyist. I was quite right in saying you were a
Bunburyist. You are one of the most advanced Bun-
buryists I know.
Jack. What on earth do you mean?
Algernon. You have invented a very useful younger
brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to
come up to town as often as you like. I have invented
an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury,..." (Wilde 122-123)

Commentary

In the play, The Importance of Being Ernest, there were so many subjects upon lying. Wilde's purpose is to portray the issues of lies in this passage by using irony and perspective.

Irony was used to show the issue of lies in Wilde's play. An example of this is, "You should leave that to/ people who haven't been at a University. They do is so/ well in the daily papers..." (123). The satire of this is that people who have never been to college would not be able to do a good job on literary criticism. This shows the issues of lies upon those handful of writers out there lying about this and that in the papers just to make peoples' lives lively. Another example of this is, "You have invented a very useful brother called Ernest..."(123). This is ironic because the way that Algernon say this is not expressed and understood in the same way as the literal meaning of this. This exposes that people can lie to others and still sound nice. One last example of Wilde's use of irony is, "You are one of the most advanced Bun-/ buryists I know."(123). This is ironic upon how Algernon may say something that is complimenting Jack, but the intentions are to hurt Jack's feelings that he is a big liar. This shows the issues of lies through the sarcasm in Algernon's tones which are ironies.

Perspective is also used to portray the issues of lies in Wilde's play. An example of this is, "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."(123). This shows the opinion of Algernon on lies. Another example is, " I was quite right in saying you were a Bunburyist." (123). This also shows the opinion of Algernon about liars. This is significant because the character Algernon shows a lot of dislike towards liars and it seems as if Wilde is using Algernon as his voice on liars. One last example is, "You have invented a very useful younger/ brother called Ernest, in order to/ come up to town as often as you like."(123). This expresses the fact that Jack is lying about having a younger brother in order to go up to town anytime he feels like he wants to. This lie is shown as a an example on the issues of lies and Wilde tries to portray.

Wilde tries to portray the issues of lies in this passage through the use of irony and perspective. Adding to that, throughout Wilde's play; The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde formulates the theme of lies too.