Characters in The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay

The Importance of Being Earnest

In the novel, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, different characters achieved their goals by keeping a secret, which is later revealed as the plot thickened. The characters secrets eventually turned into lies, causing them to lie to get what one wanted or hide something one wanted to hide. The novel itself relied on lies and secrets to thicken the plot and contribute to the meaning of the novel. The unorthodox way the characters revealed their secrets or lies was fated to happen as all of the characters united together and their secrets became noticeable. Below the many secrets and or lies are explained and revealed, as are the reasons the characters were fated to know the secrets kept amongst them.

The secrets and lies told in the novel all revolved around the name Earnest and his life. Jack Worthing told a simple lie concealing his true identity, which he didnt even know to begin with. Both Algernon and Jack pretended to have a horrible brother, who nonchalantly walked about society. Jack and Algernon had made their brothers up to give themselves an escape route to be someone completely different. Jack took the name Earnest in the city to become a different person and win the girl of his dreams. Algernon took a different name in the country to be an even more bachelor than in the city. After hearing Jacks secret of having a ward in the country, Algernon goes to meet her and become her husband. These secrets are necessary to the novel because they start the setting and mood of the characters. They also show the characters personality and insignificance of them to have just one identity and personality. As the plot reaches its peak more secrets are being kept such as; Jacks true identity kept by Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell, the two mens secrets, as to their fake brothers, and their true identities. The lively secrets and lies were revealed by the spontaneous meeting of all the characters. Jack was finally told his real becoming and his name became to Earnest. And the truth about the counterfeit brothers was told to Cecily, Miss Fairfax, Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism, and Canon. These secrets were revealed because both Algernon and Jacks stories were very different. Jack was telling the others that he had never had a brother named Earnest and that he, himself was not who he said he was, obviously telling the truth. While Algernon had said he was Jacks brother named Earnest. This lie was first established to win the hearts of Cecily for Algernon and Miss Fairfax for Jack, but even though that is how it ended, the two almost left with nothing. The characters were fated to meet because the story of Jack, better known as Earnest, had to be told and the lies were revealed because of the meeting of the characters.

In the novel, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, different characters achieved their goals by keeping a secret, which is later revealed as the plot thickens. The characters secrets eventually turned into lies. The novel itself relied on lies and secrets to thicken the plot and contribute to the meaning of the novel. The many lies define the book because the lies told and secrets told were all associated with the man Earnest, whether or not they knew it or not. The unorthodox way the characters revealed their secrets or lies was fated to happen as all of the characters united together and their secrets were starting to be noticed. All in all the Importance of Being Earnest was a book of lies leading up to the discovery of the importance of being Earnest.