DISHONESTY IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST.

        A large theme in the play The Importance of Being Earnest is the dishonesty. Almost every character in the play probably lies one time or another. Whether it's lying about your whole name, or just a little white lie about why there aren't any cucumber sandwiches. It's difficult not to lie, we all do it. The characters seem to have a lot of trouble with not lying though. The dishonesty of the characters add a good amount of humor in the book. An example being that when one character dislikes another, the act overly nice to them that it's to the point where they're over the top. It gets to be funny in the actions that they make. Being satirical about social classes also incorporates into the idea of being dishonest at times. Such as when Lady Bracknell doesn't like or find Cecily attractive until she finds out that Cecily has 130,000 dollars in her funds. After Lady Bracknell hears about this, she starts being extra nice to Cecily as if she is just going to give it all away to her. John Worthing is dishonest about his name/brother throughout the entire play. He lies about his bunburying deeds and makes up a character named Ernest. You'd think that if there was a character named Ernest then they'd be earnest themselves. However, Jack lying about Ernest isn't being earnest at all. Many characters in the book make up other people that they pretend to be or they just lie about their identity. They do this just for their own pursuit of pleasure.
        During the time period that Oscar Wilde wrote this play, people acted way different then they do today. He is making fun of the upper class and how ridiculous they had been about their everyday issues. One being all the lying they did. They even lied about their age! Another issue being that women and men acted so differently. When getting married, they sometimes weren't even allowed to choose their partner. Men got married to one women, but yet he went out with another women to fulfill his pleasuring needs. When Gwendolen and Cecily found out that both their Ernests' weren't really who they said they were, they forgave Jack and Algernon a little to easily. Oscar Wilde seemed to be stereotyping each of the genders.