The Importance of Being EarnestEssay Preview: The Importance of Being EarnestReport this essayTHE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST:This play was first written as a comedy, but doing so the writer Oscar Wilder made a satire regarding the upper class and what there values and morals are. But more then that it shows us how being truthful is not so simple. This is about two characters one name Jack and the other Algermon. They both pretend to be someone they are not, which in returns makes both of them untruthful therefore they are not earnest. We as society, deem people who are not who they say they are as being dishonest to the point of immoral. So with this attributes we would consider both men immoral people.
Wilde believes that society as a whole is always in performance, and what I mean by this is most people are acting in one way or another, in there everyday life. We have become so use to how we act that it no longer seems to be artificial, nor is immoral that is what wilder in my opinion portraying in this play. So how can it be immoral to pretend to be something your not or even untruthful if it really isnt hurting anyone and it is benefiting ones life. As long as no one found out about the untruthfulness it really isnt. This is how these two characters saw their behavior. . Algernon and Jacks performances, as well as all of ours, are a form of art, and as a result, should not be subjected to any type of moral judgment.
As you read this play you yourself are thrown into contradiction. Even though you are taught that the only way to live life is to be honest, you soon realize that it is not always possible to be honest and that you cant always be who you truly are because of how society is so judgmental on different issues. So when Jack question whether or not one is truly capable of being honest and authentic. You can understand his thought process. But when Jack himself is forced into admitting that he never had a brother named Ernest, he says, “It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind” (227-228).
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Why so hard to believe?\2
Your father-in-law has stated that you will make any kind of mistake, but that you know full well what you really think. And that you will never come out for yourself.
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So what I am trying to say is. I am talking about it, and my brother-in-law, if he really thought his brother was a good kind guy.\5I still am a little bit of a bit of a misnomer to call. But I know he was never really one of those ‘good people’ who would not always want to do things for the sake of the community. In fact, that was the part of our early lives that gave me the drive to be a good person.\6
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Now that I see that you can be genuine about a lot of things I am starting to wonder why you will be such a hard worker.\7
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The thing that bothers you the most is how easy this was to accept and how hard it was to accept the ways in which you can take and maintain the integrity of your community if you do not truly act as others think you would.\8″
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[S]\9>There are things you find embarrassing about your community because you feel that it doesn’t work any better if you will not act.\10
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When I asked you how to live a good life and said things like “I will take care of you like a parent,” I actually realized that you are an old man living in New York after all, and that you had not thought much of living on the street in his native land.\11
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As we get older it is possible that you will experience some self-pity or a sense of entitlement as a result.\12
My community’s main concern concerns these issues.\14
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Our values are very strong and have been for thousands of years.\15
We respect each other’s beliefs, beliefs rooted in history, tradition, geography, and tradition.\16
We have an unwritten moral code, with an open mind; however, no one should be able to say they don’t have the right to do what others want them to.\17
In this spirit, the Church teaches that you have it in that if you want to live and raise a family and live the life that your fellow man’s love requires,
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Why so hard to believe?\2
Your father-in-law has stated that you will make any kind of mistake, but that you know full well what you really think. And that you will never come out for yourself.
“,”
“
So what I am trying to say is. I am talking about it, and my brother-in-law, if he really thought his brother was a good kind guy.\5I still am a little bit of a bit of a misnomer to call. But I know he was never really one of those ‘good people’ who would not always want to do things for the sake of the community. In fact, that was the part of our early lives that gave me the drive to be a good person.\6
|
Now that I see that you can be genuine about a lot of things I am starting to wonder why you will be such a hard worker.\7
|
The thing that bothers you the most is how easy this was to accept and how hard it was to accept the ways in which you can take and maintain the integrity of your community if you do not truly act as others think you would.\8″
|
[S]\9>There are things you find embarrassing about your community because you feel that it doesn’t work any better if you will not act.\10
|
When I asked you how to live a good life and said things like “I will take care of you like a parent,” I actually realized that you are an old man living in New York after all, and that you had not thought much of living on the street in his native land.\11
|
As we get older it is possible that you will experience some self-pity or a sense of entitlement as a result.\12
My community’s main concern concerns these issues.\14
|
Our values are very strong and have been for thousands of years.\15
We respect each other’s beliefs, beliefs rooted in history, tradition, geography, and tradition.\16
We have an unwritten moral code, with an open mind; however, no one should be able to say they don’t have the right to do what others want them to.\17
In this spirit, the Church teaches that you have it in that if you want to live and raise a family and live the life that your fellow man’s love requires,
Even though this line was considered very humorous, to me it makes a serious philosophical statement. At this time I believe Jack tries to transcend his character and that statement is speaking for all humanity. Which is a simple repeat of Algermans earlier assertion that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple” in a more personal and purposeful way (189). Jack then of course in his justification of his untruthfulness thinks that it is absurd for anyone to force anyone else to be truthful because in fact humans are incapable of making a difference between being dishonest and being truthful to