Dishonesty in The Importance of Being Earnest

           In the novel, The Importance of Being Earnest, dishonesty is pictured and is the main topic throughout the play. There is dishonest humor because most of the jokes, rants on marriage and woman have to do with the fact that Jack and Algy were dishonest and lying about having a brother names Ernest and a friend named Mr. Bunbury. For satire of social institutions, Lady Bracknell is being dishonest when she said that Cecily was attractive, she honestly didn’t care about all of her background except that she was wealthy. As soon as Jack announced that she was rich, Lady Bracknell was complementing her and giving her consent as quick as the words would come out of her mouth. Cecily admitted to be exaggerating her age “only” when she goes to dinner parties. In the play, there was the “pun” of the main character who pretends to be Ernest and throughout time, he discovers what it really means to be earnest. Algernon also decided he wants to change his name to Ernest too along with Jack because Cecily will only marry a man whose name is Ernest and Algernon likes her too much to let that stop him. Changing names to Ernest is being dishonest to yourself, to the name you were christened with. Changing it just wouldn’t be right to everyone else. In the end of the play, Jack realized that all the lies he made up, having a brother, were true. The pursuit of pleasures are more important than duties in the play. It seems to be that telling the truth is just for pleasure and that pleasure comes over duties of a gentle men. Dishonesty is streaked in and out of the play, it is used in many forms like epigrams, satire, references and pleasure. This whole piece is really all about dishonesty and how one little lie and came a huge commotion and problem but then again, this time, Jack found out his background thanks to that little lie.
          Wilde seems to be saying that dishonesty carries through every person, including the rich, the poor, the slaves and more. Jack and Algernon pretend to be people that they aren’t, Ernest and Bunbury. Lady Bracknell lies to Cecily just so that she’ll like her more and keep being interested in Algernon while Lady Bracknell tries to get her hands on some of her money. Lane lied for Algernon after Lady Bracknell asked for her cucumber sandwiches and Algernon ate them all. Jack never told Gwendolen that he was guardian of a beautiful 18 year old girl. He is saying that almost most of the time, no matter what lie you tell, how long you keep it up, or how big it is, it’s going to be discovered and you’ll be stuck in an awkward situation. Through some of the speeches the characters had, I realized that when Wilde wrote this, dishonesty must have been popular and the “cool” thing to do. Wilde really showed personalities, social classes and some lives of a few different people in the Victorian age, including how being dishonest could effect a lot of things.