Illustration of Jack Worthing in a top hat and formal attire, and a concerned expression on his face

The Importance of Being Earnest

by Oscar Wilde

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Discussion Topic

Jack's reasons for impersonating Ernest in "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Summary:

Jack impersonates Ernest to escape his responsibilities and enjoy a more carefree lifestyle. By creating a fictitious brother, he provides himself with an excuse to leave his country home and indulge in the pleasures of city life without damaging his reputation.

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Why does Jack Worthing call himself Ernest in London in The Importance of Being Earnest?

The character of John Worthing changes his name to Ernest when he visits London. The reason he visits London is to get away from his daily life in the country, where he is the guardian of a young woman named Cecily. He also lives in a great country estate which belonged to Cecily's grandfather, Thomas Cardew. The latter had adopted John when he was a young boy and, upon his death, he made John take care of everything. 

According to John Worthing, these are big responsibilities for which he needs to adopt a more serious and mature behavior despite being such a relatively young man.

When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It's one's duty to do so. 

However, John/Ernest admits that such a serious position in no way reflects how he expects to conduct himself...

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at all times. He admits that he has created an imaginary bad brother named Ernest, who supposedly lives in London, so that he can escape the country with the excuse that his brother did something that Jack has to go fix.

In reality, Jack goes to London to drink until late hours, to eat (a lot) at expensive restaurants, and to engage in whatever debauchery he feels like without responsibilities. After all, he is Algernon's friend for a reason. All this he does under the moniker of the invented brother, Ernest. 

And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one's health or one's happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.

In The Importance of Being Earnest the use of the homophones "earnest" and "ernest" is a play on words that reveals the central idea of the play: that it is important to be honest and tell the truth.

However, it is the irony of how things turn out in the play that produces the comedy. In the end John, whose father's name ends up being Ernest after all, would (by inheritance and by chance) turn out to be a "real" (earnest) Ernest. 

However, throughout the entire play both John and Algernon live double lives, make up fake friends and, in John's case, change their names. That a lie turns out to be true begs the question of whether that would automatically make John an earnest man in the first place. 

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It's an ironic play on words—just like his surname Worthing, implying "worthy," which is how best to describe his existence of outward respectability in the countryside. Yet Jack is neither worthy nor earnest when he comes to London. He has created the character of Ernest as an alter ego; he's supposed to be an improvident rake, always getting into trouble of one kind or another. The persona of Ernest allows Jack to take off to London at a moment's notice, to try and help his "brother" out of another jam. In actual fact, it's a great opportunity for Jack to indulge himself in a life of dissipated gaiety, far away from the prying eyes of his respectable family. This not particularly earnest Ernest can play the part of man about town to his debauched heart's content without the burden of looking after Cecily weighing down upon his shoulders.

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Why does Jack impersonate Ernest in "The Importance of Being Earnest"?

Oscar Wilde's humorous play The Importance of Being Earnest mocks many of the social structures of Wilde's day. Wilde's farce (a work often characterized by ludicrous and absurd situations) continues to delight modern audiences.

In the play, Jack Worthing is a respectable, affluent gentleman living in the English countryside, Hertfordshire. He is a well-known pillar of the community and guardian of beautiful young Cecily Cardew. Because he is so well known around the small town, he must go to the city to have his good time. He creates a brother named Ernest and uses him as an excuse to go to the city for a visit. He develops a backstory for Ernest that depicts his brother as the opposite of Jack. Where Jack is caring and hardworking, Ernest leaves behind debts and scandal. This imaginary brother serves as an alibi for Jack because once life in the country gets to dull for him, he can run off to the city to check on his brother. In actuality, Jack’s the one running around London causing trouble and living a salacious lifestyle.

Jack explains, "Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country..."

Oscar Wilde coins the action of creating a fictional friend to get out of social engagements as bunburying, a term created in the play by Jack’s friend Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon too has created an alibi to get out of having to spend time with his Aunt Augusta through an invented friend named Bunbury. Algernon reports that his friend, Mr. Bunbury, is sick whenever his aunt wants to schedule a visit. Algernon believes he has created the perfect plan: he gets to do whatever he wants and avoids time with his family.

Algernon explains his new term to Jack:

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, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose. Bunbury is perfectly invaluable. If it wasn’t for Bunbury’s extraordinary bad health, for instance, I wouldn’t be able to dine with you at Willis’s to-night, for I have been really engaged to Aunt Augusta for more than a week.

The lengths to which the two men will go to to get out of their social duties create humor for the audience. As the two men lie to their friends and loved ones to have fun without fear of repercussion, Wilde argues the importance of being honest, even in hard situations.

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