This entire play and the charactrs lives that are being depicted seem to be entirely based on lies. Nobody is who they seem... there are fake relations left and right... engagements to nonexisting people... the lies are never ending. They lie to gain their own pleasure, as when Algernon comes up with Bunburying to escape from his relatives. There were also things like epigrams that make up this play. These epigrams about silly facts of life are always philisophically said but have more humorous insights. Then there's the satire of social institutions....how Oscar Wilde makes people in higher social classes extremely snotty. or how he refers to marriage in a negative nature half of the time it is referred to...and the other half is in a very shallow nature. For example, when Lady Bracknell is interviewing Jack too see if he was good enough to marry Gwendolyn. Throughout the play, education is also looked down on as only for the poor and not at all suited for anyone of the upper class. Finally, there's the constant reference to Earnest...the name and the type of character. The interesting thing Wilde di with this, though, is that he would constantly use both of the meanings at once...to put a humorous spin on whatever was being said.
Altogether, Oscar Wilde seems to be saying that dishonesty is okay. No matter how dishonest anyone in the play was, the never got reputed, or punished, in a way shape or form. Instead they were rewarded with marriage, love, and forgiveness. Making for an altogether happy ending.
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