e

Dishonesty appears in everyday life all the time. Just think about every advertisement that fudges the dependability of their product so that more people will buy from them. Another typical example may be when something happens to you, you leave out just a little bit of the truth or add false information to make your story more interesting. Then there are the times when you are five and decide to give yourself a haircut. When your mom asks what happens you repeatedly say you have no idea even when the scissors were found in the bathroom and your bangs are 2 inches shorter. Dishonesty is most commonly used when there is someone  to please, or someone not to get in trouble from. In The book The Importance of Being Earnest there are many circumstances when dishonesty is used from the characters under these circumstances. The concepts talked about in class all have a way of being linked to the main theme of dishonesty. The epigrams in the book  are all very contradictory to what is being said. They all have a slight bit of untruthfulness woven into what the character is implying. The main social institution shown in the book is marriage. There is so much satire shown trough this topic especially how marriage was like a business deal. Dishonesty was clearly seen when both Jack and Algernon lie to their loved one that their name was Ernest. Yet this point was overlooked because it was wrong to point outs someones faults when you were acting proper. I believe that the pursuit of pleasure is evident when the men or women will go to "great lengths in society" such as becoming baptized to marry the one they love.

I believe that Oscar Wilde is trying to show how ridiculous upper class society was in this time period. The main way he portrays this is through the satire of marriage and the name "Ernest". The men and women were so polite and had such strict customs that there never was any true feelings involved. Wilde demonstrates through the play how absurd it was that marriage should become a matter between the parents of the daughter and how much money was involved. It never really mattered what the man was like, but how much they were worth. Since there were two scenes of both Algernon and Jack deceiving the girls by saying their name was Ernest, must prove that Wilde is stressing how funny it was that a name could influence the thoughts of the lady. A gentleman could be the most charming person in the world but if something that he had no control of such as who his parents were or where he lived was not perfect than he was considered nothing. I am glad I live in a time when people have feelings and there are not so many rules about what is or isn't "in" in society.