How does Wilde make the play Importance of being Earnest entertaining for an audience? Essay

\How does Wilde make the play ¨Importance of being Earnest¨ entertaining for an audience?


The importance of being Earnest is a satirical comedy. Satire means to criticize something evil or foolish by the use of humor sarcasm and irony. This makes a point and raises awareness. This particular plot satirizes the higher members of society, their customs and the way they wish to behave selfishly, irresponsibly, being dishonest, vain and just plain superficial.
The importance of being Earnest is a play about two young gentlemen living in 1890's England who lied in order to put some excitement into their lives. Jack Worthing has invented a brother, Ernest, whom he uses as an excuse to leave his dull country life behind to visit the ravishing Gwendolyn, to do this he created another identity, he called himself Earnest. Algy Montcrieff decided to take the name 'Ernest' when visiting Worthing's young and beautiful ward, Cecily at the country manor. The way the two gentlemen behaved was referred to as Bunburysim which according to Algy it was how it should be called since one of his acts of “Bunburysim” concerned an imaginary friend of Algy’s that always managed to get sick whenever Algy was needed for something.   Unfortunately they cannot get rid of their false identities since both women claimed that they could only love someone by the name of Ernest. Things start to go wrong when all of them end up together in the country and their deceptions are discovered, threatening to spoil their romantic pursuits. What makes this play entertaining is a mixture of different techniques that Wilde decided to use. The characters’ behaviour and personality, the theme of deception and pretence, which would be interpreted by the double identities that Algernon calls ¨Bunburying.¨ The dramatic irony is also a very important part in the play, as well as the plot structure and the variety of different types of language.
Characters are one of the main things that make this play...