The Importance Of Being Ernest By Oscar Wilde

In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, Jack and Algernon, the protagonists, create an alias to remove themselves from their hectic schedules. They sneak off to an area where they do not reside in, the country or the city, to remove themselves from the responsibilities that are facing them. Jack’s alibi, Ernest, gives him free reign to take many days off and do whatever he pleases. Simultaneously, Algernon creates a ghost to give him a reason to flee from his normal duties. They use this as an excuse to pursue pleasure and remove themselves from responsibility. However, they find trouble while living their secret lives because their crushes only like them for the name Ernest. They travel back and forth from Hertfordshire and London

This path that they choose helps them understand who they are and guides them to make decisions that will eventually affect the rest of their life. During this play, Algernon Moncrieff relieves himself from his obligations with the help of his alias, Bunbury. Bunbury seems to repeatedly ask for Algernon to visit him before his imminent death. Though miraculously, Bunbury survives and then history repeats itself. In this play, he uses Bunbury as an excuse to escape his Aunt from dinner, but he also forms another imaginary person to travel to the countryside. Thus, Algernon takes more than one quest with two different alias names. He tends to take these journeys to become more familiar with him and find his true self without the distractions of his normal schedule. His routine can derail the search for self-knowledge. Algernon’s adventure to Jack’s estate represents transformation for him. He is transforming to please and woo Jack’s ward, but also transforming to escape Lady Bracknell. In fact, Algernon is not only in the pursuit of a future wife and to find relief from his regular life, He also is traveling into the life of Ernest. Algernon is traveling from London to Hertfordshire, Jack’s country house, and

Jack tends to blame his ghost, Ernest, to remove himself from Hertfordshire and journey to London. The adventure from Hertfordshire to London is south, so when Jack travels south “its so he can run amok” and misbehave (Foster, 179). Though Jack blames Ernest of mischief and poor behavior, Jack adventures to London with the same mindset. His quest gives him relief and freedom to do what he pleases. He is able to be carefree and remove himself from stress. Jack takes his vacation by deceiving people close to him, which is selfish. Jack hurts those around him to take time for himself. Jack’s plan is to maintain the sophisticated manner by creating Ernest, his alias, which allows him to please himself and take time for fun. Jack searches for himself, but finds trouble under all the lies he planted. Without this journey, he would never discover his true self. Jack goes to London on a quest to find himself, but the more he travels the more he becomes Ernest. His quest leads him to his true destiny of becoming Ernest. Algernon plans to be christened and change his name to Ernest because Gwendolen only loves him for his name. As everything falls into place, Lady Bracknell questions Miss Prism on the whereabouts of a stolen baby. Though they did not know, Jack was the baby in the bag that was stolen. Through these turn of events, Jack discovers his true self, which is the son of Lady Bracknell’s