The Importance Of Being Earnest Irony Analysis

Oscar Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest as a social commentary to ridicule the insincere Victorian upper class. The characters in the story display irony through their dialogue and actions. The name of the play itself is ironic due to several characters pretending to have the name “Ernest” and lacking the trait of earnesty. One of the main characters, Jack, shows an example of irony by criticizing Algernon by telling Lady Bracknell, “It pains me very much to have to speak very frankly to you, Lady Bracknell, about your nephew, but the fact is that I do not approve at all of his moral character. I suspect him of being truthful” (48). The irony in this is that Jack has not been truthful at all to any of his friends or family about