In "The Importance of Being Earnest" we are introduced to two characters, John and Algernon, both are from completely different life styles, but they have one thing in common. That is they both want to be Earnest... or Ernest. Both John and Algernon come up with a secret identity to hide who they are. Everyone around them believes them and they begin to have a new identity. They begin to forget, in a way, who they really are. This new identity is no longer just an escape. It's their life. It's what they live through now. There's too many connections for them. John loves Gwendolen who can only love a man with the name of Ernest. Algernon loves Cecily and he steals John's made up identity of Ernest to capture her attention and have her fall for him, but she also says that she can only love a man with the name of Ernest. This becomes a conflict for the men because they can no longer lie about who they are. It has gotten farther than both of them have planned for it too. When Gwendolen and Cecily find out the whole thing blows up for both John and Algernon. The women stand their ground and refuse to talk to the men, but this doesn't get them far. The men get easily distracted as they fight over the new crisis of how their loves despise them for lying to them, they begin to fight over muffins and completely go off topic forgetting about the women. This angers the women and they finally talk to the men. In the end, everything works out for John and Algernon, but the lie that they told could have cost them their love.
In our society we face the same problems, now we don't fight over muffins instead of worrying about our made, girlfriends/fiancées, men are more considerate now, hopefully. We still deal with identity theft, like when Algernon stole John's fake identity. We also have people who are "two-faced." I always tell my dad that he never has to worry about me lying because I won't do it because I'll end up forgetting what I told him and mess up anyway so I mind as well tell him the truth in the beginning. Algernon and John had to cover their tracks and lie to the ones they care about to get out of situations but the truth always comes out and in the end it did and they almost lost everything. Lies in relationships come out, especially now with online dating. The person online can be someone completely different than who they say they are. It has become easier to lie about who we are, which makes it harder to trust people. It is becoming a greater problem with advances with technology. Just today on the news I saw a video of someone photo shopping a photo for a magazine. It took 30 seconds for them to completely change the model from her eyes, to elongating her neck, to sculpting her back, and making her legs longer. It's so easy to lie now that we have to watch out for the John's and Algernons that are not as Ernest as they say they are.
