The Importance of Being Earnest...or the Lack Thereof

I was skeptical of watching a satirical movie. I understand satire, but it often takes me a while to realize a piece of writing is being sarcastic. I remember the first time I read Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”. I honestly believed it was some revolting man’s desire to eat babies. Of course, I later learned that Swift was just critiquing Ireland’s economic issues at the time.

Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to catch on to the satire in The Importance of Being Earnest. Although the characters were completely serious in their acting, their words were full of sarcasm and exaggeration. The double identity of Jack/Ernest, and Algernon’s lie about being “Ernest”, definitely revealed that the two characters were far from being earnest people. After watching the movie, it was obvious that the title was being sarcastic since the whole movie was centered around a bundle of lies. The movie was being satirical all the way to the end, when Jack lied to Gwendolyn that his Christian name was “Ernest” when it was actually “John”. Overall, the movie was easy to understand, yet also enjoyable to watch. I liked the fact that the movie had light humor, and was not caustic like that of Swift’s writing.