Analyze and interpret a play through a well-organized essay

p Deception as a Symptom of a Corrupt Society in Marlowe and Wilde

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Date The desperate need to be moral within society contributes to the motivations , choices , and actions made by people everyday . It is society which defines what morality is and applies the necessary pressure to force individuals to conform . Often , failing under these societal pressures , individuals are forced to use deception to escape the oppressive nature of their society . Oscar Wilde , in The Importance of Being Earnest and Christopher Marlowe , in Dr . Faustus , venture into nature of

society and how it effects the individuals within that society . Marlowe and Wilde assert that deception is a symptom of a corrupt society not a character flaw

The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest centers around deception Algernon is a wealth bachelor that lives in London . He often pretends to have a friend Bunbury who is sick and lives in the country . Whenever Algernon wishes to escape certain social duties ' he is explains that he simply can no because he has to visit his sick friend . He can then escape and enjoy the pleasures that Victorian society called improper However , his friend , Bunbury , does not exist . Through this form of deception Algernon not only gets pity from his friends he also has the perfect excuse to do whatever he wants . Algernon 's believes his best friend is named Ernest . Ernest is actually John Worthing . John Worthing is also using deception to escape his restrictive and boring existence . He tells his friends that he has a wayward brother who lives in London and is often in trouble . Therefore he must go to London to bail his brother out . When John is in London he goes by the name of Ernest . He pretends to be a good man in country only to be a bad 'man in the city . John wants to marry Gwendolen , but she wants to marry a man named Ernest . When she meets John using the name Ernest she falls deeply in love with him . Gwen 's aunt insists on knowing his family background and he is forced to reveal that is real parents left him at a train station and he was adopted by a rich upstanding Victorian family Algernon has the idea that he will go into the country to visit John and pretend to be Ernest . He is unaware that John has given up his city life and has planned the tragic (but unreal ) death of his brother Deception plays a vital role in this play . If John and Algernon did not lie there would be no play . If each character followed the Victorians standards of society , there would be no plot . While this play is a comedy , Wilde 's point is clear : only through deception can people exist in Victorian society . If they did not use deception everyone would surely die from boredom and the suffocating grasp of society

Similarly , Marlowe 's Dr . Faustus is based on deception . Dr . Faustus begins with Dr . Faustus looking...