In both “The Importance of Being Ernest” by Oscar Wilde and “Sure Thing” by David Ives we see many ways that the women in both books are extremely gullible, easily manipulated, and believe what the men are saying to be the truth. We will see that even though the men are caught in several lies and deception that the women keep going back to them and believing the additional lies that are told to them. We will examine the meeting point of both the women and the men, a midpoint of the book, and the end of the book with the women and the men.
In “The Importance of Being Ernest” we start with Jack Worthing calling himself “Ernest”. He has made up this person because it gives him an excuse to visit the city. However, in the country he is known as Jack Worthing, with a brother named Ernest. He then proposes to Gwendolen who states that her idea was to marry someone named Ernest so Jack decides to arrange a private christening so that he can change his name to Ernest. In the beginning of “Sure Thing” Bill starts off by telling her that he’s never read Faulkner and then he realizes that he needs to be impress her so he lets her know how much he loves Faulkner. I love Faulkner. I spent a whole winter reading him once. ” (Ives, 2007, p. 1262) As you can see in both books the men come up with ideas and lies to try and impress both women. We then see in “The Importance of Being Ernest” and “Sure Thing” how the men get caught in their lies. Jack and Algernon pay the price by the women calling off their engagement. It seems at this point that the women in “The Importance of Being Ernest” are getting smart about the lies and deception and that they might actually call everything off with the men.
The Term Paper on Eye Contact Women Men Man
1. 0 History: In the last thirty years, there has been considerable changes in the way men and women's regard each other's roles and their image. The sixties, with the liberation of the pill and unisex fashion, it meant that men and women started to present themselves in very similar ways. Men adopted feminine styles of long hair, floral patterns and paisley. Women wore boyish clothes and gamine ...
On the other hand with “Sure Thing” we see that Bill is manipulating Betty and he is telling her lie after lie until he figures out what she would like to hear from him. She is proving how gullible and easily manipulated she is. We will see again in both books now how easily manipulated all the women in the books can be. Later in “The Importance of Being Ernest” Jack decides to kill off his “brother” Ernest in Paris. Instead Algernon shows up at Jack’s country estate pretending to be his brother Ernest and gets engaged to Cecily. It is his idea, like Jack’s, to be re-christened as Ernest also.
Eventually, it comes out that both men lied about their names and both women have been tricked and lied too. Both ladies then decide they are not engaged to either one of them. Eventually in “The Importance of Being Ernest” both men explain why they lied about their names and the women accept their explanations. The women still have a problem with them not being named Ernest so the men still plan to be rechristened as “Ernest” and the engagements are back on. In “Sure Thing” Betty invites Bill to go to the movies with her and Bill starts off by saying that he has two girlfriends and then ends with “I just ended a relationship, actually. (Ives, 2007, p. 1266) In “Sure Thing” after all the lies that Bill has told Betty she still agrees to go to the movies with him. She also tells him that she will love and cherish him forever if they get married. As we can then see at the end of both plays even though the women have been lied to constantly throughout both plays, they still believe what the men are saying and still love them and want to continue their relationships. It is evident that throughout both plays the men constantly lie to the women yet the women keep going back for more lies and are easily manipulated.
In both plays we see in three different sections in the books how the relationships progress through lies and deception and how the women still love the men in the end. Even though the men’s lies become evident and are bluntly seen throughout both plays, the women still continue with the relationships.
