How is identity portrayed in the play?

• A. Characters repeatedly adopt alternate identities to navigate social expectations, showing identity as performed.
• B. Identity is fixed at birth and unchangeable.
• C. Identity is unimportant to the plot.
• D. The same identity is consistently maintained by all characters.

Answer: (A)

Identity in this play is shown as something people perform to fit social expectations rather than something fixed. Characters create and inhabit alternate identities to navigate rules about marriage, status, and propriety. Jack Worthing uses the persona of “Ernest” in the city to escape restrictions and pursue freedom, while Algernon invents a friend with a Bunburying excuse to dodge tedious obligations. These disguises let them pursue desires and manage social obligations, and the comedy arises from the gap between public personas and private selves. The title’s pun on being “earnest” sharpens the critique: sincerity is treated as another performance within a world of appearances. Overall, identity is a flexible, strategic tool in a rigid social world, not a fixed trait.