Identify a major dramatic device Wilde employs to drive the plot forward.

• A. Mistaken identities and dramatic irony.
• B. Foreshadowing and unreliable narration.
• C. Soliloquies and asides.
• D. Deus ex machina.

Answer: (A)

Mistaken identities and dramatic irony drive the action. Wilde builds a situation where Jack and Algernon pretend to be someone else—Ernest—while the women, especially Gwendolen and Cecily, become obsessed with that name. These deceptions create the plot’s twists and turns: disguises slip, secrets collide, engagements hinge on false identities, and every revelation pulls the story forward to the next comic complication. The audience knows more than the characters at key moments, so the misunderstandings fuel suspense and humor as the truth gradually comes to light and then is resolved in Wilde’s witty, lighthearted way.

This is why other options don’t fit as the main device. The play relies on the rush of misunderstandings rather than foreshadowing or unreliable narration, and it doesn’t center on long soliloquies or asides as the primary driver. It also isn’t driven by a deus ex machina that suddenly resolves the plot; the momentum comes from the characters’ fabrications and the comedic consequences that follow.