The play satirizes social performance by contrasting the identities of which two male characters?

• A. Algernon Moncrieff and Bunbury
• B. Jack Worthing and Bunbury
• C. Jack Worthing and Ernest
• D. Algernon Moncrieff and Ernest

Answer: (C)

Social performance is shown through double lives and the pressure to project a neat image. Oscar Wilde uses two male identities to reveal how people mask themselves to fit expectations. The strongest contrast that drives the satire is between Jack Worthing and his urban alter ego, Ernest. In the country, Jack presents himself as a responsible, respectable guardian of his wards; in the city, he adopts the carefree, mischievous persona of Ernest to enjoy freedom and evade rules. This juxtaposition exposes how easily persona can replace the person and how society values appearances over truth, since the name Ernest also sounds like “earnest,” highlighting the tension between being seen as sincere and actually living up to it. While Bunburying by Algernon also critiques deception, the clearest critique of social performance comes from Jack and Ernest—the two identities that reveal the play’s central satire.