What does Bunburying mean in the play?

• A. Pretending to be a different person to attend events
• B. Inventing a secret life to escape responsibilities
• C. Creating a fictitious person to avoid social obligations or duties
• D. Feigning illness to dodge social duties

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is Bunburying: creating a made-up person to give yourself an easy excuse to dodge social obligations. Wilde uses this device as a running joke about how characters protect their personal freedom in a society that values appearances and duty. In the play, a fictional friend named Bunbury exists so a character can claim they must attend to the needs of this “friend,” thereby getting out of unwelcome engagements and responsibilities. That specificity—inventing a fictitious person to avoid duties—is what makes this option the best fit.

Other ideas are close in spirit but not as precise. Pretending to be a different person to attend events implies using a real identity to go places, which isn’t the core tactic here. Inventing a secret life is broader and could involve many kinds of deception, but Bunburying centers on the fictitious companion used to shirk obligations. Feigning illness is a common excuse, but it focuses on bodily health rather than the broader mechanism Wilde highlights: the invented person as a deliberate alibi.