Answer & Explanation. Jack didn't expose Algernon as a fake when he realizes his friend is posing as Ernest because he created the character Ernest himself. He had let other people believed he had a brother with that name.
How does Jack's impending encounter with Algernon impersonating Ernest demonstrate the collision between fact and fiction?
The visitor is actually Algernon, masquerading as Jack's fictional brother “Ernest.” Algernon uses the tools of Jack's deception—the business card and cigarette case—to assume “Ernest's” identity. Algernon makes "real" this fictional persona, showing the fluid borders between between fact and fiction.
How does Jack avoid telling the truth when Algernon catches him lying about his cigarette case?
At first he lies and says the cigarette case is from his Aunt Cecily. Algernon calls his bluff, and Jack confesses that he was adopted by Mr. Thomas Cardew when he was a baby and that he is a guardian to Cardew's granddaughter, Cecily, who lives on his country estate with her governess, Miss Prism.
What does Algernon find of Jack's that makes him suspect that Jack has been lying about his name?
Answer. Algernon suspects Jack is a Bunburyist after seeing an inscription on a cigarette case, leading to the discovery of Jack's double life. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon suspects that Ernest/Jack is a Bunburyist when he discovers an inscription on a cigarette case.
When Jack discovers Algernon pretending to be his younger brother how does Jack react?
When Jack discovers Algernon pretending to be his younger brother, how does Jack react? He is furious and tries to send Algernon away. Why does Jack refuse to allow Algernon to marry Cecily? Lady Bracknell will not let him marry Gwendolen.
The Importance of Being Earnest (8/12) Movie CLIP - Algernon and Jack Are Exposed (2002) HD
Why do Jack and Algernon lie?
Perhaps the reason why Wilde seems to be contradicting himself by introducing consequences is because Algernon and Jack lied for their own personal gain and not just to be entertaining. (Although their lies are very entertaining for us as readers.)
Algernon accuses Jack of being a Bunburyist. Algernon also leads a double life by pretending to have an invalid friend called Bunbury whom he “visits” when he wants to escape the world. He says, “A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.” Lady Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen enter.
What does Jack discover about Algernon in the end?
Wilde solidifies Jack's morality by having all of his lies become truths at the end of the play. He finds out that he is actually Algernon's older brother and that his name was meant to have been Ernest. Therefore, his two major lies, the creation of a brother and his role-playing as that brother, become the truth.
What does Algernon say he has always suspected Jack of being?
He tells Jack he has always suspected him of being “a confirmed and secret Bunburyist,” a term he refuses to define until Jack explains why he goes by two completely different names, and he requests that the explanation be “improbable.” Jack protests that his explanation is not improbable.
How is Jack's identity revealed in The Importance of Being Earnest?
After Jack asks for details, he quickly runs to his room and retrieves the handbag. Miss Prism identifies it, and Lady Bracknell reveals that Jack is Algernon's older brother, son of Ernest John Moncrieff, who died years ago in India.
Jack believes Algernon is a scoundrel, and he refuses to accept Algernon as his brother-in-law. In order to marry Cecily, Algernon must prove to Jack that he is a worthy husband for Cecily. At the same time, Jack is in a similar situation.
Jack's father's Christian names turn out to have been “Ernest John.” For all these years, Jack has unwittingly been telling the truth: his name is Ernest, it is also John, and he does indeed have an unprincipled younger brother—Algernon.
How does Jack respond when Algernon asks if he told Gwen the truth?
Algernon asks whether Jack has told Gwendolen about his ward, Cecily, and again Jack scoffs at the question. He claims Cecily and Gwendolen will surely become friends and “will be calling each other sister.” Gwendolen reenters and asks to speak privately with Jack.
How does Jack Worthing's cigarette case betray his identity to Algernon?
In his cigarette case Jack stores business cards with his pseudonym and address in London printed on them. Algernon later uses the card to verify his identity to Cecily. The business card is thus another sign of duplicity and dual identity. Get the entire The Importance of Being Earnest LitChart as a printable PDF.
Why did Algernon pretend to be Jack's brother Ernest?
Cecily asks Algernon why he pretended to be Jack's brother, and Algernon says it was in order to meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack if he pretended to have a brother so as to be able to come to London to see her as often as possible, and he asks if she can doubt it.
Why have Jack and Algernon invented these fictitious characters?
Like Jack, Algernon has invented a fictional character, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to give him a reprieve from his real life. Algernon is constantly being summoned to Bunbury's deathbed, which conveniently draws him away from tiresome or distasteful social obligations.
Like Jack, Algernon also uses excuses about Bunbury to get out of familial responsibilities—like dining with his Aunt Augusta. He practices deceit, like Jack, to avoid unpleasant situations and create more pleasant ones for himself.
Algernon becomes intrigued by the stories that Jack tells about his young ward Cecily Cardew. Algernon eventually visits Cecily and gains her trust and affection by pretending to be Jack's brother Ernest.
The difference between what Jack does and what Algernon does, however, is that Jack not only pretends to be something he is not, that is, completely virtuous, but also routinely pretends to be someone he is not, which is very different.
Algernon Moncrieff: Living in the city, Algernon Moncrieff is a good friend of Jack. At the beginning of the play he thinks that Jack's name is Ernest. Algernon lives in a flat in a prestigious part of London. He is the nephew of Lady Bracknell and in love with Cecily Cardew.
Algernon confronts him with the cigarette case and forces him to come clean, demanding to know who “Jack” and “Cecily” are. Jack confesses that his name isn't really Ernest and that Cecily is his ward, a responsibility imposed on him by his adoptive father's will. Jack also tells Algernon about his fictional brother.
Algernon's death forces Charlie to make one final confrontation. He returns home to face his mother and his past. The mother who meets him sees both Charlies. In her senility, she moves from the past to the present, and the time that is running so short for the evolved Charlie means nothing to her.
Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, living a life of total bachelorhood in a fashionable part of London. He is younger than Jack, takes less responsibility, and is always frivolous and irreverent. As a symbol, he is wittiness and aestheticism personified.
Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in order to woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary rogue Ernest. Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell's nephew, that his real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his brother.
This comes as a happy tiding as Lady Bracknell reveals that Jack, whose Christian name is actually Ernest is the son of her sister, and thus Algernon's older brother.
