The themes of The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, describe how people transform themselves to please. others. The two main characters face an uphill battle with people pleasers and they feel they need to change to fit into society. In The Importance of Being Serious, John Worthing, also known as Earnest or Jack, and Algernon, Algy for short, both create false identities to hide what they are doing in different parts of the country. John is called John or Jack where he lives in the Hertfordshire country town, but in London he is called Earnest. When he is in the countryside and wants to leave for London, he invented a fake brother named Earnest so that the people of his estate would not question him. While on the train he transforms into Earnest and once in London he meets his friends who only know him as Earnest. He continues to be called Earnest after falling in love with Gwendolen Fairfax. She states how much she loves the name Earnest and how she can't do anything but love a name that has the name Earnest with it. So John accepts him, telling him nothing about his other life in the countryside. Algy calls what John is doing bunburying and decides to do his own bunburying. He makes a friend named Bunbury and goes to John's estate. When Algy arrives, he plays Earnest and pretends to be John's brother. Moments earlier, John said he had received a telegram announcing the death of his brother Earnest. John planned to be baptized as Earnest to honor his brother and when Gwendolen arrived he would be Earnest in town and on his estate. Algy, acting like Earnest, falls in love with Cecily. Both men changed who they... middle of paper ......little good and bad. Each man was given many different difficulties and the problems he had to overcome, each man also did so in different ways. creating other problems and challenges along the way. At the end of each story, Jekyll and Hyde, Jack and Algy both realized what they had done to become something or someone they were not, and then they all found the best way to resolve the problems. Both Jack and Algy realized that they didn't need to change to please a woman. They also realized the bad things they had done and apologized for them. Jekyll realized that he did not need to create a beast to commit evil acts in order to maintain his social status. Jekyll's evil actions through Hyde show that everyone has an evil side and must be controlled to function in society. You must learn not to change who you are, stay true to your beliefs and control your bad side to succeed in society..