Earnest

Physical journeys in novels are the ultimate adventure stories. From Homer's Odyssey across the Mediterranean fighting mythological beasts, to Jack Kerouac's On the Road featuring a beatnik trek along the highways of America, a physical journey can be used to create the most enthralling tales. In The Importance of Being Earnest however, the physical journey is not used to tell the story of an adventure or spiritual journey, but as a means for the characters to work their way around the social norms of the Victorian era.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a social commentary on the norms of 19th century England. Throughout the play the trivialities and social nuances of the time are satirized and exaggerated; being exposed as vain and stupid. The characters physical movement alternates between two general places the "town" and the "country". The people living in either area were largely ignorant to the goings on in the other, so taking advantage of this ignorance Algernon and Jack both develop alter egos as "Bunbury" and "Ernest" respectively. Algernon uses Bunbury as a means of avoiding social situations that displease him, whilst Jack does the same with Ernest, he often leaves the country for the town proclaiming that he has to tend to his black sheep of a brother that he has to worry about. This in of itself is a criticism of Victorian morals. They are so stifling to both Jack and Algernon that they are forced to create different personas just to live their lives as they please. 

This "journey" that exists between the town and the country creates some comedic situations as the play progresses. Jack claims in Act II that his brother Ernest has in fact died in Paris from "severe chill", yet Algernon later arrives pretending to be Ernest himself. Eventually both men are found out to be frauds. The physical journey and how the two male characters used the ignorance associated with the travel (or lack thereof) of information is an important factor in their bids for marriage - which are not based on love but rather prestige and status. That is ultimately Oscar Wilde's critique of the society and distance plays a large role in that.