The importance of Being Earnest

The play begins in the flat of wealthy Algernon Moncrieff (Algy) in London's
fashionable West End. Algernon's aunt (Lady Bracknell) and her daughter
(Gwendolen Fairfax) are coming for a visit, but Mr. Jack Worthing (a friend of
Algy's) arrives first. Algernon finds it curious that Jack has announced himself
as "Ernest." When Jack explains that he plans to propose marriage to
Gwendolen, Algy demands to know why Jack has a cigarette case with the
inscription, "From little Cecily with her fondest love." Jack explains that his real
name is Jack Worthing, squire, in the country, but he assumes the name
"Ernest" when he ventures to the city for fun. Cecily is his ward. While
devouring all the cucumber sandwiches, Algernon confesses that he, too,
employs deception when it's convenient. He visits an imaginary invalid friend
named Bunbury when he needs an excuse to leave the city.

Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen arrive. Algernon explains that he cannot attend
Lady Bracknell's reception because he must visit his invalid friend, Bunbury, but
he offers to arrange the music for her party. While Algernon distracts Lady
Bracknell in another room, Jack proposes to Gwendolen. Unfortunately, she
explains that she really wants to marry someone named Ernest because it
sounds so solidly aristocratic. However, she accepts his proposal, and he
makes a mental note to be rechristened Ernest. Lady Bracknell returns and
refutes the engagement. She interrogates Jack and finds him lacking in social
status. On her way out, Lady Bracknell tells Jack that he must find some
acceptable parents. Gwendolen returns for Jack's address in the country.
Algernon overhears and writes the address on his shirt cuff. He is curious about
Cecily and decides to go "bunburying" in the country.

In the second act, the scene shifts to Jack Worthing's country estate where Miss
Prism, Cecily Cardew's governess, is teaching Cecily in the garden. Miss Prism
sings Jack's praises as a sensible and responsible man, unlike his brother
Ernest, who is wicked and has a weak character. She teaches Cecily that good
people end happily, and bad people end unhappily, according to the romantic
novel Miss Prism wrote when she was young. The local vicar, Canon Chasuble,
arrives and, sensing an opportunity for romance, takes Miss Prism for a walk in
the garden. While they are gone, Algy shows up pretending to be Jack's wicked
brother Ernest. He is overcome by Cecily's beauty. Determined to learn more
about Cecily while Jack is absent, Algernon plans to stay for the weekend, then
make a fast getaway before Jack arrives on Monday. However, Jack returns
early in mourning clothes claiming that his brother Ernest has died in Paris. He
is shocked to find Algy there posing as Ernest. He orders a dogcart — a small
horse-drawn carriage — to send Algy back to London, but it is too late.
Algernon is in love with Cecily and plans to stay there. When Jack goes out,
Algernon proposes to Cecily, who gets out a diary and letters that she has
already written, explaining that she had already imagined their engagement.
She has always wanted to marry someone named Ernest, so Algy, like Jack,
needs to arrange a rechristening.

Just when it seems that Jack and Algernon couldn't get into worse trouble,
Gwendolen arrives, pursuing Jack, and discovers that his ward, Cecily, is
unpleasantly beautiful. In conversation, they discover that they are both
engaged to Ernest Worthing. A battle follows, cleverly carried out during the
British tea ceremony. The situation is tense. Jack and Algernon arrive, and, in
attempting to straighten out the Ernest problem, they alienate both women. The
two men follow, explaining that they are going to be rechristened Ernest, and
the women relent and agree to stay engaged.

Lady Bracknell shows up demanding an explanation for the couples' plans.

When she discovers the extent of Cecily's fortune, she gives her consent to her
engagement to Algernon; however, Jack's parentage is still a stumbling block to
her blessings. Jack tells Lady Bracknell that he will not agree to Cecily's
engagement until she is of age (35) unless he can marry Gwendolen. Dr.
Chasuble arrives and announces that all is ready for the christenings. Jack
explains that the christenings will no longer be necessary. Noting that Jack's
present concerns are secular, the minister states that he will return to the
church where Miss Prism is waiting to see him. Shocked at hearing the name
"Prism," Lady Bracknell immediately calls for Prism and reveals her as the
governess who lost Lady Bracknell's nephew 28 years earlier on a walk with the
baby carriage. She demands to know where the baby is. Miss Prism explains
that in a moment of distraction she placed the baby in her handbag and left him
in Victoria Station, confusing him with her three-volume novel, which was
placed in the baby carriage. 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 now truly is Ernest, and Algernon/Cecily,
Jack/Gwendolen, and Chasuble/Prism fall into each others' arms as Jack
realizes the importance of being earnest.

The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, is a three-act satirical play

first performed on February 14, 1895. The play satirizes Victorian values. There
are four main characters: Jack, Gwendolen, Algernon, and Cecily. Cecily is
Jack’s ward, whom Algernon wants to marry, and Gwendolen is Algernon’s
cousin, whom Jack wants to marry. Cecily and Gwendolen both think that Jack
and Algernon are a man named Ernest, who is Jack’s fictional and wayward
brother. Confusion and comedy ensue as the characters try to earn their hearts’
desires.

Act One opens with Algernon and his friend Jack. Jack asks after Gwendolen,
intent on marrying her even though neither Algernon nor Gwendolen’s mother,
Lady Bracknell, approve of the match. (Algernon’s disapproval has more to do
with his cynicism about marriage than with his friend.) During their exchange,
the audience learns that not only has Jack made up a fictional brother called
Ernest, whom he pretends to be whenever he’s in London, but that he was
adopted by Thomas Cardew and that Thomas’ daughter, Cecily Cardew, is now
Jack’s ward. While he cares for her, he finds her boring and often seeks to
escape his country estate to entertain himself in the city. Knowing Cecily is
pretty, Algernon wants to meet her, but Jack refuses because he knows his
friend does not believe in marriage.
When Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen arrive, Algernon whisks his aunt away to
give Jack/Ernest some time alone to speak with Gwendolen, who knows him
only as Ernest. He proposes to Gwendolen and she accepts, but his joy is
undercut when Gwendolen announces that she couldn’t possibly marry anyone
who was named anything but Ernest. Jack/Ernest is determined to change his
name officially so that Gwendolen will still want to marry him. Gwendolen tells
her mother that she plans to marry Jack/Ernest, and Lady Bracknell dismisses
Algernon and Gwendolen to interview Jack/Ernest. She is happy to learn that he
is wealthy, but when she finds out that Thomas Cardew adopted him after
finding him as a baby in a handbag at a train station, she tells him that without
relatives, he cannot marry Gwendolen.

In Act Two, Cecily is sitting with her governess, Miss Prism, at Jack’s country
estate. Desperate to escape from her studies, Cecily convinces Miss Prism to
go on a walk with Dr. Chasuble, the local rector. Meanwhile, Algernon has
traveled to the estate intent on meeting Cecily. When they meet, he tells her
that he is Jack’s younger brother, Ernest. He proposes to her and she accepts.
When Jack returns home to find Algernon there, he tries to get him to go back
to London, but Algernon won’t leave. Having heard so much about Ernest
(Jack’s fictional brother) before meeting Algernon/Ernest, Cecily informs him
that she could only ever love and marry a man named Ernest. So, like Jack,
Algernon decides that he will change his name, and both ask Dr. Chasuble to
arrange to re-baptize them as Ernest.

Meanwhile Gwendolen travels to Jack’s country estate, seeking Jack/Ernest.

When she finds Cecily, the two women, confused by Jack’s and Algernon’s both
calling themselves Ernest, believe they are both engaged to marry the same
man. When Jack and Ernest return, Gwendolen and Cecily confront them
before leaving them alone out in the garden.

Act Three opens with the women forgiving both Jack and Algernon, but they
remain adamant about marrying men named Ernest. The men argue about who
will actually get to change his name to Ernest, since they decide they can’t both
be called by the same name. At that point, Lady Bracknell arrives, angry that
Gwendolen has left her to visit Jack’s home. However, her anger is tempered
when she learns that her bankrupt nephew, Algernon, is in love with the wealthy
Cecily. She agrees that they can marry, but Jack refuses to allow his ward to
marry Algernon—unless, of course, Lady Bracknell allows him to marry
Gwendolen.

There seems to be an impasse until Miss Prism enters, and is recognized by

Lady Bracknell. Miss Prism, we learn, had been Algernon’s and Jack’s nanny,
until she fled after losing baby Jack. So it is revealed that not only are Jack and
Algernon brothers—thus providing Jack the relatives he needs in order to
persuade Lady Bracknell to allow him to marry Gwendolen—but also that his
given name is, in fact, Ernest.

Wilde’s play, like many of his other works, was wildly popular, and was
considered by many of his contemporary critics to be his best work. Despite
this, it only ran for 86 performances before he was imprisoned and exiled,
though the play continued to run with smaller companies during this time. Since
its opening performance, The Importance of Being Earnest has been revived
numerous times, and has been adapted into films, operas, and radio and
television performances.

The Importance of Being Earnest is the most renowned of Oscar Wilde’s

comedies. It’s the story of two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon
‘Algy’ Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome
lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to
only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories
and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The
elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and
indeed bizarre, characters to be found on the modern stage. Wilde originally
wrote it in four acts, but during the first rehearsals George Alexander persuaded
him to shorten it down to three.

Act I

The play begins with Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff welcoming his friend John ‘Jack’
Worthing to his home, whom he knows as Ernest. ‘Ernest’ has come from his
country estate to propose to Algy’s cousin, Gwendolen. Algy refuses consent
until Ernest explains an inscription on his cigarette case which calls him ‘Uncle
Jack’. ‘Ernest’ admits to creating an alter ego. He is Jack in the country,
guardian of his ward Cecily, but regularly leaves for London to visit his pretend
brother Ernest. Whilst in London he pretends to be Ernest, a flirtatious socialite.
Algy also admits to creating a fictitious invalid friend called Mr Bunbury, whom
he visits in the country to get away from London.

Gwendolen and her terrifying mother Lady Bracknell arrive to visit Algy. Jack
quietly proposes to Gwendolen, who accepts, saying she could never love a
man who wasn’t called Ernest. Lady Bracknell finds them alone together and
quickly interviews Jack for his suitability. She learns he was adopted after being
found in a handbag at Victoria Station, and refuses the marriage because he
has no direct relations. Gwendolen says she still loves Jack and he gives her
his country address. Algy secretly reads it.

Act II

Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, on her uncle Jack’s esate.
Algy arrives and pretends to be Ernest, Jack’s brother. Cecily has never met
Ernest, she falls in love with his secretive nature and they become engaged.
Like Gwendolen, she claims to only love men called Ernest.

Meanwhile, Jack decides to give up his alter ego and arrives on his estate to
declare the sudden death of his brother Ernest. Algy, however, is pretending to
be Ernest, so Jack has to go along with his story for fear of revealing his own
lies. Both men secretly plan to be officially christened as ‘Ernest’ by the local
vicar Dr Chusable. Gwendolen then arrives at the estate having escaped from
Lady Bracknell. She meets Cecily and they both declare to be engaged to men
called Ernest. Jack and Algy’s lies are exposed.

Act III

Lady Bracknell arrives, having followed her daughter, and is shocked to find
Algy and Cecily engaged. She is easily won over, however, after learning about
Cecily’s trust fund. Jack refuses to give consent unless Lady Bracknell agrees
to him marrying Gwendolen.

Miss Prism enters and Lady Bracknell instantly recognises her. She was a
family maid who took Lady Bracknell’s baby nephew out in his pram 28 years
ago but mysteriously vanished. Miss Prism admits that she had absentmindedly
put a novel she was writing in the pram, and the baby in her handbag, which
she left at Victoria Station. Jack announces he is the lost baby and therefore
Algy’s brother. Lady Bracknell accepts his and Gwendolen’s marriage because
he has found his relations.

Gwendolen is confused as to her lover’s real name. Lady Bracknell says he

would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the
army lists and finds that his father’s name was in fact Ernest. All the couples
embrace, even Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble who have harboured feelings for
each other for the entire play.