SparkNotes: The Importance of Being Earnest: Character List The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde Plot Overview Analysis of Major Characters John (Jack/Ernest) Worthing, J.P. - The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. In Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate, Jack is known as Jack. In London he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. The initials after his name indicate that he is a Justice of the Peace. Algernon Moncrieff - The play’s secondary hero. Algernon is a charming, idle, decorative bachelor, nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements.

He has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow Algernon to wriggle out of unpleasant or dull social obligations. Read an in-depth analysis of Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen Fairfax - Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest. A model and arbiter of high fashion and society, Gwendolen speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality. She is sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, and utterly pretentious. Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name. Read an in-depth analysis of Gwendolen Fairfax. Cecily Cardew - Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness.

This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them. John (Jack) Worthing John (Jack) Worthing Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Jack Worthing, like the other main characters in Wilde's play, is less a realistic character and more an instrument for representing a set of ideas or attitudes. Wilde uses him to represent an upper-class character easily recognized by his audience. Jack also gives Wilde an opportunity to explore attitudes about Victorian rituals such as courtship and marriage. As an alter ego of Wilde, Jack represents the idea of leading a life of respectability on the surface (in the country) and a life of deception for pleasure (in the city). His name, Worthing, is related to worthiness, allowing Wilde to humorously consider the correct manners of Victorian society. As a recognized upper-class Victorian, Jack has earned respectability only because of his adopted father's fortune. It has put him in a position to know the rules of behavior of polite society. His ability to spout witty lines about trivial subjects and say the opposite of what is known to be true are learned results of his position.

When Lady Bracknell questions his qualifications for marrying her daughter, he knows she wants to hear about his pedigree. He recognizes that he needs the correct parents along with his wealth. Of particular significance is Jack's role in the dialogues about social attitudes and rituals, such as courtship and marriage. He often plays the straight man to counter Algernon's humor, but occasionally, he gets the witty lines. Respectability is also a function of Jack's character. Although he leads a deceptive life in town, he represents the ideal of leading a responsible life in the country. He agrees more with the idea of Victorian earnestness or duty than Algernon does. However, because he deceives people in the city, he is still a symbol of Wilde's deceptive life of pleasure in the homosexual community. Jack longs for the respectability of marrying Gwendolen and is willing to do whatever it takes. In the long run, he assumes his rightful place in the very society he has occasionally skewered for its attitudes. Wilde is able to soften Jack's respectability and position as a symbol of the ruling class by showing his enormous sense of humor.

The funeral garb for his fake brother's death and the story about the French maid both show that while Jack longs for respectability, he still has the wit and rebelliousness to recognize the ridiculous nature of trivial Victorian concerns. Characters in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com Characters in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Watch short & fun videos Start Your Free Trial Today An error occurred trying to load this video. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. You must create an account to continue watching Register for a free trial Are you a student or a teacher? I am a student Start Your Free Trial To Continue Watching As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed. Coming up next: The Crucible by Arthur Miller: Characters, Themes & Analysis You're on a roll. Keep up the good work! Your next lesson will play in 10 seconds 0:02 Jack & Ernest Worthing 3:45 Miss Prism & Dr.

Chasuble 4:35 Lesson Summary Add to Add to Add to Want to watch this again later? Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Custom Courses are courses that you create from Study.com lessons. Use them just like other courses to track progress, access quizzes and exams, and share content. Teachers Organize and share selected lessons with your class. Make planning easier by creating your own custom course. Students Create a new course from any lesson page or your dashboard. From any lesson page: Click "Add to" located below the video player and follow the prompts to name your course and save your lesson. From your dashboard: Click on the "Custom Courses" tab, then click "Create course". Next, go to any lesson page and begin adding lessons. Edit your Custom Course directly from your dashboard. Personalize: Name your Custom Course and add an optional description or learning objective. Organize: Create chapters to group lesson within your course. Remove and reorder chapters and lessons at any time. Share your Custom Course or assign lessons and chapters. Teacher Edition: Share or assign lessons and chapters by clicking the "Teacher" tab on the lesson or chapter page you want to assign.

Students' quiz scores and video views will be trackable in your "Teacher" tab. Premium Edition: You can share your Custom Course by copying and pasting the course URL. Only Study.com members will be able to access the entire course. Create an account to start this course today Try it free for 5 days! Lesson Transcript Instructor: Debbie Notari In this lesson, we'll take a look at the humorous play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde and get to know the main characters. Through a twist of events, the real 'Ernest' appears at the end of the play, and the character of Jack Worthing learns how important it is to be honest and sincere. Jack & Ernest Worthing Let's get to know the cast of characters in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. First, there's Jack Worthing. Jack is an orphan who was adopted by a wealthy man named Thomas Cardew, who is now dead. Jack is the guardian for Cecily Cardew, Thomas Cardew's 18-year-old granddaughter. Jack is respected in his community, and is an upstanding citizen who not only owns land but serves as a justice of the peace. Jack resides in the town of Hertfordshire.

However, Jack lives a double life. Jack pretends to have a wild younger brother, Ernest Worthing, who lives in London; Jack visits him on a fairly regular basis to help keep him on the right path, so he says. (Notice that although the title spells 'Earnest' with and 'a,' this 'Ernest' has no 'a'.) At any rate, Ernest is a figment of Jack's imagination. When Jack tells everyone back home that he is going to visit his brother Ernest, he is really living a double, less reputable life that involves partying and generally living it up. Jack would never live like that back home. Cecily Cardew As we learned previously, Cecily Cardew is Jack's ward, and the granddaughter of Jack's now deceased benefactor, Thomas Cardew. Cecily is impressionable, and that is probably why Jack hides his wild side from her by impersonating Ernest. However, Cecily has built up an imaginary, romantic picture of Jack's 'brother' Ernest and has fallen in love with him.

Cecily has given Jack a cigarette case that eventually gives away his identity as it is inscribed to 'Uncle Jack' from 'Little Cecily.' Cecily eventually meets and falls in love with Jack's friend from London, Algernon, who is posing as the imaginary Ernest. Cecily, like Gwendolen, feels that the name 'Ernest' 'inspires absolute confidence.' Confused? The plot gets even crazier! Algernon Moncrieff Algernon Moncrieff is Jack's friend in London. He is very wealthy, and is the cousin of the woman Jack loves, Gwendolen. Algernon finds Jack's cigarette case, and confronts Jack with living a double life. Jack admits his duplicity and tells Algernon that he thinks it might be best for the fictitious 'Algernon' to die because Cecily is overly interested in him. As Jack talks about Cecily, Algernon begins to be interested in her. In fact, he beats Jack home and begins courting Cecily, pretending to be Jack's brother, Ernest.

Like Gwendolen, she reveals her fascination with the name 'Ernest.' Gwendolen & Lady Bracknell Gwendolen Fairfax is Algernon's cousin who has a huffy, self-important mother named Lady Bracknell. Gwendolen loves Jack, who she knows as 'Ernest.' When 'Ernest' proposes, she says yes, but her mother refuses to give her permission to marry Jack after she realizes that Jack has no family or connections. To complicate things, Gwendolen seems fixated on the name 'Ernest.' When Jack beats around the bush by saying that he doesn't feel the name 'Ernest' especially 'suits' him she replies, 'It suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations,' and that 'the only really safe name is Ernest.' She believed that it is her destiny to marry someone with the name 'Ernest' and that the name 'inspires absolute confidence.' This, of course, presents a problem for Jack!

× "The Importance of Being Earnest": Jack and Algernon During Act One, protagonist Jack Worthing reveals a most unusual and amusing backstory: As a baby, he was accidentally abandoned in a handbag at a railway station. A wealthy man, Thomas Cardew, discovered and adopted the child. The child was named Worthing, after the seaside resort which Cardew visited. Jack Worthing grew up to become a wealthy land-owner and investor. Jack also became the legal guardian of Cardew’s granddaughter, Cecily. Jack’s Double Life: Double identities are commonplace throughout Oscar Wilde ’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Despite his façade of high moral character, Jack Worthing has been living a lie. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World As the central character of the play, Jack might seem serious at first glance. He is far more proper and less ridiculous than his dandified friend, Algernon Moncrieff. In many productions of Earnest, the protagonist has been portrayed in a somber, straight-faced manner.

Dignified actors such as Sir John Gielgud and Colin Firth have brought Jack Worthing to life on stage and screen, adding an air of dignity and refinement to the character. But don’t let appearances fool you. Jack’s relatives and neighbors believe him to be a moral and productive member of society. Yet, Jack’s first line in the play explains his true motivation for escaping his country home for the excitement of the city: JACK: Oh pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere? So, despite his stuffy outward appearance, Jack is a hedonist. He is also a liar. He has invented an alter-ego, a fictional brother named “Ernest.” His life in the country has been so tedious that he wanted to create a reason to abandon his dreary and dutiful persona. JACK: When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so.

And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. Jack Loves Gwendolen: Despite his deceptive nature, Jack is sincerely in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the daughter of the aristocratic Lady Bracknell. Because of his desire to marry Gwendolen, Jack is anxious to “kill off” his alter-ego Ernest. The problem: Gwendolen thinks that Jack’s name is Ernest. Ever since she was a child, Gwendolen has been infatuated with the name. Jack decides not to confess the truth of his name until Gwendolen forces it out of him in Act Two: JACK: It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind. However, I will tell you quite frankly that I have no brother Ernest. I have no brother at all.

Fortunately for Jack, Gwendolen is a forgiving woman. Jack explains that he arranged a christening, a religious ceremony in which he will officially change his name to Ernest once and for all. The gesture touches Gwendolen’s heart, reuniting the couple. (SPOILER: Of course, Jack will be in for a surprise in Act Three when he discovers that he actually does have a brother – his best friend Algernon!) The Witty Scoundrel: Algernon Moncrieff One of the reasons Jack seems comparatively serious is due to the irreverent and playful nature of his friend, Algernon (“Algy”) Moncrieff. Of all the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest it is believed that Algernon is the embodiment of Oscar Wilde’s personality. Algy exemplifies wit, satirizes the world around him, and views his own life as art’s highest form. Like Jack, Algy enjoys the pleasures of the city and high society. (He also enjoys muffins and comes off as a bit of a glutton!) Unlike Jack, Algernon loves to offer urbane social commentary about class, marriage, and Victorian society.

Here are a few gems of wisdom, compliments of Algernon (AKA Oscar Wilde): Relationships: “Divorces are made in heaven.” Family: “Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.” Modern Culture: “Oh! It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.” Jack avoids such commentary. He finds some of Algy’s sayings to be nonsense. And when Algernon does say something that rings true, Jack finds it socially unacceptable to be uttered in public. Algy, on the other hand, likes to stir up trouble. Algernon has also been leading a double life. He has created a friend named “Bunbury.” Whenever Algy wants to avoid a boring dinner party, he says that Bunbury has fallen ill. Then Algernon cavorts off to the countryside, seeking amusement. During Act Two, Algernon intensifies Jack’s conflict by posing as Jack’s delinquent brother Ernest.

Algernon Loves Cecily: During their first encounter, Algy falls in love with Cecily, Jack’s pretty eighteen-year-old ward. Of course, Cecily does not know Algy’s true identity at first. And like Jack, Algernon is willing to sacrifice his namesake in order to win his love’s hand in marriage. (Like Gwendolen, Cecily is enchanted by the name “Ernest”). Both men go to great lengths in order to make their lies become the truth. And that is the heart of the humor behind The Importance of Being Earnest. British Literature Wiki - The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest Aestheticism, Performance and The Importance of Being Earnest Algernon and Jack "I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked." -Jack Worthing, Act II "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing." - Gwendolen Fairfax, Act III "Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.

Can you forgive me?" -Jack Worthing, Act III Abstract This paper links Oscar Wilde 's play, The Importance of Being Earnest, to aestheticism , the movement to which Wilde belonged. It explores the idea of performance, specifically, how the main characters' personalities both change and remain unchanged within these performances. The first goal is to establish Algernon and Jack as opposite characters who are both artificial because they both put on a performance, or pretend to be Ernest. It then aims to demonstrate that artificiality should be morally neutral because every human being is required to be artificial in life. After coming to this realization, we are able to disregard the characters' artificial natures and finally conclude that Jack is moral and Algernon is immoral solely on the basis of their personalities, rather than on any degree of artificiality they display. Background Information The Importance of Being Earnest, is truly a product of its time, an artistic testament to the values of the aesthetic movement. It was first performed at the St. James' Theatre in London on February 14th, 1895.

This era, the end of the Nineteenth Century, is typically described as fin de siècle-- a French word that literally means the end of the century, but which implies much more. Bergonzi notes that the phrase was “applied to a wide range of trivial behavior, provided it was sufficiently perverse or paradoxical or shocking” (19). In order to behave in this manner, many aesthetes adopted a conscious mode of performance, as it took effort to "shock" others. Their reason for doing so was mostly to disrupt, or counteract, the strict morality that characterized the Victorian Age. The aesthetes, and many others, sought an alternative lifestyle, or one that was not subjected to the Victorian perception of morality. Performance Performance is a central theme in The Importance of Being Earnest. Both of Wilde's main characters, Jack and Algernon, lead double lives, which means that they are each pretending to be someone they are not, or performing. Jack creates a younger, troublesome brother for himself, named Ernest, whom he pretends to be in the city. After discovering Jack's secret, Algernon also takes on the role of Ernest, though he is no stranger to the double life.

(Algernon had already invented an invalid friend named Bunbury, whom he pretended to visit frequently.) Essentially, both Jack and Algernon become actors in their own lives and have to craft separate performances for these additional roles. When they do become these alternative characters, however, they do not completely abandon their old selves. Jack and Algernon retain many of they key aspects of their original personalities within their performances. Algernon Moncrieff: Intensely Wicked Algernon, as a member of the upper-class, is both idle and indulgent. He never attends to his responsibilities nor does he keep his commitments. In fact, he frequently uses Bunbury as a means of escaping dinner parties which he has promised to attend. Wilde uses Algernon as a means of criticizing the elite of his society and to condemn the old Victorian values to which aestheticism was strongly opposed. In order to do so, he has Algernon deliver many hypocritical lines, such as, “[the lower orders] seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility” (Wilde 184).

Such a statement would have been extremely ironic at the time, as it was the upper classes to which Algernon belongs, that were identified as suffering from moral degradation (Huggins 589-590). Algernon is also a charming, playful character, which implies that he has a certain knack for performance. His charm comes in the form of many brilliantly witty statements that are intended to both "shock" and amuse his audience. In Act One, he declares, "You don't seem to realize, that in married life three is company and two is none" (Wilde 190). Algernon implies that in order to have a successful marriage, one must have another person on the side. He is referring to his own "bunburying," which means that the third person is actually himself. It is this ambiguity that allows Algernon to pull off such an indecent statement. He is able to suggest the necessity of infidelity without actually committing to his suggestion. Another of Algernon's personality traits is selfishness.

He allows his dear friend, Jack, to dig himself into a hole in regards to the cigarette case, before admitting that he suspected Jack of being a “bunburyist” all along (188). He is deeply amused by Jack's unsuccessful attempts to conceal the truth and is unaffected by Jack's discomfort. When Algernon acts as Ernest, these personality traits intensify. Upon his arrival in the country, it is made clear that he will continue to neglect his responsibilities. He says to Jack's ward, Cecily, "I have a business appointment that I am anxious... to miss" (209). He also continues to treat life in a playful, trivial manner. When Cecily calls him her Uncle Jack’s “wicked” brother, Algernon denies it (208). After sensing that Cecily is quite disappointed that this is not true, Algernon quickly retorts, “Oh! Of course I have been rather reckless!” (209) With this interaction he exposes both his ability to adapt quickly and to say precisely what one would like to hear, which are both indicative of strong improvisational skills.

Since Algernon is aware that Cecily has shown an interest in Ernest, he puts his skills to use in wooing her. He tells her, "I want you to reform me. You might make that your mission, if you don't mind, cousin Cecily" (209-210). Algernon's attempts to charm Cecily reemphasize his selfish nature, as he does so without Jack’s permission. Furthermore, he is fully aware that Jack intends to "kill off" Ernest, yet he disregards the difficulties his arrival will cause Jack in doing so. Moreover, Algernon's affections for Cecily seem implausible as they have just met. In professing his intent to marry her, he completely negates the cynical remarks he previously made about marriage. Therefore, Algernon's tendency to indulge reaches a climax as he throws himself into more hypocrisy. Previously, he was eating and drinking freely, now he is professing his love for another without restraint. Proving to be the ideal match for Algernon, Cecily emphasizes Algernon's personality traits by mirroring them to an extent.

For example, she claims to return his love and admits that she has felt this way since her Uncle Jack first started talking about how “wicked” he was. She has even given herself gifts and letters from Ernest, which Algernon pretends to have sent, although both characters know that this is a complete fallacy. This shows that neither of the characters places much value on pursuing the truth. They make whatever appeals to them most at the time their own truth, and furthermore, they are delighted by the dramatics and the performance involved in carrying on an unwelcome love affair. Their resolve to create their own reality is emphasized when Cecily asks Algernon, “I hope your hair curls naturally, does it?” He replies “Yes, darling, with a little help from others” (219). Rather than pointing out the obvious contradiction in his response, Cecily simply responds, “I am so glad” (220). Therefore, Algernon's personality traits carry over into his performance as Ernest. Though he pretends to be more "wicked" than he really is, he maintains most of his own characteristics. His mode of performance is more of an amplification of his own personality rather than the crafting of an entirely new character.

Jack Worthing: Unwittingly Earnest Whereas Algernon is idle, hypocritical, playful, and selfish, Jack is almost the complete opposite. Wilde emphasizes their opposing natures by having Jack contradict many of Algernon’s more ridiculous statements. For example, Algernon claims, “The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.” Jack replies, “Oh, that is nonsense" (186). Jack repeats this retort frequently throughout the First Act, which in turn, causes the audience to identify him as their source of sense. Jack even expresses a certain reluctance to continue living a double life. He claims that he will “kill off” his brother Ernest, as soon as Gwendolen accepts his marriage proposal. Algernon, however, says that “Nothing will induce [him] to part with Bunbury...” (190). These lines show that Jack understands the consequences of carrying on such a lifestyle and that he desires to be truthful with Gwendolen, whereas Algernon refuses to take himself and his lifestyle seriously. Jack is also sincere in his affections for Gwendolen.

He professes his love only after courting her for an acceptable amount of time, which makes his assertion much more dependable than Algernon's. When it comes to caring for Cecily, Jack is very responsible. Not only does he outline a strict course of study for her, but he also provides a perfect example of sobriety with his own demeanor. In fact, her teacher, Miss Prism, claims to "know no one who has a higher sense of duty and responsibility" (205). However, Jack is not an untouchable, stoic figure in her life. He shows tenderness and general concern for Cecily. For example, in Act Two, Jack refuses to shake Algernon's hand. He eventually overcomes his own pride and does so, but only after Cecily says that she will never forgive him if he doesn't (215). When Jack acts as Ernest, he lets loose a little, but still manages to maintain his respectability. For example, when Lady Bracknell separates Gwendolen and Jack, the stage directions indicate that they "blow kisses to each other behind Lady Bracknell's back" (196).

Such an action seems foolish for a respectable man like Jack, but the audience can over-look this instance simply because his love for Gwendolen comes across as sincere. He even seems to mimic Algernon's indulgent personality to some extent. When Algernon asks why he is in London, Jack responds, "Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?" (184). We can see from these lines that he is much more carefree as Ernest and not weighed down by the pressure of providing a good example for Cecily. Unlike Algernon, however, Jack is not over-indulgent. He only comes to town after he has attended to his duties in the country. Jack also loses some of his composure in portraying Ernest. When being badgered by Lady Bracknell, who wishes to discern whether or not he is a suitable match for Gwendolen, he initially remains calm but is still firm in his responses. For example, when Lady Bracknell says that his lack of family history is unsuitable, he responds, "May I ask you then what you would advise me to do?

I need hardly say I would do anything in the world to ensure Gwendolen's happiness" (199). He refuses to give up his pursuit of Gwendolen, but still questions Lady Bracknell in a polite fashion. Eventually Jack does lose his temper with her, which causes her to storm out of the room indignantly (199). By this point, however, Lady Bracknell has become so ridiculous in her inquiries that one can hardly blame Jack for getting upset. Therefore, when Jack acts as Ernest, he is slightly more playful, indulgent, and less composed, yet he is still respectable. In performing, or in acting as Ernest, both Jack and Algernon alter their personalities, yet they do not fully abandon their original personalities. Essentially, Jack and Algernon are two very different characters; they are almost opposites. This fact will be important in trying to discern the morality of each character. Artificiality & Morality Performance, or pretending to be something that one is not, is a type of artificiality. Therefore, though Jack and Algernon are two very different characters, each is artificial as they both pretend to be someone they are not-- Ernest.

Furthermore, we tend to view artificiality as a negative attribute, even deeming it as "immoral" since it requires one to be dishonest. Under these constraints, both the disreputable Algernon and the respectable Jack would be immoral characters. Wilde would disagree with this negative view of artificiality and with the consequential negative judgement of his characters. The opening remarks in his Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young, are as follows, “The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.” He justified such an assertion through the aesthetic belief that life should imitate art. Essentially, this means that each person becomes an actor and the world becomes a stage on which he must perform. A fellow aesthete, Arthur Symons, remarked that “[Wilde’s] intellect was dramatic, and the whole man was not so much a personality as an attitude... without being an artist, he maintained the attitude of an artist, and it was precisely in his attitudes that he was most sincere” (Miyoshi 24). Every word that Wilde spoke and every action he took was carefully planned out in order to portray himself in the manner he desired.

He felt it was important to exercise control over one’s own image, and he did so by embracing artificiality, or by becoming a master of performance. Though we may not all be masters of performance, we are all performing nonetheless. Therefore if it is impossible to be authentic, how can one be deemed immoral for being artificial? Wilde and the aesthetes would have resolved this issue by calling for a complete divide between artificiality and morality. For them, artificiality was morally neutral. They arrived at this conclusion by way of the aesthetic belief that art should be autonomous, or separate from any type of moral instruction. Vernon Lee explains, “to appreciate a work of art means, therefore, to appreciate that work of art itself, as distinguished from appreciating something outside it, something accidentally or arbitrarily connected with it" (qtd. in Evangelista 5). Algernon and Jack’s performances, as well as all of ours, are a form of art, and as a result, should not be subjected to any type of moral judgment. Within the play, Wilde arrives at this conclusion by having Jack question whether or not one is truly capable of being honest and authentic.

When Jack is forced into admitting that he never had a brother named Ernest, he says, “It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind” (227-228). Beyond the obvious humor in these lines, there is a serious philosophical statement being made. Jack transcends his own character and speaks for all of humanity. He is simply repeating Algernon’s earlier assertion that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple” in a more personal and purposeful way (189). With these lines, Jack points out how absurd it is to be forced to tell the truth because humans are incapable of deciphering and pinpointing a thing as complex as the truth. Essentially, artificiality, a form of dishonesty, is a universal trait of humanity. Therefore, Jack and Algernon must be judged for what lies beneath their artificialities-- their personalities. As discussed above, Jack possesses all the traits of a moral figure. He is sensible, responsible, and sincere. On the other hand, Algernon is the immoral figure.

He is idle, indulgent, playful and selfish. 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. This revelation proves that the acts of being artificial and truthful are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as Jack ends up being honest despite his artificiality. In a classically Wildean fashion, the play leaves us with the paradoxical understanding that the only way to be natural is to be artificial. Clips from the South Coast Repertory's production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Specific examples of performance as discussed above begin around the 00:57 mark. References: Algernon and Jack photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Bergonzi, Bernard. The Turn of a Century; Essays on Victorian and Modern English Literature. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973. Print. Evangelista, Stefano. British Aestheticism and Ancient Greece: Hellenism, Reception, Gods in Exile.

Great Britain: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. Huggins, Mike J. "More Sinful Pleasures? Leisure, Respectability and the Male Middle Classes in Victorian England." Journal of Social History 33.3 (2000): 585-600. JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. < > Miyoshi, Masao. The Theme of the Divided Self in Victorian Literature. Diss. New York University, 1963. Ann Arbor: Photocopy, 1968. Print. The Important of Being Earnest video clips courtesy of South Coast Repertory. Video can be found on their YouTube channel: Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. New York: Modern Library, 2003. Print. Contributor: Delanie Laws SparkNotes: The Importance of Being Earnest: Analysis of Major Characters The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde Themes, Motifs, and Symbols Jack Worthing Jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist, was discovered as an infant by the late Mr.

Thomas Cardew in a handbag in the cloakroom of a railway station in London. Jack has grown up to be a seemingly responsible and respectable young man, a major landowner and Justice of the Peace in Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate. In Hertfordshire, where he is known by what he imagines to be his real name, Jack, he is a pillar of the community. He is guardian to Mr. Cardew’s granddaughter, Cecily, and has other duties and people who depend on him, including servants, tenants, farmers, and the local clergyman. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible younger brother named Ernest, whom he is always having to bail out of some mischief. In fact, he himself is the reprobate brother Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, where he really goes on these occasions. The fictional brother is Jack’s alibi, his excuse for disappearing from Hertfordshire and going off to London to escape his responsibilities and indulge in exactly the sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his brother.

More than any other character in the play, Jack Worthing represents conventional Victorian values: he wants others to think he adheres to such notions as duty, honor, and respectability, but he hypocritically flouts those very notions. Indeed, what Wilde was actually satirizing through Jack was the general tolerance for hypocrisy in conventional Victorian morality. Jack uses his alter-ego Ernest to keep his honorable image intact. Ernest enables Jack to escape the boundaries of his real life and act as he wouldn’t dare to under his real identity. Ernest provides a convenient excuse and disguise for Jack, and Jack feels no qualms about invoking Ernest whenever necessary. Jack wants to be seen as upright and moral, but he doesn’t care what lies he has to tell his loved ones in order to be able to misbehave. Though Ernest has always been Jack’s unsavory alter ego, as the play progressesJack must aspire to become Ernest, in name if not behavior. Until he seeks to marry Gwendolen, Jack has used Ernest as an escape from real life, but Gwendolen’s fixation on the name Ernest obligates Jack to embrace his deception in order to pursue the real life he desires.

Jack has always managed to get what he wants by using Ernest as his fallback, and his lie eventually threatens to undo him. Though Jack never really gets his comeuppance, he must scramble to reconcile his two worlds in order to get what he ultimately desires and to fully understand who he is. Algernon Moncrieff Algernon, the play’s secondary hero, is closer to the figure of the dandy than any other character in the play. A charming, idle, decorative bachelor, Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements that either make no sense at all or touch on something profound. 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’s fictional brother Ernest, Bunbury provides Algernon with a way of indulging himself while also suggesting great seriousness and sense of duty. However, a salient difference exists between Jack and Algernon.

Jack does not admit to being a “Bunburyist,” even after he’s been called on it, while Algernon not only acknowledges his wrongdoing but also revels in it. Algernon’s delight in his own cleverness and ingenuity has little to do with a contempt for others. Rather, his personal philosophy puts a higher value on artistry and genius than on almost anything else, and he regards living as a kind of art form and life as a work of art—something one creates oneself. Algernon is a proponent of aestheticism and a stand-in for Wilde himself, as are all Wilde’s dandified characters, including Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband, Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance, and Lord Henry Wootton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Unlike these other characters, however, Algernon is completely amoral. Where Lord Illingworth and Lord Henry are downright evil, and Lord Goring and Lord Darlington are deeply good, Algernon has no moral convictions at all, recognizing no duty other than the responsibility to live beautifully.

Gwendolen Fairfax More than any other female character in the play, Gwendolen suggests the qualities of conventional Victorian womanhood. She has ideas and ideals, attends lectures, and is bent on self-improvement. She is also artificial and pretentious. Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest, and she is fixated on this name. This preoccupation serves as a metaphor for the preoccupation of the Victorian middle- and upper-middle classes with the appearance of virtue and honor. Gwendolen is so caught up in finding a husband named Ernest, whose name, she says, “inspires absolute confidence,” that she can’t even see that the man calling himself Ernest is fooling her with an extensive deception. In this way, her own image consciousness blurs her judgment. Though more self-consciously intellectual than Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen is cut from very much the same cloth as her mother. She is similarly strong-minded and speaks with unassailable authority on matters of taste and morality, just as Lady Bracknell does. She is both a model and an arbiter of elegant fashion and sophistication, and nearly everything she says and does is calculated for effect.

As Jack fears, Gwendolen does indeed show signs of becoming her mother “in about a hundred and fifty years,” but she is likeable, as is Lady Bracknell, because her pronouncements are so outrageous. Cecily Cardew If Gwendolen is a product of London high society, Cecily is its antithesis. She is a child of nature, as ingenuous and unspoiled as a pink rose, to which Algernon compares her in Act II. However, her ingenuity is belied by her fascination with wickedness. She is obsessed with the name Ernest just as Gwendolen is, but wickedness is primarily what leads her to fall in love with “Uncle Jack’s brother,” whose reputation is wayward enough to intrigue her. Like Algernon and Jack, she is a fantasist. She has invented her romance with Ernest and elaborated it with as much artistry and enthusiasm as the men have their spurious obligations and secret identities. Though she does not have an alter-ego as vivid or developed as Bunbury or Ernest, her claim that she and Algernon/Ernest are already engaged is rooted in the fantasy world she’s created around Ernest.

Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play, and she is the only character who does not speak in epigrams. Her charm lies in her idiosyncratic cast of mind and her imaginative capacity, qualities that derive from Wilde’s notion of life as a work of art. These elements of her personality make her a perfect mate for Algernon. More Help Character List Character List Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List John (Jack) Worthing A young, eligible bachelor about town. In the city he goes by the name Ernest, and in the country he is Jack — a local magistrate of the county with responsibilities. His family pedigree is a mystery, but his seriousness and sincerity are evident. He proposes to The Honorable Gwendolen Fairfax and, though leading a double life, eventually demonstrates his conformity to the Victorian moral and social standards. Algernon Moncrieff A languid poser of the leisure class, bored by conventions and looking for excitement. He, too, leads a double life, being Algernon in the city and Ernest in the country. Algernon, unlike Jack, is not serious and is generally out for his own gratification.

He falls in love and proposes to Jack's ward, Cecily, while posing as Jack's wicked younger brother, Ernest. Lady Bracknell The perfect symbol of Victorian earnestness — the belief that style is more important than substance and that social and class barriers are to be enforced. Lady Bracknell is Algernon's aunt trying to find a suitable wife for him. A strongly opinionated matriarch, dowager, and tyrant, she believes wealth is more important than breeding and bullies everyone in her path. Ironically, she married into the upper class from beneath it. She attempts to bully her daughter, Gwendolen. The Honorable Gwendolen Fairfax Lady Bracknell's daughter, exhibiting some of the sophistication and confidence of a London socialite, believes style to be important, not sincerity. She is submissive to her mother in public but rebels in private. While demonstrating the absurdity of such ideals as only marrying a man named Ernest, she also agrees to marry Jack despite her mother's disapproval of his origins. Cecily Cardew Jack Worthing's ward, daughter of his adopted father, Sir Thomas Cardew.

She is of debutante age, 18, but she is being tutored at Jack's secluded country estate by Miss Prism, her governess. She is romantic and imaginative, and feeling the repression of Prism's rules. A silly and naïve girl, she declares that she wants to meet a "wicked man." Less sophisticated than Gwendolen, she falls in love with Algernon but feels he would be more stable if named Ernest. Miss Prism Cecily's governess and a symbol of Victorian moral righteousness. She is educating Cecily to have no imagination or sensationalism in her life. Quoting scripture as a symbol of her Victorian morality, she reveals a secret life of passion by her concern for the whereabouts of her misplaced novel and her flirtation with the local vicar. She becomes the source of Jack's revelation about his parents. Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D. Like Miss Prism, he is the source of Victorian moral judgments, but under the surface he appears to be an old lecher. His sermons are interchangeable, mocking religious conventions. Like the servants, he does what Jack (the landowner) wants: performing weddings, christenings, sermons, funerals, and so on.

However, beneath the religious exterior, his heart beats for Miss Prism. Lane and Merriman Servants of Algernon and Jack. Lane says soothing and comforting things to his employer but stays within the neutral guidelines of a servant. He is leading a double life, eating sandwiches and drinking champagne when his master is not present. He aids and abets the lies of Algernon. Merriman keeps the structure of the plot working: He announces people and happenings. Like Lane, he does not comment on his "betters," but solemnly watches their folly. His neutral facial expressions during crisis and chaos undoubtedly made the upper-class audience laugh. The Importance of Being Earnest | StageMilk Stage Milk / Plays / The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest Written by Stage Milk Team on March, 4th 2014 The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde, 1895) One of Wilde’s most important works, The Importance of Being Earnest is a clever farce. The main character is Jack Worthing, a respectable landowner. However, Jack has an alter-ego – Ernest.

Jack maintains the pretence that the pleasure seeking, disreputable Ernest is his brother, but when he heads off to get his “brother” out of trouble, he is in fact living the life of Ernest in order to enjoy himself fully with no repercussions on his fine upstanding life at home, especially as he has responsibility for a young ward named Cecily. Unfortunately for Jack, his alter-ego Ernest has a friend, Algernon who discovers that Ernest is in fact Jack. He is not shocked and sees this as an important part of a man’s life (he himself has an imaginary friend who he visits any time he needs to get out of something he doesn’t want to do). Algernon confronts Jack about his false identity when tells Algernon that he is going to ask for the hand of his cousin, Gwendolen, in marriage. Jack comes clean and explains all, but he makes the mistake of getting Algernon interested in Cecily… Gwendolen shares Jack’s romantic interest and tells him that it is his name she loves most, and couldn’t marry someone not called Ernest.

Her mother, the rather scary Lady Bracknell, puts forbids the love affair because Ernest has no background, having been found in a handbag at a station. The farce steps up a gear when Algernon invades Jack’s real life. Jack has decided to ‘kill off’ his fake brother Ernest, but cannot when Algernon shows up at his country home pretending to be the notorious Ernest. Jack has no choice but to go along with the charade, and his ward Cecily is completely captivated with her guardians “brother”, and she too feels that Ernest is simply the name to have! Jack and Algernon both decide to change their names. When Gwendolen shows up to see Jack (as Ernest), things get impossibly tangled, with Cecily and Gwendolen both under the impression that they are engaged to Ernest. The women confront Jack and Algernon and are united in mutual disgust by the truth. When the men assure them that all the lies were designed to enable them to spend time with the objects of their affection, they are flattered and appeased slightly… but Lady Bracknell is on her way.

Lady Bracknell again forbids Jack and Gwendolen’s marriage but is interested in the news that Cecily, the object of Algernon’s affection, is fabulously wealthy. Even when Jack tries to trade his agreement to the marriage of Cecily and Algernon in return for her agreement to his match with Gwendolen, she refuses. Until that is, a chance mention Cecily’s governess, a Miss Prism. When Miss Prism is fetched, it transpires that she once worked for Lady Bracknell’s sister and during that time left a baby in a railway station inside a handbag… making Jack the son of Lady Bracknell’s sister, and therefore Algernon’s older brother (and his original name was in fact Ernest!). The lovers are free to do as they please and everyone appreciates the importance of being Earnest. The play is full of the kind of witty humour that Oscar Wilde is rightly famed for – there is word play, sarcasm and great farcical comedy. There are also serious issues underlying the humour – the theme of marriage, for love, for money and for social standing, is very strong.

The idea of appearing respectable while living a secret, more hedonist life, is designed to critique Victorian morality. Character List Jack Worthing in The Importance of Being Earnest Character Analysis Jack and Algy We know what you’re thinking. Which one’s Jack and which one’s Algernon? It's hard to keep the two characters straight. Wilde built so many echoes into their actions and dialogue that on a first read, the two men seem like the same guy. Just consider their similarities: they are well-educated and well off; they are trying to get wives; they have butlers and imaginary friends. The men also share the traditional protagonist’s job of driving the plot: both characters work hard to secure their engagements, facing the stony judgment of Lady Bracknell. Both descend on the country—essentially in disguise—to deal with the problem of Brother Ernest. Both arrange for christenings they think will bring the happy ending of marriage. And neither of them changes very much throughout the course of the play. Why would Wilde make Jack and Algernon so much alike? Isn’t an author supposed to make characters individuals? Not necessarily.

And not in a parody, farce, or satire, all of which are genres that Wilde drew on for The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde is making fun of the Victorian upper class, to which both Jack and Algernon belong. Making light of the obsessions and faults of the upper class through Jack and Algernon at the same time is not only funnier, but it also makes Wilde’s point that the faults are in the society... not the individuals. Throughout the play, we do see that the two characters have distinct traits, which emerge most when they bicker with each other. Jack as Older Brother Even before he knows he’s an older brother, Jack acts like an older brother. As a guardian to Cecily, he’s used to setting down rules, even guiding curriculum, as we see in the tutoring scene with Miss Prism. Jack is bossy. In the first scene, he liberally dispenses "shoulds" to Algernon. Jack has no problem giving out one piece of advice after another: one shouldn’t read a private cigarette case, shouldn’t discuss modern culture, shouldn’t talk like a dentist, etc.

Jack isn't any less dishonest than Algernon, but he is more serious about keeping up his air of respectability. When he finally comes out with the truth about Cecily, "who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that [Algernon] could not possibly appreciate," he takes pains to separate himself from Algernon, who is "hardly serious enough" (I.79-83). Jack also has a bit of that older sibling control thing, enhanced with a tendency to get in bad moods when things don’t go his way. Wilde describes Jack's reaction as "irritable" three times in the play: when Algernon rushes him, when Lady Bracknell quizzes him on Cecily’s background, and when the same lady can’t remember his father’s first name. Jack is as willing as Algernon to humiliate himself to get what he wants—the entrance with him dressed all in mourning is priceless—but he’s less amused when things turn out badly: Jack: This ghastly state of things is what you call Bunburying, I suppose? Algernon: Yes, and a perfectly wonderful Bunbury it is. The most wonderful Bunbury I have ever had in my life.

(II.357-358) Algernon enjoys the social game, while Jack wants results. Jack on the Social Ladder The men are also distinct from each other in terms of their taste in women. Jack is attracted to Gwendolen, a "sensible, intellectual girl" (I.295). Gwendolen is a sophisticated city woman, and her style and education make her desirable to Jack. So does her good name—a department in which Jack, socially speaking at least, could stand to improve. Even before Jack discovers his true origins, he has a lot to gain from marriage into the Bracknell family (though he’ll have to deal with Lady Bracknell on a continual basis). The Importance of Being Earnest | Literawiki | Fandom powered by Wikia The Importance of Being Earnest 1,305pages on Share Promotional image for an amateur production of The Importance of Being Earnest. The Importance of Being Earnest (the full title of which is The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People) is a comic play in three acts by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde . It was first performed at St.

James's Theatre, London on February 14, 1895. The two main characters in the play, gentlemen of leisure from wealthy backgrounds named Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrief, both adopt the alias of Ernest Worthing at different times. It is revealed that, for some time, Jack Worthing has been leading a double life, going by the name of Jack in the country and pretending to be his non-existent brother Ernest in London. When his friend Algernon, who has been telling similar lies himself for a considerable time, finds out about this, he decides to pretend to be Ernest in order to see Jack's eighteen-year old ward Cecily. Algernon becomes engaged to Cecily under the name of Ernest. Jack has already become engaged to Algernon's cousin Gwendolen under the name of Ernest also. When the two women meet, they naturally believe that they are both engaged to the same man. The title is a pun on the name "Ernest", both Gwendolen and Cecily agreeing that they could only love a man by that name, and the word " earnest ", meaning "serious".

The Importance of Being Earnest can be enjoyed as a simple farce, although it has also been interpreted as a satire on the upper classes of Victorian Britain and the values of that society. There have been numerous adaptations of the play for television and radio and as an audiobook. Movie versions of The Importance of Being Earnest were released in 1952, 1992, 2002 and 2011. Operas based on the play were performed in 1963 and 2013. Contents Plot Act I Commemorative photo from the first performance of The Importance of Being Earnest on February 14, 1895. Jack (played by Sir George Alexander, on the right) tries to take back his cigarette case from Algernon (played by Alan Aynesworth, on the left). The play opens in the London home of Algernon Moncrief. Algernon is waiting for his aunt and his cousin, Lady Augusta Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen Fairfax, to come over for tea. The butler Lane announces that Algernon's friend, a man whom he knows as Ernest Worthing, has arrived.

Algernon's friend is happy to hear that Gwendolen will be coming over because he wishes to propose to her. Algernon asks his friend if Cecily could get in the way of the engagement. He reveals that he has his friend's lost cigarette case, with the inscription "from your little Cecily". However, when he looks at the cigarette case again, Algernon concludes that it does not belong to his friend because it is inscribed "To Uncle Jack". Algernon's friend has to admit the truth. His real name is John Worthing and he prefers to be called Jack. Cecily Cardew is the granddaughter of Thomas Cardew, the man who raised him. After Mr. Cardew died, Jack was made Cecily's legal guardian. Jack finds himself obliged to always set a good moral example when he is at his Hertfordshire home with Cecily. He invented his fictitious wicked younger brother Ernest to give him an excuse to go to London at any time, always claiming that his younger brother was in trouble and that he had to help him. Algernon is not too surprised to hear this news because he has been telling similar lies for some time. He pretends to have a sick friend called Mr.

Bunbury who lives in the country. Whenever Algernon wants to get out of any obligation, he simply says that Bunbury is ill again and that he has to visit him. Hilary Wiernik as Lady Bracknell in a 1980s London School of Economics student production. Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen arrive. Algernon finds an excuse to take Lady Bracknell out of the room so that Jack and Gwendolen can be alone. Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She happily accepts because, as she reveals, she had always wanted to love someone named Ernest. She says that she could never love anyone named Jack or John. Jack decides that he will have to get baptized under the name of Ernest. Having returned and found Jack on his knees, Lady Bracknell sends Gwendolen away and interviews him to determine if he will make a suitable husband for her daughter. She is largely happy with what Jack tells her about himself, until the question of his family comes up. Jack reveals that he does not know who he is by birth. He was raised by Thomas Cardew who found him in a handbag when he was a baby. The bag was given to Mr.

Cardew by mistake at the cloak room in Victoria Station. Mr. Cardew gave the baby the surname Worthing because he had a ticket to the Sussex seaside resort town of Worthing in his pocket when he was given the bag. Lady Bracknell refuses to allow her daughter to marry somebody who does not know who his parents were. Algernon asks Jack if he told Gwendolen the truth about his brother Ernest. Jack says that he did not but that he intends to kill Ernest off, saying that he died abroad to avoid having to have a funeral. Algernon asks again about Jack's eighteen-year old ward Cecily. Jack does not like the interest that Algernon is taking in her. Cecily returns. She tells Jack that her mother has forbidden her from marrying him but that she will always love him anyway. She asks Jack to give her his address in Hertfordshire. Algernon overhears and writes the address on his shirt cuff. Act II Dr. Chasuble (David Palmer Brown), Cecily (Patrina Caruana) and Miss Prism (Karen Eterovich) in a 2014 New York City production.

The second act opens in the garden of Jack Worthing's Hertfordshire home. His ward Cecily is supposed to be having a German lesson from her tutor Miss Prism, although she is more interested in writing in her diary. Miss Prism does not approve of diaries, preferring to rely on memory. For her part, Cecily thinks that memories are usually false and must be "responsible for nearly all the three-volume novels ". Miss Prism says that she once wrote a three-volume novel but lost the manuscript. The clergyman Dr. Chasuble arrives. Knowing that Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble are fond of each other, Cecily says that Miss Prism has a headache and should take a stroll with Dr. Chasuble to recover. The butler Merriman announces that Ernest Worthing has arrived. Cecily is excited at the prospect of meeting her guardian's wicked younger brother for the first time. Algernon, who is pretending to be Ernest, appears. He says that, unfortunately, he will have to leave before his brother Jack comes on Monday. Cecily finds him fascinating. She is disappointed when he denies being wicked but nevertheless pleased when he promises to change his ways for the better.

Jack returns unexpectedly early, wearing mourning clothes. He tells Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble that his brother Ernest died in Paris and will be buried there. He also asks Dr. Chasuble about the possibility of being baptized later that day. Cecily returns, surprised to see her guardian dressed in black. She announces the good news that Ernest Worthing has arrived. Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism are happy to hear that Jack's brother is not dead after all. Jack grudgingly shakes hands with Algernon. He is not happy to hear that Algernon intends to stay for a week or that he has been telling Cecily about his friend Mr. Bunbury. He arranges for a carriage to take Algernon to the train station as soon as possible. Algernon and Cecily sadly say good-bye to each other. The conversation between them quickly turns romantic, so much so that Algernon orders the carriage away and the two become engaged. Cecily tells Algernon that she had been fascinated by him from the moment she first heard about him, having always wanted to love a man named Ernest. She tells Algernon that, in her imagination, they had already been engaged for five months.

She shows him her diary entries about the engagement, the engagement ring and other presents that she bought herself and the love letters which she wrote herself. Algernon asks if she could marry a man with another name, such as Algernon. Cecily says that she could not. Algernon concludes that he will have to get baptized again to take the name of Ernest. He goes to make arrangements for his christening. Gwendolen (Amber Bogderwiecz), Merriman (Bob Wasinger) and Cecily (Patrina Caruna) in a 2014 New York City production. Merriman announces the arrival of Gwendolen, whom Cecily rightly guesses is an acquaintance of Jack's from London. The two women try to behave in a friendly manner, although they clearly dislike each other from the start. Gwendolen is unhappy to hear that the pretty young Cecily is Mr. Worthing's ward. Her relief at hearing that Cecily is the ward of Jack Worthing, not Ernest Worthing, is short lived when she hears that Cecily and Ernest have become engaged. Both women claim to be the rightful fiancée of Ernest, showing each other their respective diary entries to prove it.

When Jack and Algernon both return, the truth is revealed. Cecily and Gwendolen both want Jack to say where his brother Ernest is, since they are both engaged to him. Jack has to confess that he does not have a brother and Ernest was simply his own invention. The two women go into the house together to console each other. The two men tell each other that their respective lives of deception have come to an end. They also both announce their plans to shortly get baptized and take on the name of Ernest. Act III Gwendolen, Jack, Lady Bracknell, Algernon and Cecily in a 1980s London School of Economics student production. Cecily and Gwendolen make up their minds to forgive Algernon and Jack. Cecily asks Algernon why he pretended to be Ernest. She is pleased with his answer that he did so in order to go to Hertfordshire and meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack why he pretended to be his brother Ernest, suggesting that it was in order to have an excuse to go to London and see her. Jack agrees.

The two women continue to say that the men's names are a problem, although both men say that they are going to change their names to Ernest when they get baptized that afternoon. Lady Bracknell arrives to bring Gwendolen home. She insists that Gwendolen and Jack are not engaged and will never see each other again. However, she is pleased when she finds out that her nephew Algernon is engaged to Cecily, a young lady with an annual income of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds. The upcoming wedding of Algernon and Cecily appears to be a certainty, until Jack reminds Lady Bracknell that he is Cecily's legal guardian. Cecily cannot marry without her guardian's consent until she comes of age and, according to Thomas Cardew's will, Cecily will not come of age until she is thirty-five. Jack says that he will only allow Cecily to marry Algernon if Lady Bracknell allows him to marry Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell still refuses. Dr. Chasuble arrives, only to be told that the two baptisms he expected to perform will not now take place. He says that Miss Prism is waiting for him at the church. Lady Bracknell recognizes the name.

When Miss Prism arrives, Lady Bracknell sees that she is indeed the same woman whom she knew twenty-eight years earlier. She demands that Miss Prism tell her what happened to the baby that she lost. Miss Prism says that she mistakenly put the manuscript of her three-volume novel in the baby carriage and put the baby in her handbag, which she left at Victoria Station. Jack, Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell, Algernon and Cecily in a scene from Act III. Jack fetches the handbag in which he was found. Miss Prism confirms that it is hers. It is revealed that, since he was the baby who Miss Prism lost, Jack is the son of Lady Bracknell's sister and Algernon's older brother. Lady Bracknell is now happy to agree to the marriage of Gwendolen and Jack, although Gwendolen insists that she still could not marry someone who is not called Ernest. It is revealed that Jack was baptized as a baby and given the same name as his father. Unfortunately, Algernon does not know the name of the father who died when he was less than a year old.

Lady Bracknell does not know his name either, saying that even his wife, her sister, only ever referred to him as the General. Fortunately, Jack has a book which lists all officers in the British Army for the last forty years. He discovers that General Moncrief's name was Ernest. Consequently, it is his name too. Jack and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily and Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism all embrace. Lady Bracknell accuses Jack of being frivolous, to which he replies, "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta. I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital importance of being earnest."

Question: Jack Worthing is the main character in which Oscar Wilde play?
Answer: The Importance of Being Earnest