Jack Worthing is a pillar of the community in Hertfordshire,
where he is guardian to Cecily Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-year-old
granddaughter of the late Thomas Cardew, who found and adopted Jack when he was
a baby. In Hertfordshire, Jack has responsibilities: he is a major landowner
and justice of the peace, with tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and
other employees all dependent on him. For years, he has also pretended to have
an irresponsible black-sheep brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life
in pursuit of pleasure and is always getting into trouble of a sort that
requires Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely
Jack’s alibi, a phantom that allows him to disappear for days at a time and do
as he likes. No one but Jack knows that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the
name Jack goes by in London, which is where he really goes on these
occasions probably to pursue the very sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove
of in his imaginary brother.
Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his
best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When the play opens, Algernon, who knows Jack
as Ernest, has begun to suspect something, having found an inscription inside
Jack’s cigarette case addressed to “Uncle Jack” from someone who refers to
herself as “little Cecily.” Algernon suspects that Jack may be leading a double
life, a practice he seems to regard as commonplace and indispensable to modern
life. He calls a person who leads a double life a “Bunburyist,” after a
nonexistent friend he pretends to have, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to
whose deathbed he is forever being summoned whenever he wants to get out of
some tiresome social obligation.
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 estate. 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
harbored feelings for each other for the entire play.
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