Play+Summary

Algernon is preparing for his aunt, Lady Bracknell, to arrive with her daughter, Gwendolen. Jack Worthing arrives first, and announces his plan to marry Gwendolen, and Algernon claims that he won't consent to their marriage until Jack explains why he has a cigarette case with the name Ernest inscribed on it.
 * __The Importance of Being Earnest__**

Jack goes on to explain how he made up the character Ernest so that he could visit the city, but he is known as Jack in the country, whose brother's name is Ernest. He lies and says the case is from his aunt Cecily, but Algernon calls his bluff and Jack confesses that he was adopted by Thomas Cardew, and that he is Cecily's guardian. Cecily is also Cardew's granddaughter. Algernon then talks about his imaginary friend named Bunbury, whom he visits in the country.

Lady Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen arrive, and Lady Bracknell talks about how she is expecting Algernon at a dinner party, to which he excuses himself from so that he can meet with Bunbury in the country. Jack proposes to Gwendolen when they are alone, and she explains how she is to marry a man named Ernest. Nevertheless, she accepts his proposal, and Jack decides to arrange a private christening so that he can become Ernest. Lady Bracknell returns and, seeing Jack on bended knee, demands an explanation. Denying the engagement, she sends Gwendolen to the carriage.

Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack to determine his suitability. When Jack explains that he was found in a handbag abandoned in a railway station, Lady Bracknell is shocked. Jack goes on to explain that Mr. Thomas Cardew found him in Victoria Station and named him "Worthing" for the destination of his train ticket. Lady Bracknell announces that Gwendolen cannot "marry into a cloakroom, and form an alliance with a parcel." She advises Jack to find some relations. She bids him good morning and majestically sweeps out as Algernon plays the wedding march from the next room. Turning his thoughts to Cecily, Jack decides to kill off his "brother" Ernest with a severe chill in Paris because Cecily Cardew, his ward, is far too interested in the wicked Ernest, and as her guardian, Jack feels it his duty to protect her from inappropriate marriage suitors.

Gwendolen returns and tells Jack they can never marry, but she will always love him, and she will try to change her mother's mind. She asks for his country address so that she can write him daily and, as he dictates the address, Algernon furtively writes it on his own shirt cuff because he is curious about Cecily Cardew.

Miss Prism is seated in the garden giving her student, Cecily Cardew, a lesson in German grammar. When Cecily expresses an interest in meeting Jack's wicked brother, Ernest, Miss Prism repeats Jack's opinion that his brother has a weak character. The governess knows what happens to people who have weak characters. In her younger days, Miss Prism wrote a three-volume novel, and she proclaims that fiction shows how good people end happily and bad people end unhappily.

The local reverend, Canon Chasuble, enters and flirts with Miss Prism. The two leave for a turn in the garden. While they are gone, Merriman, the butler, announces Mr. Ernest Worthing has just arrived with his luggage and is anxious to speak with Miss Cardew. Algernon comes in, pretending to be Jack's brother, Ernest. When Cecily says that Jack is coming to the country Monday afternoon, Algernon/Ernest announces that he will be leaving Monday morning. They will just miss each other. Algernon compliments her beauty, and they go inside just before Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble return.

When Doctor Chasuble and Miss Prism return, flirting mildly, they are surprised to find that Jack has returned earlier than he has said he would. Jack, dressed in full mourning clothes, gruelingly says that his “brother” Ernest has died, and while Miss Prism and Doctor Chasuble shockingly add their own condolences, Ernest remembers the need for christening his name to Ernest in order to be able to marry Gwendolen, so then makes plans with Doctor Chasuble to have the christening that afternoon.

In the mean time, Cecily comes up to the three and states that Jack’s brother Ernest (Algernon) has returned and is in the house waiting for Jack. To Jack’s bewildered surprise, he acts as if he is happy when Algernon confronts him in front of Doctor Chasuble and Miss Prism who he had just told that Ernest was dead. Going along with his own charade, Jack tries hard not to express his apparent anger towards Algernon for showing up to his country house and trying to woo his ward while trying not to get tangled in his own web of lies. Everyone exits except Algernon and Cecily, which gives Algernon the opportunity to show his dying love for Cecily and propose to her. She then tells him of her infatuation with him that she has had for some months, and goes on to tell him that she had created a romance between them in her mind that involved them engaged together for three months, love letters that she had written herself address from Ernest, and that they had recently annulled the engagement because of Ernest’s bad temper. Algernon is some what enchanted by this fake romance and wants to reconcile the engagement once again nevertheless.

Echoing Gwendolen, Cecily states that she loves the name Ernest and wants to marry someone of that name. Algernon goes off to find Doctor Chasuble to have his name christened to Ernest as well. In the meantime, Gwendolen appears in search of Ernest (Jack), but she runs into Cecily in the garden. They meet and exchange names and standings, Cecily stating that she is the ward of the man who owns the house, and Gwendolen states that she is in search for that very man, Ernest. Cecily then says that Ernest had just proposed to her, with Gwendolen replying that her and Ernest had already been engaged since the night prior. In all the confusion, they grow hateful towards each other before Jack finally enters, throwing his arms around Gwendolen. Cecily exclaims that the man she is holding is not Ernest, it is her guardian, Jack. Algernon then enters, and Cecily in turn says that this is Ernest and throws her arms around him. Gwendolen laughs and says that this man is not Ernest, it is her cousin Algernon. Both women exit to the house in disgust of neither of them being engaged to a man named Ernest.

While the women are in the house, Algernon and Jack squabble with each other over having been found out about each other’s lies. After a while they come back into the house where to newly formed sisters are attempting to ignore the two men. When the women give in a forgive them, the two state that they still want to marry a man named Ernest. So the women decide that the only thing to do is get a christening. Both the men agree to do so, and amongst the joyous reunion of the couples, Lady Bracknell enters. She is disgusted upon the fact that her daughter is still engaged to Jack and Algernon has acquired Cecily who she has never met. She probes Cecily for information as to see if she is a fit mate for her nephew, and when she states that she has a large amount of money in her trust, she automatically approves. Although, Jack being the guardian of Cecily doesn’t give his consent unless Gwendolen is to have consent to marry him. Under this debate, Doctor Chasuble comes in to state an announcement and then retires because he is meeting Miss Prism. Astounded by the name of Miss Prism, Lady Bracknell insists that she be brought in.

When Miss Prism is brought in, Lady Bracknell chastises her about an apparently lost baby she had lost many years ago. Miss Prism is intimidated by her and explains that she had made mistake and left it in a train station in a black bag those many years ago. Jack is dumbfounded by these words and runs upstairs to retrieve the black bag that he had been found in many years ago in the same train station. After careful speculation, Miss Prism confirms that the bag was once hers. Jack is rejoiced by having found his long lost mother, but Miss Prism turns to Lady Bracknell and tells Jack that she would know who his mother is, and that she isn’t her. Lady Bracknell explains that the baby long ago had belonged to her sister and that Jack had been her baby. Jack had been Algernon’s brother all along, and Gwendolen’s cousin. They would like to know who the father’s name was since Jack had been named after the father, and after researching, they found out that Jack’s name had always been Ernest.