Earnest´s Plot



The importance of being earnest was the last play written by Oscar Wilde.  It was known as “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People”. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, the play is a ridiculous comedy in which the protagonists keep fictitious characters in order to escape of their obligations.

Jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist, lives in Hertfordshire, where he is guardian to Cecily Cardew. Jack lives a double life, in the country he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of Cecily, and goes by the name of Jack, while he says he must worry about an irresponsible brother named Ernest in London. In the city he assumes the identity of the libertine Ernest. In fact, no one but Jack knows that he is Ernest.

ACT I

At the beginning of Act I, Algernon Moncrieff, a young gentleman, receive his best friend, Ernest Worthing. Ernest has come from the country to propose to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen. Algernon, however, refuses his consent until Ernest explains why his cigarette case has the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack."  Jack tells Algernon about his fictional brother. Jack says he’s been thinking of killing this fake brother. Then Algernon confesses he pretends to have an invalid friend named Bunbury in the country, whom he can "visit" whenever he wants to avoid social obligation.

Gwendolen and her mother Lady Bracknell arrive, which gives Jack an opportunity to propose to Gwendolen .She accepts, but seems to love him also for his name of Ernest. Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack as a possible son-in-law, but when she discovered that he was adopted she refuses him and forbids further contact.

ACT II

In Act II, Algernon arrives in Hertfordshire announcing himself as Ernest Worthing and soon charms Cecily, meanwhile, Jack has decided to put his double life behind him. He arrives home and announces Ernest's death in Paris. Algernon, who has fallen in love with Cecily, asks her to marry him, she accepted so he plans to be christened as Ernest. Gwendolen, who arrives having run away from home, meets Cecily and both of them declares that she is the one engaged to Ernest.

ACT III

Act III takes place in the drawing room, where Cecily and Gwendolen are. When Jack and Algernon tell Gwendolen and Cecily that they have both want to be christened as Ernest that afternoon, all is forgiven. At this moment, Lady Bracknell arrives following his daughter. She is surprised by Algernon and Cecily’s engaged. However, she still refuses her daughter’s marriage.

But when Miss Prism appears Lady Bracknell recognizes the governess, twenty-eight years earlier she took her sister’s baby boy for a walk and never returned. Miss Prism explains that she had left the baby at Victoria Station. Then Jack realizes that he is that baby, therefore he is Algernon’s older brother and Gwendolen’s cousin. He also discovers that his father's name, his own real name, was Ernest.

Again the couples embrace and Jack acknowledges that he now understands “the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”