Synopsis: The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

In fashionable London about the year 1895, Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff awaits a visit from his aunt Lady Bracknell. His friend Ernest Worthing arrives unexpectedly, happy to learn that Lady Bracknell will be accompanied by her daughter Gwendolen, to whom Ernest intends to propose. Algy, having found a cigarette case belonging to Ernest but inscribed to Uncle Jack from little Cecily, demands an explanation.

Cecily, it seems, is Ernest’s 18-year-old and “excessively pretty” ward, the granddaughter of the kind old man who adopted him. And Ernest is Jack. When he’s in the country, where Cecily lives, he pretends to have a dissolute younger brother named Ernest, who provides Jack a good excuse to escape the country whenever he chooses. In town, Jack is Ernest. In his friend, Algy recognizes a fellow “Bunbury-ist.” Algy has an imaginary friend named Bunbury, whose frequent illnesses oblige to him to break unwelcome social engagements at a moment’s notice in order to rush to his friend’s bedside.

When Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen arrive, Algy obligingly takes his aunt into another room so Jack can propose. Gwendolen immediately accepts, confessing that what won her heart was the name Ernest, which “inspires absolute confidence.” Jack has no choice but to be christened at once—as Ernest.

Lady Bracknell withholds her consent to the marriage. Interrogating Jack, she discovers he is suitable in all respects but one—he has lost his parents. Or, to be more precise, they have lost him. As an infant, he was found in a leather handbag at Victoria Station. She threatens that he will lose Gwendolen unless he locates at least one parent before the social season is over.

Algy, fascinated by the idea of an “excessively pretty” girl tucked away in the country, determines to go Bunbury-ing in her vicinity.

In the garden of Jack’s house in the country, Cecily is avoiding her lessons with her worthy governess, Miss Prism. Their scholarly discourse is interrupted by the arrival of Canon Chasuble, who finds Miss Prism particularly attractive. At Cecily’s suggestion, the two go for a walk.

A new arrival is announced—Algy, pretending to be Jack’s rakish brother, Ernest. It turns out that according to Cecily’s diary, the two of them have been engaged for several months. Cecily has also taken the precaution of writing Ernest’s love letters to her, since he has neglected to do so. Algy is happy to embrace the role assigned to him, Cecily’s betrothed. She invites him into the house.

Canon Chasuble and Miss Prism return from their walk just in time to greet Jack, newly arrived from town. He wears mourning clothes for his unfortunate brother, Ernest, who died of a chill in Paris. He arranges with the Canon to be christened later that afternoon. Then he is obliged to inform Cecily of Ernest’s demise, only to learn that the man is alive and well and on the premises. Jack is forced to go along with Algy’s masquerade.

Cecily, like Gwendolen, fell in love as much with the name Ernest as with the man. Algy makes an appointment to be christened.

Gwendolen is announced. Cecily welcomes her and invites her to tea, and all seems to be going amiably when each discovers that the other is engaged to Ernest. The world’s most impeccably well-mannered catfight ensues. Then the men appear, and when the women learn that neither is named Ernest, they clutch each other for protection and retire into the house, casting scornful looks at their former fiancés.

A bit later, the women watch from drawing room as the men repent in the garden (by steadily devouring muffins). When the women learn that both men intend to be christened that very day, the couples are reunited—and broken apart just as quickly by the arrival of Lady Bracknell. She still resolutely opposes the union of Gwendolen and Jack, although Cecily’s large fortune disposes her favorably toward Algy’s marriage. But Jack, as her guardian, refuses his consent. What’s more, Cecily won’t come of age till she’s 35, which condemns her and Algy to a “passionate celibacy.”

Canon Chasuble comes in to fetch Jack and Algy for their christenings. Miss Prism, he says, is waiting in the vestry. The name electrifies Lady Bracknell, and when Miss Prism sees her, she grows pale. It seems that some years earlier, in a fit of absent-mindedness, Miss Prism placed the manuscript of her three-volume novel in a bassinette and the baby she was minding in a large leather handbag. Jack, convinced he looks at last upon his mother, produces the handbag. Miss Prism is happy to reclaim her possession but denies in horror that she is Jack’s mother. Lady Bracknell proclaims that Jack is the son of her sister and is therefore Algy’s elder brother. Since he was named for his father, he is Ernest John. The happy couples are united—Jack, now officially Ernest, with Gwendolen, Algy with Cecily, Canon Chasuble with Miss Prism. Lady Bracknell deplores what she regards as signs of triviality, but Jack assures he that for the first time he understands the “vital Importance of Being Earnest.”