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Learn more- Act I
Algernon Moncrieff is playing the piano offstage while his manservant, Lane, lays out afternoon tea for his master's two expected guests: his aunt, Lady Augusta Bracknell, and her daughter, Gwendolen.
Lane announces the arrival of Algernon's friend Ernest, who is also known as Jack Worthing - and who is utterly besotted with Gwendolen. Algernon has come across Ernest's cigarette case inscribed with the message 'From little Cecily, with her fondest love to dear Uncle Jack'. He declares that Ernest may not marry Gwendolen until he reveals the true identities of Jack and Cecily. Ernest explains that he is 'Ernest' in town and 'Jack' in the country, and that Cecily is his ward. As far as Cecily is concerned, Ernest is his ne'er-do-well younger brother who is always in some kind of trouble. Algernon admits that he also leads a double life by pretending to have an invalid friend named Bunbury who often requires his presence in the country.
Jack proposes to Gwendolen and is accepted. How can she not love a man whose name is Ernest? Having discovered that her daughter has become engaged, Lady Bracknell quizzes her future son-in-law about his lineage. When she discovers that he knows nothing of his parents and that he was adopted, having been found in a handbag at Victoria Station, she refuses to countenance the match. Jack manages to give Gwendolen his address in the country, which is also noted by Algernon who scribbles it on his cuff. As his guests depart, he tells Lane to put out his country clothes as he will be visiting his friend Bunbury.
Act II
In the country, Cecily is studying German with her governess, Miss Prism. Algernon, masquerading as her guardian's brother Ernest, arrives and quickly charms Cecily. It is her dream to marry a man who is wicked and bad and called Ernest. Algernon quickly makes plans for Dr Chasuble, the rector, to rechristen him Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack arrives with the sad news that Ernest has passed away in Paris. But Ernest is here, says Cecily.
Gwendolen also arrives in the country. As Cecily is giving her tea, the two young women discover that they are both engaged to 'Ernest'. United as sisters now, they expose Jack and Algernon as liars and leave them to quarrel with each other.
Act III
Cecily and Gwendolen tell Jack and Algernon that they will only marry men called Earnest. The pair are agreed: Dr Chasuble will have to rechristen them both.
Lady Bracknell has joined them in the country and is shocked to discover that her nephew appears to have become engaged to Cecily without her permission. But when she discovers that the young woman is in possession of a fortune, her doubts are banished. However, Jack - in his capacity as Cecily's guardian - refuses to give his consent to the marriage until Lady Bracknell permits him and Gwendolen to be united.
This Gordian knot is unloosed when Miss Prism reveals that twenty-eight years earlier, while working as a governess in the Bracknell household, she had inadvertently left a baby boy in a bag at Victoria Station. Discovering her error, she had fled. Jack produces the handbag. He is Lady Bracknell's long-lost nephew and therefore Algernon's older brother. His name is the same as that of his father, General Moncrieff which a search of the army records shows to be Earnest. Gwendolen is ecstatic. Now the two couples can be married and with them, Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble.
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