![]() While Algernon distracts Lady Bracknell offstage, Jack proposes to Gwendolen, who tells him that she has always longed to marry someone named Ernest and accepts. Algernon explains to Jack that he has done something similar by inventing a perpetually sick friend named Bunbury whose frequent illnesses serve as an excuse to avoid social obligations.Īlgernon’s aunt Augusta (Lady Bracknell) and his cousin Gwendolen (Miss Fairfax) enter the room. By using an alias in London, he also manages to displace any negative gossip about himself onto his fictional brother. Jack pretends that he has a dissolute brother named Ernest whom he must visit in London frequently. ![]() There, he is the guardian to Cecily Cardew, a young heiress, and must maintain his reputation with her as an upstanding, sober man. When “Ernest” asks Algernon for permission to propose to Algernon’s cousin Gwendolen Fairfax, Algernon demands to know why his friend’s cigarette case has an engraving addressed to “Uncle Jack.” Jack has been living a double life, going by the name Ernest in London and by his legal name in the country. The play centers upon two young men, Algernon Moncrieff and Jack “Ernest” Worthing, and the farcical misunderstandings that trip up their respective courtships. ![]()
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