The Importance of Being Earnest is a play written by Oscar Wilde about a Victorian man named Jack who lives a double life. In the country, he is known as Jack and in the city he is known as Earnest. Jack is in love with a young woman named Gwendolyn yet to Gwendolyn, ‘Jack’ doesn't exist only ‘Earnest’. When the play begins, Jack is with his friend Algy at a bar like place and Algy discovers a cigarette case with an engraving from Cecily- Jack’s young ward. Algy had believed that Cecily was a lover of Jack’s but soon learns about Jack’s double life. In learning about Jack’s double life, we learn that Algy has something similar- a false friend named Bunbury who is always ill and is Algy’s scapegoat whenever he wishes to flee from his duties to his Aunt, Lady Bracknell. However, when Algy hears about Jack’s double life and about Cecily, Algy takes it upon himself to take on the alter-ego ‘Earnest’ and be Cecily’s ‘Earnest’. Jack does not want Algy anywhere near Cecily and fears that Algy will reveal Jack’s double life. Then when Algy goes to the country to meet Cecily, Gwendolyn also goes to the country to meet and speak to Earnest- aka Jack. The main problem is that Algy has also taken on the alias ‘Earnest’ for Cecily and the people only know Jack as ‘Jack’ in the country- Earnest is Jack’s younger more foolish brother. Therefore, when Gwendolyn meets Cecily and they learn that they both are to meet ‘Earnest’, they both hate each other. Then when the girls learn that, the men have been lying to them, Gwendolyn and Cecily team up to ignore the men as best as they could- but fail miserably since they love Jack and Algy. Things get truly heated when Lady Bracknell arrives to retrieve Gwendolyn. Lady Bracknell does not think that Jack is worthy of Gwendolyn and the only way that Jack has a chance with Gwendolyn is if he has a dramatic story about how he came to be. Jack tells the story of how he was a baby that had been found at a train station inside of a handbag. Lady Bracknell does not think this is enough and then when Ms. Prism recalls that she was the person who had left Jack in the handbag, Jack goes to a library to find his family and learn his ‘true’ name. The novel does not actually say whether Jack’s true name was Earnest but Jack claims that that is his name and ends with the ironic and paradoxical statement of “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
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