Importance of Being Earnest, The: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
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2003
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© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information)
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Importance of Being Earnest, The: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, a play by
O. Wilde, first performed 1895.
John Worthing (Jack) and Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff are in pursuit respectively of Gwendolen Fairfax (Algy's cousin) and Jack's ward, Cecily Cardew. Both young men lead double lives, in that Jack is known in town as Ernest, while representing to his ward Cecily in the country that he has a wicked brother Ernest; Algy has created a fictitious character, the sickly Bunbury, whose ill health requires a visit whenever engagements in town (particularly those with his formidable aunt Lady Bracknell) render his absence desirable. After many confusions of identity, during which it transpires that Cecily's governess, Miss Prism, had once mislaid Jack as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station, it is revealed that Jack and Algy are in fact brothers, and that Jack's name is indeed Ernest. All objections to both matches are thus overcome, and Gwendolen's addiction to the very name of ‘Ernest’ is satisfied.
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