A Summary

Elena’s Blog Entry #1
A Summary of the Events
Prior to Act III

Jack Worthing is the guardian of Cecily Cardew. Jack Worthing was adopted by Mr. Thomas Cardew, who found Jack when he was a baby. For years,Jack has pretended to have an irresponsible brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life that requires Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. Ernest is merely Jack’s alibi, and is the name he goes by in London. To add to this confusion, Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his best friend,Algernon Moncrieff.
Algernon suspects that Jack may be leading a double life, and pressured by his friend, he tells Algernon about his fictional brother. Gwendolen makes clear that she would not consider marrying a man who was not named Ernest. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother, forbids the match between Jack and Gwendolen. Meanwhile, Algernon shows up at Jack’s country estate posing as Jack’s brother Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack arrives home with a story about Ernest having died suddenly in Paris. He is enraged to find Algernon there masquerading as Ernest but has to go along with it.
Algernon falls in love with Cecily and asks her to marry him. She agrees, but he finds outs that Cecily’s interest in him is solely due to the name “Ernest”. Thanks to the name confusion, both Gwendolyn and Cecily think they are engaged to the same man. Jack and Algernon arrive at the climax of this confrontation, each having separately made arrangements to be christened Ernest later that day. The two women demand to know where Jack’s brother Ernest is, since both of them are engaged to be married to him. Jack is forced to admit that he has no brother and that Ernest is a complete fiction. Both women are shocked and furious, and they retire to the house arm in arm.