Use the text version of The Importance of Being Earnest to examine the values and beliefs of Victorian society. Re-read the section in Act III where Lady Bracknell visits the country to retrieve Gwendolen. This visit results in an encounter with the two couples who have become engaged. Note the values and beliefs of the Victorian society, as revealed by Lady Bracknell in this scene. Pay special attention to the questions Lady Bracknell asks, how the couples answer them, and Lady Bracknell's response to their answers. Record three values or beliefs of Victorian society. Support your claims with evidence from the text, explaining how your examples support your claim of the values and beliefs Lady Bracknell reveals.

Lady Bracknell visit the country to retrieve Gwendolen. Merriman discretely coughs to signal the entrance of Lady Bracknell. She desires an explanation for these hugs, and Gwendolen tells her that she is engaged to Jack. Lady Bracknell says that they are not engaged and insists that they cease all communication. She ask about "Algernon's invalid friend, Bunbury," and Algernon explains that he killed him that afternoon; Bunbury exploded. He also adds that he and Cecily are engaged. Immediately, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about Cecily's expectations. However, because she has a fortune of 130,000 pounds, Lady Bracknell believes her to have "distinct social possibilities."

Lady Bracknell gives her consent to Algernon's engagement, but Jack immediately objects as Cecily's guardian. He says that Algernon is a liar and lists all the lies he has told. Also, Cecily does not come into her fortune and lose Jack as a guardian until she is 35 years old. Algernon says he can wait, but Cecily says she cannot. So Jack, in a moment of brilliance, declares that he will agree to the marriage if Lady Bracknell will consent to his engagement to Gwendolen. That is out of the question, and Lady Bracknell prepares to leave with Gwendolen.

Dr. Chasuble arrives and announces that he is ready for the christenings. Jack replies that they are useless now, and Chasuble decides to head back to the church where Miss Prism is waiting. The name Prism shocks Lady Bracknell, and she demands to see the governess. When Miss Prism arrives, she sees Lady Bracknell and turns pale. In a moment of great coincidence, Lady Bracknell reveals that Miss Prism left Lord Bracknell's house 28 years ago. On a normal walk with the baby carriage, she disappeared, along with the baby. She demands to know where the baby is. Prism explains that in a moment of great distraction, she placed the baby in her handbag and her three-volume, manuscript in the baby carriage. The baby and handbag were accidentally left in the train station. When she discovered her error, she abandoned the baby carriage and disappeared. Jack excitedly asks her which station it was, and when she reveals that it was Victoria Station, the Brighton Line, he runs from the room and returns with a black leather bag. When Prism identifies it, he embraces her, believing her to be his mother. She protests that she is not married and says that he will have to ask Lady Bracknell for the identity of his mother.

Jack discovers that he is actually the son of Lady Bracknell's sister, Mrs. Moncrieff, and that Algy is his older brother. Jack is overcome to know that he really does have an unfortunate scoundrel for a brother. He asks what his christened name was, and Lady Bracknell explains that it is Ernest John. So, Jack asserts that he had been speaking the truth all along: His name is Ernest, and he does have a brother. Both couples embrace, as do Chasuble and Miss Prism, and Jack declares that he finally realizes the importance of being earnest.

Analysis and answer.

In Act III, Wilde utters a comment on the value of being homosexual with a veiled reference to Lady Lancing. When Lady Bracknell asserts that Cecily needs to have a more sophisticated hairstyle, she recommends "a thoroughly experienced French maid" who can make a great deal of change in a very short time. She explains that such a change happened to an acquaintance of hers, Lady Lancing, and that after three months "her own husband did not know her." Jack uses the opportunity to make a pun on the word know, using it in an aside — a comment only the audience can hear. Jack interprets know to mean they no longer had sex, insinuating Lady Lancing's preference for the French maid. He says, "And after six months nobody knew her," indicating that the homosexual experience made a new woman of her. Although homosexuality would have been seen as immoral to Wilde's audience, Jack indicates that being homosexual might be a good thing — almost as a social commentary — directly to the audience. It seems a double life is necessary after one is married, whether it be bunburying or the homosexual life Wilde was experiencing in an increasingly public way.

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