Student Question
What was Jack's confession in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde?
Quick answer:
Jack's confession in "The Importance of Being Earnest" reveals he lives a double life. In the city, he is known as Ernest, while in the country, he is Jack. This deception allows him to escape the strict moral obligations of his role as a guardian by pretending to have a troublesome brother named Ernest, which gives him the freedom to act differently in the city under the guise of attending to his brother's affairs.
In the first act of the play, Algernon tells Jack that he has found the cigarette case Jack left behind the last time they were together. However, there is a great deal of drama about to whom the case belongs because it is addressed to someone called "Uncle Jack" from someone who calls herself "little Cecily." The case's ownership is in question because Algernon has always known Jack by the name of Ernest Worthing. Jack tries to make up some story about Cecily being his small aunt, but Algernon isn't buying it because, he wonders, why would an aunt -- even a small one -- call her nephew her uncle? And "Besides," he says, "your name isn't Jack at all; it's Ernest." To this, Jack replies simply, "It isn't Ernest; it's Jack."
He goes on to confess that he is called Ernest in the city and Jack in the country because
When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects [....]. And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one's health or one's happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who [...] gets into the most dreadful scrapes.
In other words, Jack finds his life of strict morality kind of a bore -- though he feels honor-bound to maintain at least the appearance of it because of his position as a guardian -- and so he's invented a brother called Ernest. Whenever he gets too bored at home, he says that he must go to town to take care of Ernest, and then he pretends to be Ernest when he's in town, so that he can enjoy behaving in ways that Uncle Jack cannot.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.