Jack, who Gwendolen believes to be named Ernest, has confessed his romantic feelings to her, and she has acknowledged and confessed her own feelings in return. She also tells him that she has always wanted to be in love with someone named Ernest because the name inspires her with "absolute confidence." Jack becomes concerned, however, that Gwendolen will no longer love him when she finds out his real name, so he tells her that he doesn't like the name Ernest and has been considering changing his name to Jack. Gwendolen finds the name Jack (or John) to be rather sad and pathetic.

In all of this discussion about names, Jack forgets to actually propose marriage to Gwendolen, and he simply says that they ought to get married "at once" (presumably before she realizes that his name is not Ernest). Gwendolen feigns surprise when Jack mentions marriage because the subject, technically, has not been broached; Jack has not actually proposed because he was too concerned about her finding out about his real name first. Gwendolen wants, at least, to maintain the appearance of propriety, and so she insists on receiving an official proposal before she will accept. When Jack finally does go down on his knees to ask if she would marry him, she accepts immediately, commenting on how long it took him to actually get the words out!