Act I
Gwendolen: 'My ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence.'
Read in Books4Free →The Name Ernest and Earnestness
From The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Gwendolen and Cecily both declare their romantic ideal is to love a man named Ernest, conflating the name with the moral quality. Wilde's central pun mocks Victorian moral seriousness by making sincerity itself a matter of superficial naming.
Act II
Cecily echoes the same fixation: 'There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence.'
Read in Books4Free →Act III
Jack's closing line: 'I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.'
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