Who Cecily Cardew is
Cecily Cardew is eighteen and lives at Jack Worthing's manor house in Hertfordshire. Her governess, Miss Prism, brings moral lessons and cautionary novels into her education. Cecily's imagination offers a contrast to the serious instruction that surrounds her.
What Cecily Cardew wants
Cecily is fascinated by Ernest, the supposedly wicked brother Jack has described for years. Before she meets the man she believes is Ernest, she has already imagined their courtship. Her diary records an engagement, and she buys herself a ring and writes love letters in his name.
Cecily Cardew and the others in the story
When Algernon Moncrieff arrives pretending to be Ernest, Cecily and her visitor quickly charm each other. He proposes, but she tells him their engagement has already existed for some time in her imagination.
Gwendolen Fairfax also wants to marry a man named Ernest, bringing the two women into comic conflict. Their polite meeting turns sharp when each believes the other is engaged to Ernest Worthing.
Questions
Who is Cecily Cardew?
Cecily is Jack Worthing's eighteen-year-old ward, whose imagined romance becomes part of the play's confusion over names.
Why does Cecily love Ernest?
Cecily is drawn to stories of Jack's supposedly wicked brother and to the name Ernest itself. She builds a romance around him before they meet.
How is Cecily connected to Algernon?
Algernon courts Cecily while posing as Jack's invented brother Ernest. She believes he is the person whose romance she has already written in her diary.
