Lady Bracknell’s departure leaves Jack alone in Algernon’s flat, his proposal rejected and his mysterious origins exposed as a social liability. He must now face his friend with the wreckage of his matrimonial ambitions.
Algernon strikes up the Wedding March as Jack enters, a cruel provocation that draws Jack’s furious demand for silence. The interview with Lady Bracknell has been a disaster. Gwendolen remains committed, but her mother has proven herself a Gorgon—a monster without the dignity of mythology. Algernon delights in hearing his aunt abused, declaring that such criticism is the only thing that makes relations tolerable. Jack’s anxiety turns to Gwendolen’s future: will she become like her mother? Algernon delivers his famous aphorism: all women become like their mothers, which is their tragedy; no man does, which is his. Jack, exhausted by the relentless cleverness of modern society, wishes for a few fools. Algernon observes that fools talk about clever people—a circular absurdity that only deepens Jack’s weariness.
The conversation turns to Jack’s fictional brother. When Algernon asks whether Gwendolen knows the truth about his double identity, Jack refuses with patronizing certainty: the truth isn’t the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. The hypocrisy of his position goes unremarked. Jack plans to kill off Ernest, claiming he died in Paris. Apoplexy is suggested, but Algernon warns it is hereditary; they settle on a severe chill. Jack mentions his ward Cecily—excessively pretty, only just eighteen—and refuses to let Algernon meet her. The prohibition only fuels Algernon’s curiosity.
Gwendolen arrives unexpectedly. She dismisses Algernon with a command to turn his back, then declares her eternal devotion to Jack. Her mother’s opposition has only deepened her fascination with his romantic origin and his Christian name. She extracts his country address—the Manor House, Woolton, Hertfordshire—and Algernon, listening carefully, writes it on his shirt-cuff. After Gwendolen departs, Algernon announces to Lane that he is going Bunburying tomorrow and will not return until Monday. He requests his dress clothes and “all the Bunbury suits.” Jack returns, praising Gwendolen as the only girl he ever cared for, while Algernon laughs behind his cigarette, reading the address on his cuff.
The scene shifts to the Manor House garden in Hertfordshire, where Miss Prism attempts to educate Cecily on a July afternoon. Cecily resists German lessons, complaining that the language makes her look plain. Miss Prism insists on intellectual improvement. Cecily observes that Uncle Jack seems so serious in the country—sometimes she thinks he cannot be quite well. Miss Prism corrects her: his gravity of demeanor is to be commended, and stems from constant anxiety about his unfortunate brother Ernest. The irony deepens: the “wicked” Ernest is pure fiction, yet he shapes everyone’s emotional reality. Cecily’s attention wanders to her diary, where she records the wonderful secrets of her life. The conversation turns to Miss Prism’s earlier days—she once wrote a three-volume novel, but the manuscript was “abandoned,” a word she hastily clarifies as lost or mislaid. Cecily prefers novels with unhappy endings; the good ending happily and the bad unhappily strikes her as unfair.
Dr. Chasuble arrives, and Cecily invents a headache for Miss Prism, enabling a private stroll between the two. Their flirtation proceeds through classical allusions—Egeria, bees, metaphorical declarations—parodying Victorian courtship rituals. Left alone, Cecily discards her books in disgust.
Merriman announces a visitor: Mr. Ernest Worthing has arrived from the station with his luggage. Cecily trembles at the prospect of meeting a truly wicked person, fearing he will look ordinary. Algernon enters, gay and debonair. “He does!” Cecily exclaims. She confronts him as her wicked cousin Ernest, and when he protests that he is not really wicked, she accuses him of inexcusable deception. Hypocrisy, she declares, would be pretending to be wicked while being good all the time. Algernon hastily claims to have been rather reckless in his own small way. Cecily is pleased.
The conversation turns dangerous. Cecily innocently reveals that Uncle Jack has gone to London to buy Ernest’s outfit for emigration—to Australia. Algernon responds with horror: Australia! He would sooner die. The act closes with Algernon trapped in his assumed identity, facing exile to a continent he has no intention of visiting, while Jack remains in London planning to eliminate the very brother whose name Algernon has stolen. The machinery of comic collision is fully wound.
Algernon continues his pursuit of Cecily under the borrowed name of Ernest, unaware that Jack is returning to the country with mourning clothes and plans for a funeral. The collision of their separate deceptions draws near.
Algernon continues his flirtation with Cecily in the garden, pleading with her to reform him so he may lead a new life. Cecily agrees to his self-reformation on the condition that he maintains regular habits, providing him with a pink rose to wear before they go inside for tea. Left alone in the garden, Miss Prism lectures Dr. Chasuble on the dangers of celibacy, arguing that a single man acts as a permanent public temptation, while Chasuble clings to the Primitive Church’s preference for the unmarried state. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Jack, who appears dressed in deep mourning. Jack announces the tragic death of his brother Ernest in Paris, attributing the cause to a severe chill. Miss Prism views the event as a moral lesson, while Chasuble offers his condolences and suggests adapting a flexible sermon on manna for the funeral service.
Seizing the opportunity presented by his brother’s demise, Jack asks Dr. Chasuble to christen him later that afternoon. He intends to change his name to Ernest to align with Gwendolen’s desires, a request Chasuble assures him is canonically acceptable for adults. Before the clergyman can depart, however, Cecily emerges from the house to announce that Ernest has arrived and is currently in the dining-room. Jack is horrified, having just reported him dead, but Cecily insists on a family reconciliation. Algernon enters as Ernest, offering a hypocritical apology for his past wickedness and expressing a desire to lead a better life. Jack refuses to shake his hand, knowing the man is an impostor, but Cecily’s emotional pressure eventually forces him to relent.
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