How is Jack’s identity revealed in “The Importance of Being Earnest?”

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How is Jack s identity revealed in The Importance of Being Earnest NU Oscar Wilde s play The Importance of Being Earnest is full of comedy and secrets The biggest secret is Jack Worthing s real identity From the start Jack himself does not know who he truly is This mystery is solved only at the end of the play Jack s Uncertain Birth Jack tells Lady Bracknell in Act I that he was found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station He says I don t actually know who I am by birth He was discovered inside a handbag at Victoria Station Thomas Cardew later adopted him This uncertain origin makes Lady Bracknell reject him as Gwendolen s suitor Miss Prism s Mistake The mystery is solved in Act III Miss Prism confesses that years ago she made a mistake She says I left it in the

cloak-room of one of the larger railway stations in London She mixed up a baby and a handbag while caring for the child This shocking truth connects Jack s past to the present Lady Bracknell s Revelation Lady Bracknell recognizes the story and reveals that Jack is the lost son of her sister She declares in Act III You are the son of my poor sister Mrs Moncrieff and consequently Algernon s elder brother At once Jack s true birth is revealed He belongs to the same respectable family as Algernon and Gwendolen His real name is also Ernest which solves the comic problem of names In short Jack s identity is revealed through Miss Prism s mistake and Lady Bracknell s recognition Wilde uses this comic discovery to resolve the plot and to highlight class birth and appearances

The Importance of Being Earnest

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How is Jack’s identity revealed in “The Importance of Being Earnest?”

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Oscar Wilde

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