The Importance of Being Earnest is a farcical comedy set in late Victorian era London, in which the leading characters maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Two charming young ladies—sophisticated Gwendolen from the city and naive Cecily from the country—are in love with Ernest Worthing. But there is no such person as Ernest Worthing. Gwendolen thinks Jack is Ernest, and Cecily thinks Algy is Ernest. Each girl swears that she could never love a man who wasn’t named Ernest. In the midst of all this confusion comes Lady Bracknell, who doesn’t like the idea of anybody loving anybody. It sounds like a big mess, but Wilde unwinds this knotty affair into one of the favorite comedies of English literature.