The play opens on Algernon and his butler, Lane, chatting in Algernon’s London apartment about the differences in the quality between champagne in the houses of bachelors and of married men. Lane soon exits and announces that Jack (Ernest) Worthing has arrived. Jack has been away in the country and does not enjoy it. Algernon tells Jack that his Aunt Augusta and cousin Gwendolen will be arriving shortly and that Augusta will not want Jack there flirting with Gwendolen. Jack, however, has come to town for the specific purpose of proposing to Gwendolen.

Algernon insists that Gwendolen will not marry Jack since “girls never marry the men they flirt with” (9). Algernon has found an inscription from someone named Cecily to Jack inside his cigarette case, and he threatens to withhold his consent to the marriage unless Jack tells him who she is. Jack explains that Cecily is the granddaughter of Mr. Cardew, his adoptive father; she is under Jack’s guardianship and calls him “Uncle.”

Jack confesses that he has been using the name Ernest in town; whereas, when he is in the country, he uses his proper name and pretends to have a troubled brother named Ernest in London.