Lady Windermere's Fan, By Oscar Wilde

SUMMARY

ACT I

It’s Margaret Windermere’s birthday, and she’s having a party tonight. Her husband has given a fan as a birthday present. Lord Darlington, a friend of the couple, is visiting lady Windermere and is paying her a lot of compliments. He is infatuated with her, but we don’t know if he’s really in love, or he’s only a rake. Lord Darlington knows lord Windermere has a singular relation with a woman called Mrs Erlynne, who is new in the city, and wants to take advantage of this in order to seduce lady Windermere.

Lady Windermere is going to find out about her husband supposed affair through the Duchess of Berwick, who tells her about the frequent visits her husband pays to Mrs Erlynne, hinting he has a love affair with her.

Lady Windermere doesn’t believe the story, but she has some doubts. In the end, she checks her husband bank books and discovers he has repeatedly given big sums of money to Mrs Erlynne.

She asks her husband why he has given her so much money, but he didn’t explain why; he only asks her to trust him and also to invite Mrs Erlynne to her birthday party. As she doesn’t want to do it, Lord Windermere writes himself the invitation card.

ACT 2

In the second act, we are at Lady Windermere birthday party. There are a lot of people, including Lord Windermere’s funny friends, Lord Darlington, the Duchess of Berwick and Mrs Erlynne. In the beginning, all the people want to avoid Mrs Erlynne, but, as the party goes on, everybody is seduced by her wits. Even one of Lord Windermere’s friends, Lord Augustus, aka Tuppy, a very simple man, falls in love with her.

Lady Windermere is so angry and disappointed with her husband, that she decides to accept Lord Darlington’s love and his proposition to elope with her. When the party is over, she leaves a letter for her husband telling him she is leaving him and goes away to Lord Darlington’s house. But Mrs Erlynne sees the letter, takes it before Lord Windermere knows anything about its content, and decides to save her and her marriage.

ACT 3

Lady Windermere is at Lord Darlington’s house waiting for him to run away together. But she has some doubts about her decision. After a while, in comes Mrs Erlynne. She tells her she wants to save her and her family, and lastly, she persuades her to go back to her husband. But, when they are going to go out, Lord Darlington and his friends, including Lord Windermere, are entering the house. Mrs Erlynne and Lady Windermere have to hide quickly.

But somebody finds Lady Windermere’s fan on a chair, and, when Lord Windermere is on the point of starting searching for his wife thinking she has something to do with Lord Darlington, Mrs Erlynne reveals herself. Everybody is astounded, Lady Windermere can make her escape, and Lord Augustus is quite disappointed.

ACT 4

Lady Windermere is at home thinking about the way to thank Mrs Erlynne, now she knows she isn’t a bad woman because she helped her to go back to her husband. But now her husband tells her she’s a contemptible woman.

At that moment, Mrs Erlynne comes to Lord Windermere’s to give back Lady Windermere’s fan and to ask for a photo of hers. While she is looking for it, and Lord Windermere and Mrs Erlynne are alone together, we find out that Mrs Erlynne is Lady Windermere’s mother, and that she abandoned her daughter twenty years ago to elope with her lover, who died some years after and left her alone in the world and rejected by every society. But neither he nor she tells anything of this secret to Lady Windermere.

In the end, Mrs Erlynne goes away, but not without finding a creditable explanation for her appearance at Lord Darlington’s, and this way she gets back Tuppy, and they leave for the continent together.

AUDIOBOOK

A Good Woman FILM

Lady Windermere's Fan FILM

Another Lady Windermere's Fan FILM

Marriage à la Mode, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Nora Carranza

It was Saturday afternoon and William was about to take a train in London, as he did many previous Saturdays. He felt sorrow for not having bought a suitable present for the kids, Paddy and Johnny, who awaited happily for the arrival of their dad because of his presents. 

The kids got annoyed when they obtained the same boxes of sweets William used to buy at the station.

As he intended to offer some different gifts, he made his decision for fruits: a melon and a pineapple. That matter of toys and objects for the children wasn’t an easy subject for William. His wife, Isabel, disapproved of the varied toys their children had, and destroyed them considering them typical and usual objects for children to play, a bad influence for the infant’s education and emotions.

It seems that there was a “new Isabel”, with new ideas, living in a new house, surrounded by new friends, a group of young poets, who, for instance, eagerly enjoy the children’s sweets. So, William, with disgust, imagine one of them lapping up a slice of the melon he had already bought.

The train arrived at the crowded platform, William looked for the first-class smoker carriage, where he got comfortable in a corner and began to concentrate in his professional papers, while the usual bad distress in his breast diminished.

After a time travelling, his attention moved from his papers to the landscape, and as every Saturday, the images he contemplated drove him to Isabel. William thought about the New Isabel and the previous Isabel.

William remembered when, some time ago, coming back from his office, he met his loved family in the little white house, the one with blue curtains and beautiful petunias. But then, William had no idea about the inconvenience that little house represented for Isabel. He didn’t imagine Isabel felt lonely, disliked the Nanny and was willing to know interesting people and attend to cultural activities.

William also remembered the holidays the family used to have, how he and Isabel enjoyed being young, eating and sleeping together. But now, the New Isabel would be horrified with this kind of sentimentalism in her husband.

The New Isabel had found congenial people, could go about more, and she lived in a new house surrounded by new amazing friends, a new, large house, where William felt strange and where Isabel accused him of being tragic and dull.

The train arrived at the station, William saw her waiting for him, beautiful and alone, and for a moment, he had the illusion that nobody else had gone with Isabel to the station…, but he was mistaken because all the others ―Bill Hunt, Dennis Green and Moira Morrison― waited outside in the taxi. He could only say, “Oh!”

The taxi went to the shop where Bobby Kane had been choosing sweets because of their divine colours and aspect. He went out to meet the group and, as the shopman ran after him claiming for the money, Isabel has to pay for the sweets.

Isabel laughed when William explained the fruits were for the kids and said they would suffer agonies eating them, although she and Moira were delighted with the melon and pineapple.

After tea, William found himself alone, the kiddies were asleep, and the poets were off to bathe. He went to the sitting room, and there he discovered paintings on the walls and ashtrays full of cigarette ends everywhere.

The bathers came back, altering the quiet of the garden, asking for music, making snob jokes, until they had supper, eating and drinking a lot. Isabel filled glasses and changed plates. In the end, they all felt tired and went to bed.

The next afternoon, waiting for the taxi, William was finally alone with Isabel, but nevertheless he felt there was nothing to say.

Isabel mentioned they almost hadn’t seen each other, it has been so a short time, the children have been out… The next time!

The taxi arrived, Isabel said goodbye, gave a quick kiss to William and went inside.

When he was seated on the train with his arms around the pain in his breast, he began to write mentally a letter for Isabel, the New Isabel.

When the post arrived, the indolent group were sitting outside the house. The letter to Isabel had pages and pages, and began with “My darling, precious Isabel”.

William didn’t want to be a nuisance to her happiness.

Isabel passed through different emotions: fear, astonishment, confusion, and finally she laughed a lot.

She was asked to read out the letter and, as she did, they all went making laugh and fun about the moving William’s words.

Isabel run up to her bedroom, resenting the vain behaviour of her friends, while they were calling her from the garden, “Come for a bathe”!

Isabel knew she should stay and write to William, she had to decide! But, oh, it was too difficult! Better later… and Isabel ran downstairs laughing.

 

In this story, the group of poets appears like indolent, unproductive people. They don’t care about responsibilities in their life, nor respect the person who really works and whom they owe meals, house and entertainments. Even Isabel shares their inconsistent way of life.

I think these are common traits for many artists, like writers, painters, musicians, philosophers, sensitive people, absorbed in their creative mind, that must keep apart from every day’s matters to go on with their artistic or intellectual creation.

But other artists or thinkers can produce excellent works, earning a living by them, and keeping active compromise with the world they live in.

What could be the circumstances or conditions that determine which one of these ways a gifted person has to live in?

 

QUESTIONS

-Do you always take things to your family / friends when you go away? What kind of things do you usually take?

-Should taste be taught? Who decides tastes in a person life?

-How can you define a snob person? Remember, “snob” comes from “sans noblesse”, that is “without nobility”.

-In the story, Isabel has changed after meeting some artists ang going to Paris with Moira. Do you think a friend, a book, a travel, can change radically a person?

-William is a grey, dull person that works in an office. He has traditional points of view and prejudices (“Hysterical”, of a girl running along the station.) And Isabel is lively, extrovert. Can personality decide about your job / loves / happiness? Give examples.

-Isabel new friends are a group of artists. What can you tell about the group of artists in La Dolce Vita? Can you compare the couple in La vie d’Adèle to William and Isabel?

-What is the touchstone to know what is really like a person?

-What do you know about the Ecclesiastes?

-In the station, when William goes back to London, Isabel wants to carry his suitcase. What do you thing about the traditional politeness to women?

-In your opinion, does Isabel really love William / their children? And what about William?

-Why did she laugh reading his letter? Will she write to him at the end?

-According to your view, who is right in their disagreement?

 

VOCABULARY

hard lines, ribbing, scrapped, poky, chambers, pinning, plait, wad, wiles, paper

AUDIOBOOK

ANOTHER AUDIOBOOK (from minute 32:59)

Marriage à la Mode, by William Hogarth

Line of beauty, by Hogarth

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM

Something Childish but very Natural, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY

This is a love story between Henry (17) and Edna (16). They are very young, so we have to suppose very inexperienced about love, but also very pure and innocent.

Henry is a clerk in an architect office, and he thinks he’s great into books, although he hasn’t read many, and he doesn’t have many. Edna is a student in a training college; she wants to be a secretary.

One day, at Charing Cross station, Henry almost misses his train because, as it has a stop of ten minutes, leaving his hat and a portfolio in his carriage, he gets off to look at the books in the station bookstall and, when he is reading a poem from a book, he hears the station master announcing that the train is leaving, and Henry has to hurry up. He runs to the nearest carriage and dashes into it. But it’s not his, and he feels embarrassed because there is another passenger, a girl, and he has not his hat on. He notices the girl’s hair and falls in love with it. In the end, he gathers courage to say something, and they begin a bit of conversation. And when Edna points to the mark his hat has left on his forehead, he feels he’s definitely in love with her. He asks her to meet again, and she tells him that she takes the same train every day.

So they meet again, and they start a kind of love affair, they tell each other about their jobs, their families… He asks her to see her hair, and reluctantly she takes off her hat, but she doesn’t allow him to touch it.

And during their courtship, he can’t even go near her and, much less, kiss her. However, Henry isn’t angry with her, he is patient and understanding and can wait. Edna knows that he wants some more closeness and understands his desires, but, at the moment, she can’t bear being touched. She prefers keeping some distance between them, as if they were still children, and not already teenagers. But they both dream being together, living together, and they imagine having a house and behaving like husband and wife.

But after a time, Henry is a little tired of waiting for a kiss or a caress, he hungers for physical contact. One day, in an excursion, when they stop to have tea, the landlady offers them a cottage to rent. They go and see it, and they like it very much. They can figure it could be their home. Eventually, Edna lets him hold her, and tells him she has wanted all day to tell him that he could kiss her. They decide to rent the house.

But when Henry waits for Edna the day they have to begin to inhabit the cottage, she doesn’t come. Instead of her, there comes a little girl with a telegram for Henry. We don’t know what is there in the message, neither whose it is from, although we can imagine. He opens it, reads it, and the world around him gets wrapped in darkness.

 

QUESTIONS

-Why do you think the girl doesn’t want any physical contact?

-In your opinion, a romantic mood, is it only possible when you are young?

-Do you think love without sex is going to work? Or is this idea sexist?

-What can be the meaning of the Swiss cow-bell, the silver shoe and the fish hanging of Edna’s bangle?

-Why is hair so powerful a sexual symbol, according to your view?

-“Have you ever been in love before?” is a very unusual declaration of love. Do you know any other singular one? E.g., this one.

-Some people say love is a kind of illness that only lasts three years. What is your opinion?

-Can children be in love, or is love something you only find in teenagers and adults?

-When they are at the tea house in the country, and the woman offers to rent a cottage, do you think Henry has planned it previously? (remember he had been there often)

-And when the woman asked if they were brother and sister, why does Henry answer yes?

-When they are in the cottage, do they really kiss? Why do you think so?

-What does the telegram say? What is Henry going to do now?

 

VOCABULARY

soot, spangle, pap, clutched, marigold, wreath, utter, curb, training college, nests, loathsome, winding up, raked out, caretakers, heather, jonquils, Bags I

 

Something Childish, but very Natural, poem

Film (from minute 29:48)

AUDIOBOOK

ANALYSIS

VIDEO PRESENTATION

A Dill Pickle, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Elisa Sola Ramos

 A man and a woman meet after six years apart. The story is a conversation between them in a café, through which we know details of their relationship and their personality.

During the conversation, it’s revealed that Vera split up by letter, and he was very touched. We also know that their personalities are very different, quite opposite: fantasy is dominating in Vera’s mind, and he seems to be very practical and even stingy. The reader is behind Vera’s mind: we know her feelings, her name (Vera), but we don’t know the inner feelings of the man, who doesn’t have a name. He’s a flat character or an archetype: a white upper-class man, good-looking (in Vera’s words: “far better good-looking than he had been [in the past]”), with a lot of money that allows him to travel... He appears as a self-confident character: “he had the air of a man who has found his place in life”.

On the contrary, Vera has not been able to travel because she is poor (she had to sell her piano), she’s completely alone, and she seems to be very unstable.

One thing that highlights the differences between them is that their memories about the same fact don’t match: he remembers one afternoon in a Chinese pagoda as a wonderful day, and she remembers the maniac behaviour of him “infuriated out of proportion about the wasps”. In another point of the story, when he recollects the night when he brought a little Christmas tree, he remembers how he could speak about his childhood, and she remembers how stingy he had been with a pot of caviare, which had cost seven and sixpence, and he compared eating caviare with eating money. Not to mention that he couldn’t remember his dog’s name, and she did.

In spite of all of that, she is willing to give up herself, to renounce her vision of the facts (“his [vision] was the truer”) in order to submit to a man, perhaps to be able to eat, perhaps for survival, perhaps for emotional submission (another kind of sexist violence), who knows!

There are many metaphors that help the author to create an atmosphere of sexual desire between the two former lovers or, at least, of Vera’s sexual desire for him.

The first one is the orange. The image of him peeling an orange with “his special way”, the smell and the colour, gives the image that Vera wants to be “eaten” by him.

The second symbol is the veil and the collar. In the beginning of the story, she “raised her veil and unbuttoned her high fur collar” as a sign of opening herself, emotionally or sexually, like a bride. The same image, but reversed, appears at the end of the story: when she decides to leave, “she had unbuttoned her collar again and drawn down her veil”. Thus, the author takes up the powerful image of the bride to close symbolically their relationship.

Another symbol is the glove. She explains that “she was that glove that he held in his fingers”.

The beast she has inside her is another image, a beast which was “hungry” and “pricked up its ears and began to purr...”. It’s like an inner force that contrasts with the self-possession of a woman of her class and time.

The last erotic symbol is the dill pickle, which is a trigger for Vera’s romantic imagination. She completes the explanation about the scene in the Volga with her own imagination: “She sucked in her cheeks; the dill pickle was terribly sour...” It’s a comic effect: juxtaposing the romantic scene in an exotic frame with this prosaic gift and her imagination.

Throughout the conversation, there are many details that describe a very asymmetrical relationship between the couple. She remembers how he used to interrupt her in the middle of what she was saying. (It has been studied that women are much more interrupted than men in large company meetings, and this trait is a sign of sexist behaviour.) Then, after silencing her, he says that he likes her voice -the sound-, but not the content of what she’s saying. It’s an irony. He’s playing with her. All the time, he flirts with her (he highlights the things that unit them) in order to hook her, because he knows her dreamy and romantic character. He’s getting his revenge.

The two characters are completely different. They live in different worlds. The man is Vera’s romantic opponent, and, in the end, we can have doubts as to his being a rich man because he doesn’t want to pay the small cream bill. He’s a liar, or he’s a stingy man.

On the other side, Vera doesn’t have either a very good position, because she is ready to give up herself in order to have a husband. Both characters aren’t very well treated by the author.

Some people say that A Dill Pickle is a feminist story by Katherine Mansfield, but I’m not sure about that. Despite the fact that the figure of the man is completely negative, ridiculous, maniac and cruel, the image of the woman is not better: shallow, unstable and unclear.

QUESTIONS

-What can be his special way to peel an orange? Do you know a singular case of doing something?

-To your view, what does the orange symbolize?

-Do you like being interrupted? What do you do when someone interrupts you?

-What do you know about Kew Gardens?

-What can you tell us about the Black Sea?

-Why did she know he had been mocking?

-What is the meaning of the dill pickle in the story?

-Why do you think the man has no name?

-According to you, why does she go away so suddenly?

 

VOCABULARY

daffodils, muff, meant to, loathe, sniggering, purr, ringers 

 

AUDIOBOOK

ANALYSIS

REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

SUMMARY

Mr and Mrs Dove, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Alícia Usart

 

England is where the plot of this story takes place. Reggie has to return to Rhodesia, an English colony, the next day. He’s the only son of a widowed woman, with a tough character. His uncle, at his death, left him a fruit farm there, from which he makes between 500 and 600 pounds annually. He is in love, crazy and desperately in love, with Anne, a girl from the neighbourhood. His love is of the kind we see in literature, a romantic love. He is only able to see the positive aspects of her. He believes that he has small chances to marry her, but anyway, he is determined to find out if she cares for him in the same way he does for her.

He set out for Anna’s house, and nothing could stop him, not even his mother. He found himself in the drawing room and, before the bell had stopped ringing, Anna entered the room and announced to him that her parents were out. At that time, he was only capable of stating that he would depart tomorrow.

Suddenly Anne burst into laughter, and that was not the first time it happened; she apologized, but it was an uncomfortable situation for both. Anne offered him a cigarette and took one for herself, and the conversation turned to his upcoming departure.

At the same time, the doves outside were cooing. Anne moved away from him and allowed him to enter the side veranda because she didn’t want to hear what he was trying to tell her. They were observing the doves’ behaviour, and it seemed to Anne that it was similar to their behaviour; but Reggie was only concentrating on what he was willing to say, and finally did: “Anne, do you think you could ever care for me?” He was released, but Anne replied that she could not. Anyway, he didn’t give up, trying to comprehend the reason why she was laughing at him.

In reality, Anne loved him and appreciated him; however, she believed that what she was feeling wasn’t true love: she thought true love was different, like the way she read in books.

 

PERSONAL OPINION

Their relationship would be as the doves’, one running forward and the other following, one was Mr Dove and the other Mrs Dove. Mrs Dove looking at Mr Dove and laughing, and he, keeping following her and bowing and bowing…, but isn’t the dove’s love a romantic kind of love? They are the symbol of love, they are faithful for life, the male takes long time to choose his partner, he courts her at length, and their bond ends only with the end of the two.

QUESTIONS

-What do you know about the mating habits of the doves?

-What can you tell us about Rhodesia in that time?

-According to your view, until what extent the family composition influences somebody’s personality? I mean: being the only child, the position among siblings, being the only boy or the only girl, single-parent families, etc.

-Do you think is it possible to love someone whom you laugh at?

-Reginald’s mother has two dogs and Anne shows Reginald two doves: can you find a parallelism between these two couples?

-What is Anne like? Is she a bad person because she makes a fool of Reginald?

-In your opinion, what is going to happen after Reggie comes back to Anne at the end of the story?

 

 

VOCABULARY

a ghost of / an earthly, preposterous, short of, screwed him up to it, jammed, out of the running, steep, jar, grit, top-hole, hollyhocks, pealing, bucked him up, hat-hunting, wan, french window, huskily, cut off

AUDIOBOOK

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS

A FEMINIST ANALYSIS

Psychology, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Cristina Fernández

An ex-lover goes to visit a woman, and both of them are pleased with it, just the sensation of being together and feeling the attraction. When he looked at her, she moved quickly away to prepare tea, interrupting their courtship.

Both of them wanted to speak about what she had said the last time they met, but she needed time for herself, to grow calm, to feel free. Friendship was a good option.

He was so comfortable with her that wanted to go on from where they left off last time, but she tried to stop it from happening again.

The attraction was in the air, they spoke nervously, lovingly, they wanted to succumb, but then their friendship would be in danger and she would suffer.

He wanted to stay but decided to go, she wanted him to stay but didn’t say, she cried, felt rage. The bell rang and she hoped it was him; instead it was an old friend: she hugged her and said goodbye.

Then she went to the writing table and wrote a letter for him, inviting him to come again like a friend.

QUESTIONS

-What do you think about the cliché “[women] long for tea as strong men long for wine”?

-What kind of traveller are you? What is the difference between a tourist and a traveller? How can a tourist be respectful with the environment and the native country?

-Do you think that spoiling things is something in our nature (tread virgin snow, breaking silence, breaking the smooth surface of the water)?

-What do you think of that kind of friendship called “friends with a benefit”? “Sexual love destroys friendship”: According to your point of view, is it a cliché?

-To your mind, is psychoanalysis effective or is it only quackery?

-What kind of novels do you like: psychological, historical, detective / crime novels…? Can you tell us about one you’ve read recently?

-Tell us some examples of the contradiction between clock time and psychological time. Do you have any anecdote?

-What do you do when you have a badly timed visitor?

 

VOCABULARY

lingeringly, shade, sharp, offspring, shooed away, utterly, wads, Roll (one's eyes), entreat, to the bone, be off, outlook, stodgy, put a spell on (somebody), jingle, soiled, reeled

AUDIOBOOK

ANALYSIS

ANOTHER ANALYSIS

The Canary, by Katherine Mansfield

AUDIOBOOK

ANOTHER AUDIOBOOK (with text)

SUMMARY, by Nora Carranza

In this very short story, a woman explains she has had a canary for some time, at home, a canary that sang in an incredibly beautiful way. She could not describe enough how lovely the bird’s songs were, she assumed that those bird’s sounds were like full songs.
Even the passers-by stopped at the gate to listen to that marvellous singing.

The woman describes what that small pet meant for her and the communication that existed between them. We readers don’t know much about the lady. We don’t know her name, or where she lives. We understand that she has no relatives or friends living with her, no husband.

She has a house with a garden, to which she dedicates some time every day.

It seems that three young men (maybe guests?) go every evening for supper, the lady prepares it for them. They perhaps spend a while reading in the dining-room, but never have a conversation with her. Moreover, she was called “the Scarecrow”, but she didn’t mind.

The lady believed that every person should love something in this live, it doesn’t matter a lot what it was. For instance, she cared about the flowers in her garden. Or she loved the evening star, shining to her in the back yard, after sunset.

Until one day, when a bird’s seller arrived to the house and showed her that canary in a tiny cage, the bird gave a faint tweet, and she clearly knew that one was her canary; she thought “there you are, my darling”.

After the canary arrived to share the lady’s life, she forgot flowers and the star. Every moment of the day, bird and woman established a routine of communication and understanding. It was lovely company what the bird signified, the small animal seemed to recognize his owner feelings, and comforted her in case of trouble. 

The lady knew that, for a person who never kept birds, all that was difficult to accept. It’s normally considered that cats and dogs can offer that sort of comprehension, not birds, but she could affirm those ideas were untrue.

We readers can imagine the sad end of the story; naturally the little bird died. And after the descriptions we have read, it is easy to imagine the lady’s sadness. She would never ever have another pet, something died in her, although she had a cheerful mode. A different, new sorrow, hid deep inside, stayed there, hurting at any moment.

Perhaps the same kind of deep sorrow was the reason for the canary singing? Has it had the same pain?

Are birds in a cage singing for their freedom?

QUESTIONS

-What can be the meaning of the three dots at the beginning of (almost) each paragraph?

-Do / did you have a bird pet? Tell us about it.

-Do you talk to your pets? How do you talk to them?

-What is the evening star? Can you identify stars and planets in the sky? Do you believe that planets and stars determine or influence our lives?

-A goldfinch is a kind of bird. What do you know about the novel The Goldfinch?

-And what about plants? Do you like tending them? Do you talk to them? Have you heard of “embracing trees”? Have you ever tried it? Do you think plants have feelings?

-Who do you think is the woman in the story? And the three men? What is the relation between them?

-Can you explain the last sentence: “But isn’t it extraordinary that under his sweet, joyful little singing it was just this -sadness?- Ah, what is it? -that I heard?”

 

VOCABULARY

verandah, goldfinches, gum tree, regular, chickweed, showing off

Third Act. The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde

SUMMARY

John and Algernon are worried because their name isn’t Ernest, and Cecily and Gwendolen feel deceived and disappointed for the same. The boys’ only solution is getting re-baptized. While they are thinking about that, Lady Bracknell arrives in search of her run-away daughter. She forbids her to be engaged to John. Then Algernon informs her aunt that he’s engaged to Cecily, and in the end aunt Augusta gives her approbation; but, unfortunately, they can't get married until John, Cecily’s guardian, gives his consent, and that will be when Lady Bracknell gives hers to him. While they are debating this, Miss Prism appears; Lady Bracknell recognizes her, and, thanks to this meeting, John discovers who really is and what his real name is.
At the end there are some marriages and lots of happiness.

Oscar Wilde Documentary (video)

Great Lives: Oscar Wilde. BBC radio

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES on the radio play:

Terence Alexander
as Merryman

Samantha Bond
as Gwendolen

Miriam Margolyes
as Miss Prism

Michael Hordern
as Lane

Michael Sheen
as John Worthing

Martin Clunes
as Algernon Moncrieff

Judy Dench
as Lady Bracknell

John Moffat
as Cannon Chasuble

Amanda Root
as Cecily