It turns out that Jack has been christened "Ernest" and that he is Lady Bracknell's nephew.
Both difficulties are removed when the true identity of the foundling is revealed. When she discovers that her lover's real name is Jack, she regards this as an "insuperable barrier" between them (3.51). The second obstacle is Gwendolen's infatuation with the name "Ernest," the alias under which Jack has courted her. She adamantly refuses to accept a son−in−law "whose origin a Terminus" (3.129). As a foundling who was discovered in a handbag at the cloakroom of Victoria railway station, he does not find favour with Gwendolen's mother, the formidable Lady Bracknell.
The first of these obstacles is a lack of respectable relatives on Jack's part. The most obvious example of parody in Wilde's play is the anagnorisis that removes the obstacles standing in the way to wedded bliss for Jack and Gwendolen. I will analyse these similarities and show that, in The Importance of Being Earnest, parody and paradox enter into a connection that is essential to the unique achievement of this play. 1) In my view, the massive presence of both parody and paradox in Wilde's masterpiece is not coincidental they are linked by a number of significant similarities. The present essay deals with the connection between these two features of the play. It also contains numerous examples of Oscar Wilde's most characteristic stylistic device: the paradox.
The Importance of Being Earnest is an accomplished parody of the conventions of comedy.
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