Which two female characters are obsessed with the name Ernest as a condition for marriage?

• A. Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell.
• B. Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew.
• C. Gwendolen Fairfax and Lady Bracknell.
• D. Cecily Cardew and Miss Prism.

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how Wilde uses a simple preference to reveal characters’ attitudes toward marriage. Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew are the two women who insist they could only marry a man named Ernest. Gwendolen believes the name Ernest embodies honesty and seriousness, a quality she finds essential in a husband. Cecily, through her imaginative diary, has herself crafted a romantic fantasy around a future husband named Ernest, treating the name as the decisive mark of a suitable partner.

This obsession creates the play’s satire: the name itself stands in for virtue or worth in marriage, highlighting how superficial criteria can drive deeply personal choices. The other characters aren’t united by this specific fixation—Miss Prism is more concerned with duty and propriety, and Lady Bracknell with social status and the logistics of acceptable matches—so they don’t share the same matchmaking criterion.