Worthing

Worthing is a seaside town on the Sussex coast of southern England. Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest takes his surname from a first-class ticket to it; Wilde began writing the play while staying there in 1894.

At a glance

Source	Author	Role	In one line
The Importance of Being Earnest	Oscar Wilde	subject	Jack’s surname comes from the first-class ticket for Worthing in Mr. Cardew’s pocket when he found the baby

The Importance of Being Earnest — Oscar Wilde (1895)

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest · Original · Readwise highlight

Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.

• Role: subject
• In the book: Jack explains to Lady Bracknell that the late Thomas Cardew found him and named him Worthing because he had a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. ‘Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.’ The town is never visited.
• Why it matters: Minor as a place: it only supplies the hero’s name, part of the joke that Jack’s identity is an accident of railway travel.