Character Analysis: "The Importance of Being Earnest".

John (Jack/Earnest) Worthing, J.P
*Protagonist
*Represents conventional Victorian values, such as: duty, courtship, respectability.
*Hypcritically flouts these characteristics.
*He knows what's expected from Victorian society.
*Escapes the boundaries of his real life and respectability by going to the city and indulging in the actions and behaviours he pretends to disapprove of in his 'brother'.
*Leads a double life (Jack in the country/ Earnest in the city).
*Initals after his name stand for Justice of Peace, a legal judge.
*Feels less at home in aristocratic society as he is a foundling.
*Ironically called his brother Earnest, as in fact deceiving everyone.
*Represents hypocrisy in Victorian morality.
*Denies to himself and others his moral wrongdoing.

Algernon Moncrieff
*Friend of Jack from the city, secondary hero.
*Self absorbed, stylish, witty, idle, charismatic, a decorative bachelor.
*Swears to never to marry, but falls in love with Cecily (Jack's ward)
*Speaks in paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements.
*Living is an art form (embodies this view of Oscar Wilde), life is art, something one creates oneself.
*Disrespects the society he is to inherit.
*No moral convictions, he feels his only duty is to live beautifully.
*Like Jack, creates a fictional character "Bunbury" to escape his responsibilities and leave the city to avoid social engagements.
*Propoenent of aestheticism.
*Takes innocent delight in his ingenuity, acknowledges his wrongdoing and revels in it.
*Doesn't take himself seriously.
*Upper class, opulent living.
*Hedonist.

Gwendolen Fairfax
*Represents conventional Victorian womanhood.
*Bent on self-improvements, she has ideas and ideals and attends lectures.
*Cosmopolitan and pretentious.
*Elegant fashion and sophistication.
*Daughter of Lady Bracknell, similar outrageous pronouncements and speaks with an air of authority.
*Her consciousness of self-image clouds her judgement.
*She is the dominant aggressive partner in the relationship with Jack (inverted traditional gender roles)
*Her movements and speech is very calculated.
*Fixated on the name "Earnest" (metaphor for Victorian middle and upper classes obsession with virtue and honor).

Cecily Cardew
*Child of nature, lives in the country, the traditional home of innocence.
*Antithesis of Gwendolen.
*Young and pretty.
*Dresses and wears her hair simply.
*Her innocence is contrasted with her fascination of wickedness. She falls for Jack's brother Earnest, from hearing his wicked tales and bad reputation.
*Unwillingness to 'improve'.
*Superficial, only interested in marrying a man named Earnest, like Gwendolen.
*She invented and elaborate romance with Earnest, this fantasisim is similar to Jack and Algernon.
*Perfect mate for Algernon, given to creating fictions. Again embodies the view that life is a work of art, so represented in her journal and correspondence with Earnest.
*A romantic.

Lady Bracknell
*Antagonist of the play, blocks both potential marriages.
*Aunt of Algernon, mother of Gwendolen.
*Only character without a foil of partner (Jack/ Gwen, Algy/ Cecily, Miss Prism/ Chausable, Lane/ Merriman)
*Passes judgement on other's behaviour, not silently.
*Archetypal upper class Victorian matron. Typical Victorian Classicism.
*Embodies rules and traditions of society.
*Insists Gwendolen should not marry beneath her, has made it her life's goal to make Gwendolen follow in her footsteps).
*Fixated on appearances at the expense of reality (trapped in a web of superficiality).
*Primary representative of conventional Victorian morality.
* Snobbish, domineering, cunning, narrow-minded and authoritarian.
*Lacking in compassion, cares nothing about humane aspects disrupted in Jack's childhood.
*Her outrageous pronouncements, and lack of awareness of how ridiculous they are, make her a funny and likeable character.

Miss Prism
*Cecily's governess.
*Name suggests she has all the apparent respectability and moral severity expected of a Victorian governess, but she has a hidden past.
*Secret life as a novelist, suggest her to be a romantic and artistic underneath her stern exterior.
*Stern, rigid.
*Source of pedantic bromides and clichés.
*Hrshly criticizes Jack's brother.
*She entertains romantic feeling for Dr. Chasuble, but as he is a priest is prohibited from telling him directly.


Rev. Canon Chausable, D.D
*Initials after the name (D.D) stand for Doctor of Divinity.
*He is the local vicar in Jack's area of the country.
*Typical vicar type but similar in age to Miss Prism.
*Easy-going, postivive.
*Jack and Algernon ask him to christen them both, at separate times, "Earnest".
*Though celibate entertains romantic feelings for Miss Prism, good match for the educated lady.

Lane
*Algernon's butler.
*not passive, deliver droll lines and comments.
*Knows about bunburying at the beginning of the play .

Merriman
*Jack's butler in the manor house, country estate.
*In Acts II & III.
*In one scene forces bickering between Gwendolen and Cecily to maintain 'polite'.