The Importance of Being Earnest

1. The Importance of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde

2. John 'Jack' (Ernest) Worthing: • Play’s protagonist; leads a double life. • In country, he is known as Jack; • He has invented a fictitious brother “Ernest” who lives in London and whom he visits frequently. • In London Jack is known as Ernest. • As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom by an old man who adopted him • Is guardian to Cecily Cardew. • Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Characters

3. Cecily Cardew: • Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of the old gentlemen who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. • She is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack’s “brother” Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them. Characters

4. Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff: • Algernon is a charming, nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. • He has invented a fictional friend, “Bunbury,” an very sick man whose frequent sudden illness allow Algernon to get out of unpleasant or dull social obligations. • In the city he is Algernon; in the country he is Ernest. • Falls in love with Cecily Characters

5. Gwendolyn Fairfax: • Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. • Gwendolen is in love with Jack, whom she knows as Ernest. • Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest and says she will not marry a man without that name. Characters

6. Lady Augusta Bracknell: • Algernon’s snobbish, mercenary, and domineering aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. • Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She has a list of “eligible young men” and a prepared interview she gives to potential suitors. • . She is cunning, narrow-minded, and authoritarian. Characters

7. Dr. Frederick Chasuble: • The rector on Jack’s estate. • Both Jack and Algernon approach Dr. Chasuble to request that they be christened “Ernest.” • Dr. Chasuble entertains secret romantic feelings for Miss Prism. Characters

8. Miss Laetitia Prism: • Cecily’s governess. • Miss Prism is an endless source of clichés. She highly approves of Jack’s presumed respectability and harshly criticizes his “unfortunate” brother. • Despite her rigidity, Miss Prism seems to have a softer side. • She speaks of having once written a novel whose manuscript was “lost” or “abandoned.” • Also, she entertains romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble. Characters

9. Algernon (lives in London, the city); he will go to the country and woo Cecily as “Ernest” Jack (lives in country); he wants to marry Gwendolyn but wants to “change” his name from Ernest to Jack Cecily lives with Jack; he is her guardian; she is 18; she “loves” Jack’s wicked younger brother, Ernest Gwendolyn lives in the city; she is the cousin of Algernon; she loves Ernest when he comes to the city Bunbury is a “sick friend” Algernon has invented when he wants to excuse himself from engagements; he is always sick! Ernest is the “wicked younger brother” of Jack who lives in the city; Jack goes to see this brother to bail him out of trouble; really Jack “becomes” Ernest when in the city

10. Earnest: Marked by or showing deep sincerity or seriousness; Of an important or weighty nature; grave; with a purposeful or sincere intent; serious; determined. What is the double meaning behind the title The Importance of Being Earnest? Why is it important to be earnest and Ernest by the end of the play?