Transcript The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Characters
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Jack (lives in country); he wants
to marry Gwendolyn but wants
to “change” his name from
Ernest to Jack
Algernon (lives in London, the city); he
will go to the country and woo Cecily as
“Ernest”
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
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
Bunbury is a “sick friend” Algernon
has invented when he wants to
excuse himself from engagements;
he is always sick!
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?