The Importance of Being Earnest characters

Also known as Ernest Worthing

Appears from the start

A respectable country guardian who uses the name Ernest during visits to London. He has invented a troublesome brother as an excuse to leave his responsibilities and hopes to marry Gwendolen, whose attachment to the name Ernest complicates his proposal.

Also known as Algy

Appears from the start

Jack's witty and idle friend, a London bachelor who escapes unwanted engagements by visiting an imaginary invalid named Bunbury. Curious about Jack's double life, he treats deception as an art and is quick to exploit what he learns.

Appears from the start

Algernon's poised cousin and the woman Jack wants to marry. She returns Jack's affection but insists that she could only truly love a man named Ernest, making his assumed identity central to their courtship.

Appears from the start

Gwendolen's formidable mother and Algernon's aunt. She evaluates marriage as a matter of family, wealth, and social position, questioning Jack closely and rejecting his proposal when his uncertain parentage fails her standards.

Appears from the start

Algernon's dry, capable manservant. He manages the household during the opening tea and answers his employer's questions with a reserve that hints at his own practical view of marriage and domestic life.

First appears in chapter 2

Jack's eighteen-year-old ward, raised at his country estate. Imaginative and self-possessed, she has already constructed a romantic history around Jack's supposedly wicked brother Ernest before meeting the visitor who claims that name.

First appears in chapter 2

Cecily's learned governess, given to improving instruction and moral judgments. She has written an unpublished novel and shares a restrained mutual interest with the local clergyman, Canon Chasuble.

Also known as Canon Chasuble

First appears in chapter 2

The rector near Jack's country home. He is fond of Miss Prism and readily agrees to Jack's request for a christening, unaware that the ceremony is meant to make Jack's invented identity real.

First appears in chapter 2

The butler at Jack's country house. He announces visitors and serves refreshments while maintaining formal calm through the household's escalating romantic and social confusion.