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The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
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Characters Play’s protagonist; leads a double life.
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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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