Study Guide

The Importance of Being Earnest Characters

By Oscar Wilde

We know what you’re thinking. Which one’s Jack and which one’s Algernon? It's...

Jack and Algernon certainly are a lot alike. So much so that it feels like we’re writing a...

Like the two male leads, Gwendolen and Cecily also have a lot in common. There’s the Ernest...

Yes, they’re so much alike they could be sisters—and now they will be. You might want...

This very symmetrical play has an odd number of characters: nine. Everybody has somebody: Jack...

Wilde gets a kick out of Miss Prism. His own sons had governesses whom he disliked, and he seems...

As a clergyman, Dr. Chasuble is a natural target for the irreverent Oscar Wilde. The playwright...

Lane is Algernon’s butler—and his comic sidekick in the first scene. Algernon knows...

Merriman is the mirror-butler for Lane. Because everything in this play seems to be symmetrical,...