Character guide
Who's who in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: meet the 9 main characters, see how they connect, and open a detailed profile for each.
9 illustrated profiles
Also known as Jack, Ernest, Ernest Worthing, Mr. Worthing, Uncle Jack
A serious, respectable young country gentleman and justice of the peace who is guardian to Cecily Cardew; he leads a double life, inventing a wicked younger brother named "Ernest" so he can escape to town, where he himself goes by Ernest, and it is finally revealed his real name is Ernest John. He courts Gwendolen Fairfax.
Bonds:AlgernonBrothersCecilyGuardian-ward
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Also known as Algy, Ernest, Mr. Moncrieff
An idle, witty, pleasure-loving young London bachelor and nephew of Lady Bracknell who invents an invalid friend named "Bunbury" to dodge social obligations. He poses as Jack's fictitious brother "Ernest" to woo Cecily Cardew, and is ultimately shown to be Jack's real younger brother.
Bonds:JohnBrothersCecilyCousinsGwendolenRomantic coupleLaneEmployer and servant
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Also known as Miss Fairfax, Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
Lady Bracknell's sophisticated, fashionable London daughter and Algernon's cousin, who is in love with Jack and fixated on marrying a man named Ernest. Confident and epigrammatic, she pursues her romance in defiance of her formidable mother.
Bonds:AlgernonRomantic coupleCecilyNew friends
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Also known as Miss Cardew, Cousin Cecily
Jack's pretty, romantic eighteen-year-old ward, granddaughter of old Thomas Cardew, who lives at the Manor House in the country and keeps a diary. Enchanted by the idea of the wicked "Ernest," she falls in love with and becomes engaged to Algernon while he is posing as him.
Bonds:JohnGuardian-wardAlgernonCousinsGwendolenNew friendsPrismGoverness and ward
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Also known as Aunt Augusta
A formidable, imperious aristocratic matriarch, Algernon's aunt and Gwendolen's mother, who guards the gates of Society and interrogates suitors over lineage and fortune. Her disapproval of Jack's obscure origins (found as a baby in a handbag) drives much of the plot.
Bonds:Rev.Baptismal dispute
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Also known as Lætitia
Cecily's prim, moralizing governess at the Manor House, given to maxims and quietly attracted to Dr. Chasuble. She is revealed to be the absent-minded nurse who, twenty-eight years earlier, mislaid the infant Jack in a handbag at Victoria Station.
Bonds:CecilyGoverness and wardRev.Personal acquaintances
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Also known as Dr. Chasuble, Canon Chasuble, Chasuble, Frederick
The scholarly, celibate rector of the country parish near Jack's Manor House, doctor of divinity, willing to christen both Jack and Algernon as "Ernest." He harbors a genteel, unspoken affection for Miss Prism.
Bonds:PrismPersonal acquaintancesCecilyAdult acquaintancesLady BracknellBaptismal dispute
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Also known as Manservant
Algernon's dry, discreet manservant in his Half-Moon Street flat, who serves tea and cucumber sandwiches and delivers deadpan observations on his master's affairs.
Bonds:AlgernonEmployer and servant
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Also known as Butler
The butler at Jack's country Manor House, who announces guests and manages the household, appearing chiefly to move the plot's comings and goings along.
Bonds:CecilyHousehold interaction
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Storieta keeps this cast at your side while you read The Importance of Being Earnest, portraits, names, and an ask-anything assistant that only knows what you've read so far. No spoilers, ever.
Explore the book page for The Importance of Being Earnest and read the opening free, with no account needed.
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy play set in England, presented in three acts at a London theatre. Its polished drawing rooms, country manor, servants, guardians, governesses, and carefully arranged afternoon teas provide the setting for a world governed by manners, reputation, courtship, and social expectations. At its center is a lively dispute over names and identities: John Worthing is known as Ernest in town and Jack in the country, while Algernon Moncrieff maintains an invented invalid named Bunbury to escape unwanted obligations. Questions of family, guardianship, adoption, and romantic intention quickly become material for wit rather than solemn reflection.
The voice is sparkling, paradoxical, and deliberately irreverent, turning everyday customs into absurd arguments and treating sandwiches, marriage, morality, and culture with equal comic seriousness. Wilde’s dialogue moves briskly through epigrams, teasing reversals, social satire, and theatrical entrances, while the 1895 setting gives the play its late-Victorian atmosphere of formal address and rigid respectability. It will appeal to readers who enjoy elegant verbal comedy, finely drawn social manners, stage-ready dialogue, and characters who expose the contradictions beneath polite behavior.
Every cast illustrated from the original text.
