Characters
Jack Worthing
The man with two names
A justice of the peace with a country house in Hertfordshire and guardian to Cecily Cardew, Jack was found as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station and adopted by Thomas Cardew. In the country he keeps up a high moral tone; in town he is Ernest, the wicked brother he invented. He loves Gwendolen, loses all patience with Algernon, and learns at the end that he is Algernon's elder brother and was christened Ernest all along.
Algernon Moncrieff
The dandy Bunburyist
Lady Bracknell's nephew, who lives in Half-Moon Street, tears up what look like bills after a glance at the envelopes, and eats every sandwich and muffin within reach. He invented Bunbury, a permanent invalid, to escape tiresome engagements, and treats Bunburying as an art. Having overheard Jack's country address, he goes down to Woolton as the wicked Ernest and falls in love with Cecily within the afternoon. He talks in polished epigrams and is never at a loss, even when found out.
Lady Bracknell
Society's stern examiner
Gwendolen's mother and Algernon's Aunt Augusta, she keeps a list of eligible young men and interviews Jack with notebook and pencil. She rejects him for having been found in a handbag, yet warms to Cecily the moment she hears of a hundred and thirty thousand pounds, while declaring that she does not approve of mercenary marriages. Every opinion she gives is delivered as law. In the last act it is she who recognises Miss Prism and reveals that Jack is her sister's son.
Gwendolen Fairfax
In love with a name
Lady Bracknell's daughter and Algernon's cousin, poised, fashionable and entirely sure of herself. She tells Jack she was destined to love him because his name is Ernest, accepts him before he has managed to propose, and follows him to the country against her mother's wishes. Her tea-table duel with Cecily is the comic peak of Act II. Near the end she sums herself up: 'I never change, except in my affections.'
Cecily Cardew
The romantic country ward
Thomas Cardew's granddaughter and Jack's eighteen-year-old ward, who finds German unbecoming and would rather water the roses. Fascinated by Jack's wicked brother, she has invented a whole engagement to him in her diary, complete with a ring, a bangle and letters she wrote herself. She accepts Algernon at once and holds her own against Gwendolen over tea. She has a fortune of a hundred and thirty thousand pounds, and under her grandfather's will she does not come of age until thirty-five.
Miss Prism
The governess with a past
Cecily's governess, a stern moralist who says 'As a man sows so let him reap' and urges Canon Chasuble to give up his single life. She once wrote a three-volume novel whose manuscript, she says, was abandoned. Twenty-eight years earlier, in charge of a baby from Lord Bracknell's house, she absent-mindedly put the manuscript in the perambulator and the baby in her handbag, then left the bag at Victoria Station. Her Christian name is Laetitia.
Canon Chasuble
The learned celibate rector
The Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D., is the rector of the parish at Woolton, fond of classical allusions and quick to compare Miss Prism to Egeria. His sermon on the manna in the wilderness can be adapted to any occasion, from harvest celebrations to christenings. He agrees to christen both Jack and Algernon on the same afternoon and holds that the Primitive Church was against matrimony, yet at the final curtain he embraces Miss Prism, who calls him Frederick.
Lane
Algernon's unflappable manservant
Algernon's manservant in Half-Moon Street, who accounts for the champagne drunk in the flat by 'the superior quality of the wine'. He has been married once, 'in consequence of a misunderstanding'. When Algernon has eaten Lady Bracknell's cucumber sandwiches, Lane gravely reports that there were no cucumbers in the market, 'Not even for ready money.' His dry replies, such as 'It never is, sir', are a match for his master's wit.
Merriman
The Manor House butler
The butler at Jack's house in Woolton. He announces Mr Ernest Worthing, unpacks Algernon's three portmanteaus, dressing-case, two hatboxes and large luncheon-basket in the room next to Jack's, and keeps the dogcart waiting while Cecily and Algernon come to an understanding. His arrival with the tea things forces Gwendolen and Cecily to keep their quarrel polite, and his loud cough in Act III warns the embracing couples that Lady Bracknell has arrived.