The Importance of Being Earnest (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Oscar Wilde
- First Published: 1899
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Comedy of manners
- Time of Work: Late nineteenth century
- Setting: London and Hertfordshire
- Genres: Drama, Comedy, Comedy of manners
- Subjects: Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Mistaken or secret identity, England or English people, Victorian era or Victorianism, Nobility
- Locales: London, England, Hertfordshire, England
Characters Discussed
Algernon (Algy) Moncrief, a young man of fashion and considerable worldly charm. He is a confirmed Bunburyist; that is, he uses an imaginary sick friend’s name and condition as an excuse to leave London when he finds his aristocratic aunt, Lady Bracknell, too domineering or her dinner parties too dull. He delights in the artificial, the trivial, and the faddish, and he employs them for his own amusement, the only thing about which, as he insists, he is ever serious. Out for a jape, he poses as John Worthing’s fictitious brother Ernest to court his...
[The entire page is 1094 words long]
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