Tony Lumpkin is the good-for-nothing son of Dorothy Hardcastle. Tony has an independent income from his father, which allows him to be idle all the time. Instead of working, Tony uses his time to play tricks on people and cause trouble. Tony's last name, Lumpkin, suggests that he is stupid and lazy, but while he is illiterate, he is far from stupid.

Tony performs several roles in the play. He is a comic character as well as a trickster, and his desire to amuse himself at others' expense propels the plot forward. His goal—to avoid marriage—is at odds with the conventional values of his mother, who wishes to marry him off. In fact, Tony's behavior highlights the shallowness and hypocrisy of all the characters, whose narrow self interests become confused or thwarted by Tony's deceptions.

In an inversion of the typical "happy" ending, Tony is "rewarded" for his deceptions with the opportunity to reject Constance as a marriage partner. In this sense, it's possible to see Tony as a kind of antihero: although he plays a central role in the play, his values are the opposite of a conventional hero: he is duplicitous rather than truthful, cunning rather than wise, and selfish rather than sacrificial.