While both Algernon and Jack treat names trivially, both Cecily and Gwendolen take names too seriously. Their shared obsession with marrying a man named Ernest indicates that they they prioritize superficial markers of identity over true character. Gwendolen seems to believe that names actually say quite a lot about a person because when Ernest asks her if she could love him if his name were Jack she says, “Jack?...No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations....I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain...The only really safe name is Ernest”(15). You would think that since she claims to be ready to marry Ernest, she would already know him not to be plain, yet the name still makes all the difference because she refuses to marry him, if his name were Jack. When Algernon asks Cecily if she could love him if his name weren’t Ernest she responds with “But I don’t like the name of Algernon... I might respect you, Ernest, I might admire your character, but I fear that I should not be able to give you my undivided attention”(37). Even though she has just met Algernon, she claims to have been in love with him for months, yet she rejects the idea of marriage to him if he had a name other than Ernest. Gwendolen and Cecily are much more concerned with image, than with anything pertaining to the personality of their fiances. They only want a man that will