The two main characters in the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, are Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, better known as Earnest. Wilde portrays these gentlemen as smart, comedic, and likeable characters who have known each other for so long that they are much like brothers. Algernon is an intelligent and mischievous protagonist while Jack is a respectful and romantic hero in this story. In first introducing Algernon, he gives off the impression of being an amoral aristocrat. It seemed as though his most dominant attribute was his denial to marry, and his value of himself. Algernon never wanted to “part with Bunbury [himself], and [Jack]...[getting] married, [seemed] to [him] very problematic” (Wilde 18). He felt it most important to have a good time not to be good person. Algernon also disregarded women to be programmed a certain way by saying that “all women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy” (Wilde 38). However, after meeting, and immediately falling in love with, Cecily, Algernon has a change of heart and mind. Instead of being self obsessed, he begins to care that others may think Algernon is wicked when he claims to “not really [be] wicked at all” (Wilde 60). Algernon faces the problem of Jack having “invented a very …show more content…
Jack tries to fix his problematic friend but he can not seem to shake the name. He never is able to draw himself to say that he is “Ernest in town, and Jack in the country” (Wilde 39). This foolish lie, can not be left behind him because he learns that Ernest is him. Jack had not known who his biological parents were claiming that he was found “in a handbag--a somewhat large, black leather handbag, with handles to it--an ordinary handbag in fact” (Wilde 35). Later Jack learns that he had been Earnest the whole time and he “ realised for the first time in [his] life the vital importance of being earnest” (Wilde