Jack/Ernest Worthing
Jack Worthing is the play's protagonist who leads a double life. He is known as Jack in Hertfordshire and known as Ernest in London. Jack was discovered abandoned in a handbag when he was an infant and became the guardian of Cecily Cardew (she calls him uncle). Jack is in love with his best friend's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. At the end of the play it is revealed that his name is in Ernest.
Algernon Moncrieff
Jack's best friend who has known him for years as Ernest. Algernon is a dedicated bachelor until he meets Cecily and falls in love, posing as her Uncle Jack's brother Ernest. It is revealed at the end of the play that he and Jack are actually biological siblings.
Gwendolen Fairfax
Algernon’s cousin and Lady Bracknell’s daughter. Gwendolen is in love with Jack (despite not knowing his true name, knowing him only as Earnest) and is instead fixated with the romanticism of his supposed name.
Cecily Cardew
Jack’s ward. She falls in love with Algernon, believing her to be a Uncle Jack's brother. Cecily is imaginative and rather childish.
Lady Bracknell
Algernon's elitist, snobbish aunt that disapproves of Gwendolen and Jack's relationship because of his lack of "respectable relations."
Miss Prism
Cecily’s governess who harbors romantic interests for Dr Chasuble. She use to work for Lady Bracknell's house until she vanished after taking the family's baby boy on a walk. It is later revealed that the boy was in fact Jack.
