Scarica Descrizione dei personaggi di "L'importanza di chiamarsi Ernesto"/ The importance of being earnest" e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! LADY BRACKNELL Through the figure of Lady Bracknell, Wilde manages to satirize the hypocrisy and stupidity of the British aristocracy. Algernon’s aunt and Gwendolen’s mother. Lady Bracknell married well, and her primary goal in life is to see her daughter do the same. She has a list of “eligible young men” and a prepared interview she gives to potential suitors. She is selfish, unsympathetic, snobbish, mercenary, and domineering. She is the most overbearing and powerful character in the play. She thinks that marriages are a question of money and a status (in the first act). She is worried about scandal and she worries about the social standing of her family because she is concerned with appearances. she is unsympathetic when she asks Jack to “produce” one parent of any gender In the second act she says illogical things to reach his goal, so she says that she doesn’t approve mercenary marriages which is a contradiction, because she did it. With her character, Wilde satirizes the hypocrisy and stupidity of British aristocracy furing the Victorian Age. JACK The play’s protagonist. Jack Worthing is a seemingly responsible and respectable young man who leads a double life. He does the “Bunburying”, which means that he had invented a younger brother called Ernest, who lives in the Albany but he is very ill, in order to be able to come up to town and go down to the country as often as he liked, to escape from the boring life. Bunburying: invent another personality and have a double life to escape from the boring life. In Hertfordshire, where he has a country house, Jack is known as Jack and in London he is known as Ernest. As a baby, Jack was discovered in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station by an old man who adopted him and subsequently made Jack guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily Cardew. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. EARNEST MEANS: SINCERE, SERIOUS AND HONEST. Gwendolen thinks that it is the only safe name and it produces vibrations. He thinks that romance includes marriages He thinks that at times is very important to be earnest, and in fact he’s SINCERE! ALGERNON The play’s secondary hero. Algernon is a charming, idle nephew of Lady Bracknell, cousin of Gwendolen Fairfax, and best friend of Jack Worthing, whom he has known for years as Ernest. He has invented an invalid friend, “Bunbury,” an invalid whose frequent sudden relapses allow Algernon to escape from unpleasant social obligations. Algernon is a charming, brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral. He adores eating, playing the piano, he doesn’t work, he enjoys life He is very proud of his refined feelings. He thinks that married life is tolerable only if you can escape from it occasionally. Algernon is also a dandy. A dandy is a man who pays excessive attention to his appearance. The most dandy-like character in any of Wilde's works usually represented Wilde himself.
