Though she returns his love, Gwendolen appears more self-centered and flighty. Like Cecily, she wants nothing else but to marry someone named Ernest. .
Cecily Cardew: Cecily is Jack's ward and lives with him in the country. Young and pretty, she is favored by Algernon, who pretends to be Jack's brother, Ernest. Cecily has heard about this brother, and has written correspondences between the two of them for months by the time she meets Algernon/Ernest. Like Gwendolen, she is interested in marrying only if her husband's name is Ernest. .
Miss Prism: Miss Prism is the governess of Cecily at Jack's country house. She clearly loves Chasuble, though his celibacy prohibits her from telling him directly. .
Lane: Algernon's butler, Lane has his share of droll lines that show he is far from a passive servant. He is especially perceptive about class tensions, and uses his humor to deflate them. .
Chasuble: A rector, Chasuble frequently visits Jack's country house to see Miss Prism. Though he is celibate, he seems well matched for the educated Miss Prism. .
Merriman: Jack's butler, Merriman has a much less significant role than Lane has, but in one scene he and another servant force the bickering Gwendolen and Cecily to maintain supposedly polite conversation. .
After talking one by one about the characters on "The importance of being Earnest-, I think it's the moment to talk generally about what do they mean in the story. From my point of view, using this characters, Oscar Wilde wants to do a criticism to the Victorian society.
We can realize the importance that in that time, the XIX century, had to marry to a well-off man, a man raised from the aristocracy or a man with a high status. A lady from a family as Bracknell's could not marry the man she loved if he wasn't the appropriated one, a rich person, a socially known person, a person from the upper class I think this is a way to protest about the marriage.