Gwendolen+Fairfax


 * Character analysis**

Gwendolen Fairefax

Gwendolen is Algernon's cousin and Lady Bracknell's daughter. She is Jack’s lover, whom she knows as Ernest. A model of high fashion and society, Gwendolen is sophisticated, intellectual, cosmopolitan, artificial and utterly pretentious.She will not marry a man without that name.

More than any other female character in the play, Gwendolen suggests the qualities of conventional Victorian womanhood. This preoccupation serves as a metaphor for the preoccupation of the Victorian middle- and upper-middle classes with the appearance of virtue and honor. Gwendolen is so caught up in finding a husband named Ernest, whose name, she says, “inspires absolute confidence,” that she can't even see that the man calling himself Ernest is fooling her with an extensive deception. In this way, her own image consciousness blurs her judgment.

pg. 15 ‘I am always smart! Am I not Mr. Worthing?’ Arrogant ‘I intern to develop in many directions’ Ambitious Pg. 17 ‘I am never wrong’ Arrogant ‘My ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Earnest’ Shallow ‘I knew I was destined to love you’ Shallow Pg. 18 ‘I pity for any woman who is married to a man called John.’ ‘The only really safe name is Earnest.’ PG. 19 ‘I hope you will always look at me just like that, especially when there are other people present.’ pg. 44 ‘I like you already more than I can say. My first impressions of people are never wrong’ said to Cecily Pg. 47 ‘Sugar is not fashionable anymore.’ Said to Cecily pg. 45 ‘I have liked you ever since I met you!’ said to Cecily pg. 48 ‘From the moment I saw you I distrust you. I felt that you were false and deceitful’ sad to Cecily