A protagonist is described as the main character in the story. The story line revolves around this one character and the events in his/ her life. In the Importance of Being Earnest, Jack Worthing is the protagonist of the play because it is his character that dominates the narrative. His pursuit to marry Gwendolen, and the conflicts and struggles he goes up against to reach his ultimate goal, are traits which develop his character into being the protagonist.
For a character to take on the role of protagonist, there always needs to be conflict. Jack Worthing’s first conflict is getting the approval to marry Gwendolen from her mother, Lady Bracknell. In the beginning of the story when Jack, also referred to as Ernest, proposes to Gwendolen, but is denied the ability to marry Gwendolen until he has passed Lady Bracknell’s series of tests; what she sees as a suitable husband for her daughter. This is shown through her statement of: “I fell bound to tell you that you are not on my list of eligible young men…however, I am quite ready to enter your name should your answers be what a really affectionate mother acquires” (Wilde,1438). Earnest informs her that he does not know anything from his childhood, including who his parents are, and why he became an orphan; and now is thought to be unacceptable suitor to marry her daughter, Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell reinforces to Jack that “to be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution”(Wilde, 1440), basically stating that having a hand bag for a parent is an unacceptable “notion about family life” (Parker), and needed to find out who his parents are before he can marry Gwendolen. It is this sort of conflict that must arise in order for the play to pursue any further. It is the role of the protagonist to ensure that he continues on his pursuit in order to get what one wants, that being the hand of Gwendolen. Jack lies and discoveries “of human freedom in protean identity” (Parker, 185) which he “adopt[ed] identities to suit the occasion” (parker, 185). All of these identities and secret lives eventually led to Gwendolen’s hand but also the truth of who Jack really was; the true importance of being Ernest, because being Ernest gets him what he wants.
