# The Importance of Being Earnest: every role by lines, words, and stage time

> Oscar Wilde. 9 speaking roles, 17,746 words, about 127 minutes of speech.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-importance-of-being-earnest
- Last updated: 2026-10-08

**Jack** has the most to say in The Importance of Being Earnest: about 505 lines and 3,976 words, 22.4% of the play. Wilde wrote Earnest in quick prose dialogue, so its roles are measured best in words, not lines. Jack and Algernon share the lead almost equally, and Lady Bracknell, in only two of the three acts, has more to say than either young woman.

- Speaking roles: 9
- Scenes: 3
- Words: 17,746
- Speech time: 127 min

## Every role, largest first

| Role | Lines | Words | Share | Minutes | Scenes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Jack | 505 | 3,976 | 22.4% | 28.4 | 3 |
| Algernon | 483 | 3,933 | 22.2% | 28.1 | 3 |
| [Lady Bracknell](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-importance-of-being-earnest/lady-bracknell) | 326 | 2,883 | 16.2% | 20.6 | 2 |
| Cecily | 341 | 2,695 | 15.2% | 19.3 | 2 |
| Gwendolen | 267 | 2,192 | 12.4% | 15.7 | 3 |
| Miss Prism | 113 | 945 | 5.3% | 6.8 | 2 |
| Chasuble | 93 | 772 | 4.4% | 5.5 | 2 |
| Merriman | 26 | 163 | 0.9% | 1.2 | 2 |
| Lane | 29 | 161 | 0.9% | 1.2 | 1 |

## Who speaks in which scene

Words each role speaks in each scene (scene: words). Scenes: Act 1 = Act 1; Act 2 = Act 2; Act 3 = Act 3.

- **Jack**: Act 1 (1,984), Act 2 (998), Act 3 (994)
- **Algernon**: Act 1 (2,241), Act 2 (1,516), Act 3 (176)
- **Lady Bracknell**: Act 1 (1,231), Act 3 (1,652)
- **Cecily**: Act 2 (2,438), Act 3 (257)
- **Gwendolen**: Act 1 (794), Act 2 (1,033), Act 3 (365)
- **Miss Prism**: Act 2 (660), Act 3 (285)
- **Chasuble**: Act 2 (607), Act 3 (165)

## The longest speeches

| Speech | Scene | Words | Lines |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Algernon: “I haven’t the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind. To begin with, I dined there on Monday, and once a week is quite enough to dine with one’s own relations. In the second place, whenever I do dine there I am always treated as a member of the family, and sent down with either no woman at all, or two. In the third place, I know perfectly well whom she will place me next to, tonight. She will place me next Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent … and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public. Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying. I want to tell you the rules.” | Act 1 | 171 | 18 |
| Lady Bracknell: “Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle, but he never seems to take much notice … as far as any improvement in his ailment goes. I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me. It is my last reception, and one wants something that will encourage conversation, particularly at the end of the season when everyone has practically said whatever they had to say, which, in most cases, was probably not much.” | Act 1 | 171 | 18 |
| Jack: “I fear there can be no possible doubt about the matter. This afternoon during my temporary absence in London on an important question of romance, he obtained admission to my house by means of the false pretence of being my brother. Under an assumed name he drank, I’ve just been informed by my butler, an entire pint bottle of my Perrier-Jouet, Brut, ’89; wine I was specially reserving for myself. Continuing his disgraceful deception, he succeeded in the course of the afternoon in alienating the affections of my only ward. He subsequently stayed to tea, and devoured every single muffin. And what makes his conduct all the more heartless is, that he was perfectly well aware from the first that I have no brother, that I never had a brother, and that I don’t intend to have a brother, not even of any kind. I distinctly told him so myself yesterday afternoon.” | Act 3 | 152 | 16 |
| Lady Bracknell: “Come here. Sit down. Sit down immediately. Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old. Apprised, sir, of my daughter’s sudden flight by her trusty maid, whose confidence I purchased by means of a small coin, I followed her at once by a luggage train. Her unhappy father is, I am glad to say, under the impression that she is attending a more than usually lengthy lecture by the University Extension Scheme on the Influence of a permanent income on Thought. I do not propose to undeceive him. Indeed I have never undeceived him on any question. I would consider it wrong. But of course, you will clearly understand that all communication between yourself and my daughter must cease immediately from this moment. On this point, as indeed on all points, I am firm.” | Act 3 | 145 | 15 |
| Lady Bracknell: “A moment, Mr. Worthing. A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her. Few girls of the present day have any really solid qualities, any of the qualities that last, and improve with time. We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces. Come over here, dear. Pretty child! your dress is sadly simple, and your hair seems almost as Nature might have left it. But we can soon alter all that. A thoroughly experienced French maid produces a really marvellous result in a very brief space of time. I remember recommending one to young Lady Lancing, and after three months her own husband did not know her.” | Act 3 | 127 | 13 |
| Gwendolen: “Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you. We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits, I am told; and my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.” | Act 1 | 125 | 13 |
| Lady Bracknell: “The line is immaterial. Mr. Worthing, I confess I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. 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. And I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to? As for the particular locality in which the handbag was found, a cloakroom at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion—has probably, indeed, been used for that purpose before now—but it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognised position in good society.” | Act 1 | 123 | 13 |
| Chasuble: “In Paris! I fear that hardly points to any very serious state of mind at the last. You would no doubt wish me to make some slight allusion to this tragic domestic affliction next Sunday. My sermon on the meaning of the manna in the wilderness can be adapted to almost any occasion, joyful, or, as in the present case, distressing. I have preached it at harvest celebrations, christenings, confirmations, on days of humiliation and festal days. The last time I delivered it was in the Cathedral, as a charity sermon on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of Discontent among the Upper Orders. The Bishop, who was present, was much struck by some of the analogies I drew.” | Act 2 | 120 | 12 |
| Miss Prism: “Lady Bracknell, I admit with shame that I do not know. I only wish I did. The plain facts of the case are these. On the morning of the day you mention, a day that is forever branded on my memory, I prepared as usual to take the baby out in its perambulator. I had also with me a somewhat old, but capacious handbag in which I had intended to place the manuscript of a work of fiction that I had written during my few unoccupied hours. In a moment of mental abstraction, for which I never can forgive myself, I deposited the manuscript in the basinette, and placed the baby in the handbag.” | Act 3 | 114 | 12 |
| Jack: “My dear Algy, I don’t know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. You are hardly serious enough. When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so. And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.” | Act 1 | 113 | 12 |

## Small roles that can be doubled

These pairs of small roles never speak in the same scene, so one actor could play both. Check entrances and silent appearances in your script before you cast it this way.

- Chasuble and Lane
- Merriman and Lane

## Roles and monologues in depth

- [How many lines does Lady Bracknell have?](https://www.offbook.com/plays/the-importance-of-being-earnest/lady-bracknell)

## Questions actors ask

### Who has the most lines in The Importance of Being Earnest?

Jack, with about 505 lines and 3,976 words, 22.4% of everything spoken in the play. Algernon is next, with about 483 lines (22.2%).

### How long is The Importance of Being Earnest?

The full text has 17,746 spoken words, about 127 minutes at 140 words a minute before pauses, scene changes, and cuts. Most productions cut the text, so running times vary.

### How many speaking roles are in The Importance of Being Earnest?

9 named roles speak in this edition, across 3 scenes. 2 of them have less than 2% of the words, which is why small parts are often doubled.

## How we count

Counts are computed from the full text of the [Standard Ebooks edition](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/oscar-wilde/the-importance-of-being-earnest) (public domain; retrieved 2026-10-08). Words are every spoken word, with stage directions removed. Lines are verse lines as printed, plus prose at 10 words a line, because prose has no fixed line breaks; editions differ, so other sources give slightly different line counts. Time is words at 140 words a minute, before pauses and stage business. A role is counted in a scene when it speaks there. To count a script that is not in the library, paste it into the [script line counter](https://www.offbook.com/tools/script-line-counter).