Miss Prism

All of the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are endlessly fascinating to me, but Miss Prism is always one of the most intriguing, in my opinion.

Miss Prism is a woman that is relatively normal, all things considered, except that during a previous employment, she actually kidnapped a child. While unintentional, the crime is still incredibly serious and yet it's hardly a matter of importance throughout the show. She mentions at one point that she had written a novel but it had been lost, but the sentiment throughout this confession is more of a frustration at having lost the novel, not at having lost someone's child. Later, after the grand reveal of Jack's parentage, she still demonstrates a greater concern towards her novel and her handbag than she does in the situation of the child she carelessly misplaced (by leaving in a handbag, no less!). She's affronted by the comment Lady Bracknell makes about the quality of the novel and later, when Jack presents the handbag for inspection, she is able to go over every detail of its history and yet is practically useless when it comes to providing details to assist in Jack's dilemma. Wouldn't you think she'd remember the name of the baby she ditched? And to top it all off, when Jack assumes that she is his mother, she is offended and disturbed! This woman is terrible!

To me, throughout the entire play, this is the most serious event and while it plays a significant role in the development and resolution of the story, it's treated so lightly, which is part of its comical appeal. Miss Prism is a woman that committed a grave sin of abandoning a baby in a cloakroom at a railway station and yet even she gets her happy ending. The fact that her happy ending is with a supposedly "celibate" man is yet another piece of her life that could easily be interpreted as a stain on her character. But in any case, while so many of the characters make unusual or even shocking statements, Miss Prism seems to be the only person that has actually done something truly shocking, which makes her the most interesting character to me.