The relationship between Miss Prism and Reverend Chasuble serves as a useful contrast to the relationships between Jack and Gwendolen and Algernon and Cecily, respectively. While the other two couples seem to have met fairly recently (actually the latter couple has met on the same day he proposes to her), Prism and Chasuble seem to have been familiar with one another for quite awhile. It is clear that they are attracted to one another but are very awkward together. Prism is a bit more forward, insinuating that Chasuble should marry her. He uses the excuse that "the primitive church" forbids reverends from marrying; of course, this is 1895 and the primitive church is long gone. Jack and Algernon, on the other hand, are both very forward with the women they "love" and make no haste in trying to secure their marriages. Ultimately, though, all of these characters and their relationships are targets of Wilde's satire. Though Prism and Chasuble's love is based on more, perhaps, than the connections between the other couples, they still pursue their relationship in laugh-worthy ways. They don't seem able to communicate clearly with one another and it takes them years to determine to be together. Once they decide, things move rather quickly, as they do with the other couples.
Both Prism and Chasuble serve a purpose in the play's plot, as well. Chasuble in important because as a reverend, he can christen the men, who want to change their names to Ernest to please the women they want to marry. Prism is probably even more important to the plot, as it turns out that she was the who mistakenly left Jack in a handbag at the train station. That event leads to all of the confusion about Jack's parentage, but it is resolved at the end of the play when Lady Bracknell recognizes Prism and asks her where "that baby" is, after all these years. Jack discovers he is Algernon's brother and that he is really named Ernest, after all.
At the level of plot, Miss Prism is the governess who "lost" the man we come to know as Jack Worthing when he was a baby. That she then resurfaces as the tutor of his ward, Cecily Cardew, permits the mystery of the play to be resolved; once Aunt Augusta identifies her, she can confirm Jack's own identity by sharing the same details about where and when she lost him as he has discussed. Dr. Chasuble is the vicar who is both a spiritual adviser to Jack and Algernon —willing to rechristen them both so they can be called Earnest—and a love interest for Miss Prism, completing the trio of couples which close the play. Both are certainly humorous and add to the play's comedy.
It does seem, however, that these characters also permit Oscar Wilde to further comment on Victorian morality and values. Miss Prism is big on platitudes, and she is horrified by the idea that Jack thinks she is his mother (as an unmarried woman, she is still considered sexually virtuous), but she pines for Dr. Chasuble. Likewise, Dr. Chasuble, as a vicar, is virtuous as well, but he lusts after Miss Prism. They each try to keep up appearances, but both fail to live up to strict Victorian moral codes in the end. It is as though Wilde is saying that, at best, we can only pretend to live according to these codes because actual adherence, even for an old maid and a minister, is impossible.
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