Elyot Chase

The witty and cynical Elyot is the male lead, whose love/hate relationship with Amanda forms the centerpiece of Private Lives. Though his occupation (if any) is unidentified, he is wealthy and fashionable, accustomed to luxury, and self-indulgent In conversation, his habit is to "be flippant" and mock traditional social conventions; if he has a philosophy, it lies in his refusal to ever be serious, in defiance of "all the futile moralists who try to make life unbearable." He holds to no Great Truths; everything is "nonsense" in the long run, nothing is eternal, and the intelligent response is to live for the moment and savor all pleasures, to "be superficial and pity the poor philosophers" who search for higher meanings and moral truths

For all his eloquent rebellion, however, Elyot has his insecurities, and is not unaffected by social expectations. At the play's beginning, he has...