James Mavor Morell is a socialist clergyman. He is energetic and passionate for his profession. People love and admire him for his excellent speeches and addresses. Women easily fall in love with his good looks and personality. He has high ideals and aspirations. He wants to make Earth as Heaven. He is kind with everyone. When his curate is leaving in cold, he ties a handkerchief around his collar. He found Eugene on embankments of River Thames and brought him home. He works for the benefit of his congregations. He even got into a quarrel with his father-in-law, Burgess for paying his women workers very low and got one of Burgess’ contracts cancelled.
He has been portrayed as an impractical person living in a world of illusion. He spends time in preparing and delivering addresses. He is under the illusion that people love his addresses. Eugene tells him that his peaching is not of much use. When his wife Candida repeats the same words, he feels shocked. He is dismayed that people, and specially women, come to his addresses just to look at him. They all are secretly in love with him.
He is a person with strong physical body. However, his emotions are equally weak. When Eugene tells him that he is in love with his wife Candida and that she too is unhappy with Morell, he loses control on his anger. He manhandles Eugene. Although he repented his action but the incident shows that he was also just like an ordinary human. Eugene accuses him of being a coward too.
At many instances, he reveals that he is emotionally dependent on Candida. She nurtures him like a mother, his three sisters and his wife, all merged up in one. The spectators get amused when he starts weeping thinking that he has been rejected by Candida in favour of Eugene. He proves himself to be weaker than Eugene and that is the reason he gets chosen by Candida.
He does not have much confidence in himself. His confidence in his intellectual pursuits gets shaken both by Eugene, and then by Candida. He cannot challenge them. He easily gets borne by their views. Eugene’s explanation about what happened between Candida and Eugene tortures him. He is deeply pained thinking about Candida’s betrayal and unfaithfulness. He starts doubting her purity and even forbids her to touch or kiss him. This shows that he only fakes trust in his wife while he never had fully trusted her.
He learnt his lessons and mistakes at the end of the play. He confesses to Candida that she is the sum total of all loving care to him – his wife, his three sisters and above all, his mother.