Captain Mainwaring often a sympathetic subtext to his own personal neuroses; it is apparent several times that he devotes his energies to his Home Guard unit for a sense of comradeship and purpose lacking in other parts of his life, such as his career and marriage. On one occasion when his men spurned a parade to play darts against the ARP he expressed bewilderment, saying coming to the platoon is "the highlight of my day". It is frequently implied that he is trapped in a loveless and unhappy marriage to Elizabeth, his unseen wife, who is domineering, neurotic and withholding of affection.
Captain Mainwaring kind of orchestrated social conspiracy against him, it transpires that Mainwaring's inverted snobbery goes as far as doing all he can to hold Wilson back from promotion by writing negative reports on him to Head Office – as we discover in "A. Wilson (Manager)". He often rants about how society will be different "after the war", and is often disdainful of the upper classes and their pretensions. In "Wake Up Walmington", Mainwaring raves about how after the war, the country will be run by professionals, by people who've worked like him, but does not approve of Hodges being Chief ARP