Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Jack: My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression. This excerpt best illustrates which feature of a comedy of manners?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Algernon: [Languidly.] I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane. Lane: No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself. Algernon: Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you. Lane: Thank you, sir. [Lane goes out.] This excerpt best illustrates which feature of a comedy of manners?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Jack: Oh, Gwendolen is as right as a trivet. As far as she is concerned, we are engaged. Her mother is perfectly unbearable. Never met such a Gorgon . . . I don’t really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair . . . I beg your pardon, Algy, I suppose I shouldn’t talk about your own aunt in that way before you. Algernon: My dear boy, I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die. How does Oscar Wilde use Algernon’s attitude to poke fun at society’s traditional rules of behavior?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Jack: [Irritably.] Oh! It always is nearly seven. Algernon: Well, I’m hungry. Jack: I never knew you when you weren’t . . . Algernon: What shall we do after dinner? Go to a theatre? Jack: Oh, no! I loathe listening. Algernon: Well, let us go to the Club? Jack: Oh, no! I hate talking. Algernon: Well, we might trot round to the Empire at ten? Jack: Oh, no! I can’t bear looking at things. It is so silly. Algernon: Well, what shall we do? Jack: Nothing! Algernon: It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind. Which is an example of how Wilde pokes fun at the upper-class lifestyle?
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest shows the difference between city and country living?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Lady Bracknell: Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself . . . Wilde uses Lady Bracknell’s words to poke fun at marriage by having her
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest highlights the divide between the social classes in Victorian society?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Lady Bracknell: Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. . . . I should be much obliged if you would ask Mr. Bunbury, from me, to be kind enough not to have a relapse on Saturday, for I rely on you to arrange my music for me. It is my last reception, and one wants something that will encourage conversation, particularly at the end of the season when every one has practically said whatever they had to say, which, in most cases, was probably not much. What aspect of Lady Bracknell’s behavior does Wilde use to poke fun at the importance placed on frivolous events in formal society?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest . Algernon: [Languidly.] I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane. Lane: No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself. Algernon: Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you. Lane: Thank you, sir. [Lane goes out.] Algernon: Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility. How does Wilde use this conversation to poke fun at the class divisions of his day?
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest is an example of a commentary on marriage?
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