Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.[Algernon.] [Jack puts out his hand to take a sandwich. Algernon at once interferes.] Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta. [Takes one and eats it.]Jack. Well, you have been eating them all the time.Algernon. That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. [Takes plate from below.] Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen. Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.Algernon. I thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call that business.Jack. How utterly unromantic you are!
The tone of Oscar Wilde’s critique in The Importance of Being Earnest is
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.]
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest shows the difference between city and country living?
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest is an example of a commentary on marriage?
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.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. Gwendolen, will you marry me? [Goes on his knees.]Gwendolen. Of course I will, darling. How long you have been about it! I am afraid you have had very little experience in how to propose.Jack. My own one, I have never loved any one in the world but you.Gwendolen. Yes, but men often propose for practice. I know my brother Gerald does. All my girl-friends tell me so.
Which of these are features of a comedy of manners? Select four answers.
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.
Read this sentence from a report on Oscar Wilde.Oscar Wilde’s humor points out that many people are not who they appear to be, which is a critique on the emphasis placed on appearance in society.
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 . . .
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.
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