Earnest quotes Flashcards
At the beginning of Act _, when Algy asks if Lane heard what he was playing Lane tells Algy that he ‘___ ____ __ _____ __ _____, ___’ to his poor piano playing
Act 1
‘didn’t think it polite to listen, sir’
After speaking to Lane about his accidental marriage at the beginning of the play, Algy says ‘R___, __ ___ l____ o__ ___ __ _ __ ____ _______, ____ __ ____ __ ___ ___ __ ___’
‘Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?’
‘In m______ l___ t____ i_ c______ a__ t__ i_ n___’
- ____ to Jack
- Act _
- Comic concepts:
‘In married life three is company and two is none’
- Algy to Jack
- Act 1
CCs:
- Comedy of manners –> Wilde’s verbal wit
- Epigram –> Algy has no respect for Vic morality
‘The t____ i___ q____ t__ s____ o_ t____ o__ t____ t_ a n___ s_____ r______ g___’
- ____ to Algy
- Act _
- Comic concepts:
‘The truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice sweet refined girl’
- Jack to Algy about Gwen
- Act 1
CCs
- Farce –> begins the complex plot lines = confusion
‘You s___ b__! W__, w_ h____ b___ e_____ f__ t__ l____ t___ m____’
- ____ to Algy
- Act _
- Comic concepts:
‘You silly boy! Why, we have been engaged for the last three months’
- Cecily to Algy
- Act 2
CCs:
- Farce –> exaggerated + absurd, Cecily reveals herself to be a stereotypically shallow hopeless romantic
- Ingenue –> she subverts as she is capable of patronisation and manipulation
‘Miss F_____, e___ s___ I m__ y__ I h____ a_____ y__ m____ t___ a__ g___ … I h___ e___ m__ s___ … I m__ y__’
- ____ to Gwendolen
- Act _
‘Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl . . . I have ever met since . . . I met you.’
- Jack to Gwendolen
- Act 1
’ I have d___ t_ l___ y__ w___, p______, d_____, h_____’
- ___ to Cecily
- Act 2
- Comic Concepts:
‘I have dared to love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly’
- Algy to Cecily
- Act 2
CCs:
- Doesn’t make sense and Cecily calls him out on it! Again Algy lost control of his lang here = Cecily is in control
- Hyperbole = feature of farce
Lady Bracknell does not approve of the ‘m____ s____ w___ i____’ and tells her husband that ‘h___ i_ t__ p____ d___ o_ l___’
- Act
- Comic concepts
Lady Bracknell does not approve of the ‘ modern sympathy with invalids’ and tells her husband that ‘health is the primary duty of life’
- Act 1
CCs:
- Comic reversal –> Lord B is the invalid which is a reversal of the Victorian female invalid and implies her power
- Comedy of manners –> Stock character of the Victorian dowager
What is the cigarette case a symbol of?
Symbol of male deception
- Wilde made a habit of giving inscribed cigarette cases to his young lovers
- Symbol of Jack’s double life
‘The h___ s___ t_ m_ t_ b_ t__ p____ s_____ f__ t__ m__’
- ______ to Cecily
- Act _
- Comic concepts
‘The home seems to me to be the perfect sphere for the man’
- Gwendolen to Cecily
- Act 2 when they meet for the first time
CCs:
- Epigrammatic –> comic reversal of common phrase
- Well made play –> in Act 1 Algy tells Jack that ‘all women become like their mothers’ In act 2 this seems to be coming true as Gwen mirrors Lady B’s views
- Separate spheres debate
‘I a_ s___ t_ d___ w___ c______’
- ___ to Algy
- Act _
‘I am sick to death of cleverness’
- Jack to Algy
- Act 1
‘The t___ i_ r____ p___ a__ n____ s____’
- A_____, Act _
‘The truth is rarely pure and never simple’
- Algernon, act 1
___ tells Jack that he will need to know B_____ if he wants to marry G____ or he will have a ‘t____ t___ o_ i_’
Algy tells Jack that he will need to know Bunbury if he wants to marry Gwen or he will have a ‘tedious time of it’
‘In m____ o_ g____ i_______, s____, n__ s_____, i_ t__ v____ t___’
- _____ to Jack and Algy
- Act _
- Comic Concepts:
‘In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing’
- Gwen says this to Jack and Algy when they enter the house to apologise to the women for their deceit and she accepts their apology
- Act 3
CCs:
- Comic reversal
- Subversive of Victorian morality
- Satire
‘Your C______ n____ a__ s___ a_ i_________ b____’
- ____ + ____ to Jack and Algy
- Act _
Comic concepts:
‘Your Christian names are still an insuperable barrier’
- Gwendolen + Cecily to Jack and Algy
- In Act 3 when the boys try to apologise to the women for lying about their identities
CCs:
- Speak in unison = they mirror each other –> homogeneity between the upper class
‘I_______ i_ l___ a_ e____ f____. T___ i_ a__ t__ b____ i_ g____’
- Who says this?
- Act _
- Comic concepts
‘Ignorance is like an exotic fruit. Touch it and the bloom is gone’
- Lady Bracknell
- Act 1
CCs:
- Social satire = thinking causes discontent –> social revolutions
- Comic reversal = normally ignorance isn’t a virtue
‘The g___ e__ h_____, a__ t__ b__ u_______. T___ i_ w___ f____ m____’
- ____ to Cecily
- Act _
‘The good end happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.’
- Miss Prism to Cecily
- Act 2
'h\_\_\_\_ u\_\_\_\_ h\_\_ l\_\_\_' \+ 'm_ m\_\_\_\_\_\_ w\_\_ d\_\_\_\_ f\_\_\_ b\_\_\_' - \_\_\_\_\_ to Cecily - Act 2
'hang upon her lips' \+ 'my metaphor was drawn from bees - Dr Chasuble tells Cecily that if Miss P were his teacher he would ... - Act 2
In act , when Cecily first meets Algy she is fascinated by his _________: ‘I h___ y__ h___ n__ b___ l_____ a d____ l___, p_____ t b_ w_____ a__ b___ r___ g___ a__ t__ t___.’
In act 2 hen Cecily first meets Algy she is fascinated by his wickedness: ‘I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time’
In act , when Cecily argues with ______ about who ‘Ernest’ is truly engaged to, Cecily decares ‘This i n_ t___ f__ w_____ t__ s_____ m____ o_ m_____’
In act 2, when Cecily argues with Gwendolen about who ‘Ernest’ is truly engaged to, Cecily decares ‘This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners’
In act , Jack pretends that ____ has been called home when he visits Jack’s estate in _________, telling Algy that ‘your d____ a a g_______ c___ y__ b____.’ Algy replies that ‘my d____ a_ a g________ h__ n____ i_______ w___ m_ p______ i_ t__ s_______ d____’
In act 2, Jack pretends that Algy has been called home when he visits Jack’s estate in Hertfordshire, telling Algy that ‘your duty as a gentleman calls you back.’ Algy replies that ‘my duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree’
In act , when Jack mistakes ___ ____ for his mother, he exclaims: ‘Unmarried! I d n__ d___ t___ i_ a s____ b___. B__ […] w__ s____ t___ b_ o__ l__ f__ m__ a__ a_____ f__ w____?’
In act 3, When Jack mistakes Miss Prism for his mother, he exclaims: ‘Unmarried! I do not deny that is a serious blow. But […] why should there be one law for men and another for women
- He advocates for gender equality when it’s convenient to him –> superficiality
____, as the play ends, declares that ‘I’ve n__ r_____ f__ t__ f___ t___ i_ m_ l____ t__ v____ i________ o_ B___ E______’
Jack, as the play ends, declares that ‘I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of Being Earnest’
In act , Jack says to ______ that ‘it i a t_____ t___ f__ a m__ t_ f____ o__ s_______ t___ a__ h__ l____ h_ h__ b____ s______ n_____ b__ t__ t_____.’
In act 3, Jack says to Gwendolen that “it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.”
