IOBE quotes Flashcards
Algernon’s house in half moon street
Is rich, is of high class.
Wilde is mocking the higher class.
“I don’t play accurately, - anyone can play accurately- but I can play with wonderful expression.”
- Algernon
- doesn’t admit that he is wrong
“sentiment is my forte”
- Algernon
- Pun
- “forte” = loud, has more volume and emotion than accuracy.
- not accurate
“Is marriage as demoralising as that?”
- Algernon
- First of many comments about marriage.
- doesn’t like the concept of it.
“I have only been married once”
- Lane
- Has no real concept if only allowed to be married once.
- Better understanding if married multiple times.
“If the lower classes don’t set us a better example”
- Algernon
- Inversion (swapping) leads to submission.
- challenging societal concepts at the time.
- Higher classes supposed to be better and set the example.
” When one is in the country, one amuses himself.
When one is in the countryside, one amuses oher people.”
- Jack
- epigram
- Audience gets the point, easy to remember why he has a second persona.
- country= selfless city= selfish
- behave differently in different situations.
“How utterly unromantic.”
- Jack
- Talking about marriage
- Marriage is arranged in the upper classes
- Starts to show contrasting characters.
“Divorces are made in heaven”
- Algernon
- Inversion = takes common phrase, changes a words. Makes it almost the opposite.
- Can’t get divorced, is really frowned upon, less likely to get into heaven.
- Only separate by one dying.
Always eating/ consuming
- always wanting something else at lower classes disadvantage.
“Bunbury” and “Ernest”
- Contrasting characters (Smart and Stupid)
- Both have double lives and are rich.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple”
- Algernon
- Applying to literature and culture.
- is not what appears to be (Good and truthful)
“Invaluable permanent invalid”
- Jack
- Makes going off seem like he’s doing good
- Seems moral, but leading a different life.
“A high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or happiness”
- Jack
- City does what he wants
- Country is responsible.
- becomes a reckless escape route for them.
“It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public”
- Algernon
- changing a common phrase.
- Dirty= immoral
- “clean” = very moral, too nice for him.
“You are the most earnest person”
- Algernon
- “earnest”= worthy, honest, dull.
- “Ernest” as a name claims that he is honest and earnest, when not in reality.
- pun
“You had much better get the thing out at once.”
- Algernon
- have the truth out.
- Dentistry puns “False impression” “Talk like a dentist”
- Connotes getting a tooth out, painful and difficult could be messy.
“A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it”
- Algernon
- Marriage without an affair is boring
- Adultery is common in England
“In married life, three is company, two is nothing.”
- Algernon
- Having one partner is boring
- Must sleep with multiple people to make marriage interesting
“The theory that corrupt French drama has been propounding for the last 50 years and the English home has shown in half the time.”
- Algernon
- Adultery is commonly shown in French theatre
- not “English way of thinking about it.
- French are more permissive and tolerant.
- Adultery happens in English marriage, but is taboo.
- Proved / common knowledge 1/2 time I English households.
- Happens a lot everywhere.
“I hope that you are behaving well” LB
“I am feeling very well” Algy
“That’s not quite the same thing.” LB
- Lady Bracknell & Algernon
- Feeling well does not mean behaving well
- Bracknell may have a suspicion, knows that Algy is not as good as he appears to be.
“I intend to develop in many ways”
- Gwendolen
- Flirtatious with Jack (Ernest at time)
- Starting to lead the relationship
“She looks quite 20 years younger”
- Lady Bracknell
- After husbands death, feeling better.
- better to not be married.
- Joke about marriage.
“No cucumbers in the market this morning”
- Lane
- Algernon ate all the cucumber sandwiches
- Always consuming, representing the greed of the overall upper classes.
- Has to lie, being corrupt, influenced by Algernon
“Ready money”
- Lane
- Means cash
- Algernon runs on death, doesn’t pay upfront
- running himself into debt.
“Living entirely for pleasure” LB
“Her hair has turned quite gold from grief” Algy
- Lady Bracknell & Algernon
- Has become happier, less restrained when not married.
- Effect of husband’s death
- Better when not married.
” Your husband will have to dine upstairs. Fortunately he is accustomed to that.”
- Lady Bracknell
- Has money and power in the relationship.
- Distant relationship.
- Controlling husband, defying gender roles at the time.
- Women may not want to marry, but forced to.
“My idea has always been to love someone of the name Ernest”
- Gwendolen
- Loves the name and the ideal a lot
- Jack has to keep the persona and name of Ernest
He tries to rise, but she restrains him.
- Stage directions
- women has control over men
- New woman and power?
- Visual metaphor.
“I… will inform you of the fact… as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant”
- Lady Bracknell
- Arranged marriage in the upper classes
- Based on status and background to build connections
“I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has”.
- Lady Bracknell
- Upper classes in circles of the same people
- Based on status and general suitability.
“Natural ignorance… The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound.”
- Lady Bracknell
- Protecting women’s (Social and sexual) ignorance.
- So men are thought/ feel in control.
“I have lost both my parents” Jack
“To lose both seems like carelessness” LB
- Lady Bracknell & Jack.
- Joke/ euphemism taken literally
- Shows upper classes and Lady Bracknell as cold.
“I was found”
- Jack
- Is a foundling
- Children abandoned by unmarried mothers
- Brought shame on family and individuals
- Has ambiguous social status, no connections, can’t marry.
“Reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution”
- Lady Bracknell
- 1780s- 1790s aristocracy murdered
- Could happen in England, again in France
- Cities grew exponentially.
- Upper classes worried about it.
“To marry into a cloakroom…”
- Lady Bracknell.
- Unaware of social status, no automatic links.
“What has it to do with me?”
- Lady Bracknell
- Has no control to how society sees things.
“Relations… haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die”
- Algernon
- Superlatives, “Remotest,” “Smallest”.
- Shortest noun phrase.
- Relatives are a hassle.
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. no man does. That’s his.”
- Algernon.
- Noun phrase shortened
- Gender roles trapping, forced to become like that in the future.
- Sounds good, showing aestheticism through Algernon.
“The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and someone else if she is plain.”
- Algernon
- Adultery is common
- Has to be good looking
- Rise of aestheticism.
“… Call each other sister” Jack
“ … Have called each other a lot of other things first” Algernon
- Algernon and Jack
- Women are benign, passive, orderly according to Jack.
- They will argue, have voices and use them according to Algernon.
“Old fashioned respect for the young is dying out”.
- Gwendolen
- Inversion from a common phrase.
- Algernon and Gwendolen challenge conventions, marriage and gender roles.
“I may marry someone else and marry often”.
- Gwendolen
- Challenges idea women controlling marriage.
- Separates idea of love and marriage
- Wants romance, won’t necessarily get in marriage, arranged.
“The simplicity if your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible.”
- Gwendolen
- Paradoxical
- Simple is often easy to understand
- Smart sounding like Algernon.
- Aestheticism?
- New Woman?
