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English A level > IOBE quotes > Flashcards

IOBE quotes Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

Algernon’s house in half moon street

A

Is rich, is of high class.

Wilde is mocking the higher class.

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2
Q

“I don’t play accurately, - anyone can play accurately- but I can play with wonderful expression.”

A
  • Algernon

- doesn’t admit that he is wrong

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3
Q

“sentiment is my forte”

A
  • Algernon
  • Pun
  • “forte” = loud, has more volume and emotion than accuracy.
  • not accurate
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4
Q

“Is marriage as demoralising as that?”

A
  • Algernon
  • First of many comments about marriage.
  • doesn’t like the concept of it.
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5
Q

“I have only been married once”

A
  • Lane
  • Has no real concept if only allowed to be married once.
  • Better understanding if married multiple times.
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6
Q

“If the lower classes don’t set us a better example”

A
  • Algernon
  • Inversion (swapping) leads to submission.
  • challenging societal concepts at the time.
  • Higher classes supposed to be better and set the example.
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7
Q

” When one is in the country, one amuses himself.

When one is in the countryside, one amuses oher people.”

A
  • Jack
  • epigram
  • Audience gets the point, easy to remember why he has a second persona.
  • country= selfless city= selfish
  • behave differently in different situations.
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8
Q

“How utterly unromantic.”

A
  • Jack
  • Talking about marriage
  • Marriage is arranged in the upper classes
  • Starts to show contrasting characters.
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9
Q

“Divorces are made in heaven”

A
  • 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.
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10
Q

Always eating/ consuming

A
  • always wanting something else at lower classes disadvantage.
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11
Q

“Bunbury” and “Ernest”

A
  • Contrasting characters (Smart and Stupid)

- Both have double lives and are rich.

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12
Q

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple”

A
  • Algernon
  • Applying to literature and culture.
  • is not what appears to be (Good and truthful)
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13
Q

“Invaluable permanent invalid”

A
  • Jack
  • Makes going off seem like he’s doing good
  • Seems moral, but leading a different life.
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14
Q

“A high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or happiness”

A
  • Jack
  • City does what he wants
  • Country is responsible.
  • becomes a reckless escape route for them.
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15
Q

“It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public”

A
  • Algernon
  • changing a common phrase.
  • Dirty= immoral
  • “clean” = very moral, too nice for him.
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16
Q

“You are the most earnest person”

A
  • Algernon
  • “earnest”= worthy, honest, dull.
  • “Ernest” as a name claims that he is honest and earnest, when not in reality.
  • pun
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17
Q

“You had much better get the thing out at once.”

A
  • Algernon
  • have the truth out.
  • Dentistry puns “False impression” “Talk like a dentist”
  • Connotes getting a tooth out, painful and difficult could be messy.
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18
Q

“A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it”

A
  • Algernon
  • Marriage without an affair is boring
  • Adultery is common in England
19
Q

“In married life, three is company, two is nothing.”

A
  • Algernon
  • Having one partner is boring
  • Must sleep with multiple people to make marriage interesting
20
Q

“The theory that corrupt French drama has been propounding for the last 50 years and the English home has shown in half the time.”

A
  • 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.
21
Q

“I hope that you are behaving well” LB
“I am feeling very well” Algy
“That’s not quite the same thing.” LB

A
  • 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.
22
Q

“I intend to develop in many ways”

A
  • Gwendolen
  • Flirtatious with Jack (Ernest at time)
  • Starting to lead the relationship
23
Q

“She looks quite 20 years younger”

A
  • Lady Bracknell
  • After husbands death, feeling better.
  • better to not be married.
  • Joke about marriage.
24
Q

“No cucumbers in the market this morning”

A
  • 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
25
Q

“Ready money”

A
  • Lane
  • Means cash
  • Algernon runs on death, doesn’t pay upfront
  • running himself into debt.
26
Q

“Living entirely for pleasure” LB

“Her hair has turned quite gold from grief” Algy

A
  • Lady Bracknell & Algernon
  • Has become happier, less restrained when not married.
  • Effect of husband’s death
  • Better when not married.
27
Q

” Your husband will have to dine upstairs. Fortunately he is accustomed to that.”

A
  • 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.
28
Q

“My idea has always been to love someone of the name Ernest”

A
  • Gwendolen
  • Loves the name and the ideal a lot
  • Jack has to keep the persona and name of Ernest
29
Q

He tries to rise, but she restrains him.

A
  • Stage directions
  • women has control over men
  • New woman and power?
  • Visual metaphor.
30
Q

“I… will inform you of the fact… as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant”

A
  • Lady Bracknell
  • Arranged marriage in the upper classes
  • Based on status and background to build connections
31
Q

“I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has”.

A
  • Lady Bracknell
  • Upper classes in circles of the same people
  • Based on status and general suitability.
32
Q

“Natural ignorance… The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound.”

A
  • Lady Bracknell
  • Protecting women’s (Social and sexual) ignorance.
  • So men are thought/ feel in control.
33
Q

“I have lost both my parents” Jack

“To lose both seems like carelessness” LB

A
  • Lady Bracknell & Jack.
  • Joke/ euphemism taken literally
  • Shows upper classes and Lady Bracknell as cold.
34
Q

“I was found”

A
  • Jack
  • Is a foundling
  • Children abandoned by unmarried mothers
  • Brought shame on family and individuals
  • Has ambiguous social status, no connections, can’t marry.
35
Q

“Reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution”

A
  • Lady Bracknell
  • 1780s- 1790s aristocracy murdered
  • Could happen in England, again in France
  • Cities grew exponentially.
  • Upper classes worried about it.
36
Q

“To marry into a cloakroom…”

A
  • Lady Bracknell.

- Unaware of social status, no automatic links.

37
Q

“What has it to do with me?”

A
  • Lady Bracknell

- Has no control to how society sees things.

38
Q

“Relations… haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die”

A
  • Algernon
  • Superlatives, “Remotest,” “Smallest”.
  • Shortest noun phrase.
  • Relatives are a hassle.
39
Q

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. no man does. That’s his.”

A
  • Algernon.
  • Noun phrase shortened
  • Gender roles trapping, forced to become like that in the future.
  • Sounds good, showing aestheticism through Algernon.
40
Q

“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.”

A
  • Algernon
  • Adultery is common
  • Has to be good looking
  • Rise of aestheticism.
41
Q

“… Call each other sister” Jack

“ … Have called each other a lot of other things first” Algernon

A
  • Algernon and Jack
  • Women are benign, passive, orderly according to Jack.
  • They will argue, have voices and use them according to Algernon.
42
Q

“Old fashioned respect for the young is dying out”.

A
  • Gwendolen
  • Inversion from a common phrase.
  • Algernon and Gwendolen challenge conventions, marriage and gender roles.
43
Q

“I may marry someone else and marry often”.

A
  • Gwendolen
  • Challenges idea women controlling marriage.
  • Separates idea of love and marriage
  • Wants romance, won’t necessarily get in marriage, arranged.
44
Q

“The simplicity if your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible.”

A
  • Gwendolen
  • Paradoxical
  • Simple is often easy to understand
  • Smart sounding like Algernon.
  • Aestheticism?
  • New Woman?

English A level (8 decks)

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