Key quotes TIOBE Flashcards
“If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always
immensely over-educated.”
Algernon
- ironic as he is not over-educated, he is very obnoxious and ignorant.
“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.”
Gwendolyn
-Epigram Reverses usual view, in this farcical world, it is the beauty of statements, not the reality, that is persuasive. Perhaps aligns with Wilde’s aesthete philosophy.
-Similarity between her and Algy. Reflects vanity and superficiality of upper class - willing to forgive Jack and Algy merely because they are flattered by their statements.
“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
Lady Bracknell
Epigram - Farcical simile subverts expectations - play on words of the usual “innocence”
Satirising ignorance of the upper class, lack of intellect and knowledge. Only concerned with superficial matters, not true education.
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That is his.”
Algy
-dig at stereotypical masculinity, perhaps men would benefit from acquiring some of the attitutes and beliefs of their mothers.
“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”
Miss prism
dramatic irony
foreshadowing
-humerous as only applies to fiction not real life, where fate seems unrelated to morality.
- wilde pokes fun at ways strict victorian society invaded other aspects of cultural life like literature. rules on practised morality were largely rooted in the church thus miss prism is referring to idea that people who sin are punished and those who behave responsibly are rewarded. Thous both Lady B and Miss P. are highly concerned with the strict rules and regulations of victorian morality, Miss P. focuses on religion whereas Lady B on society and aristocracy.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Algy
oxymoronic
-prospect of people finding out is what keeps life interesting in the same way it makes a work of fiction interesting to watch/ read as he argues that Jack’s story cannot possibly be as simple as it sounds. Wilde points out very nature of own work to audience.
Perhaps a dig at the insincerity and deceit of the upper class - nobody is living their lives as truthfully and simply as they claim to be. Perhaps applies to Wilde’s audience too.
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
Gwendolyn
Satirising how self-centred and vain the upper class are.
“I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left.”
jack
Ironic as none of the characters in this are particularly intelligent - especially Jack who’s very foolishness provides much of the comedy of the play.
“To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.”
Lady Bracknell
Absurd farcical metaphorical statement. Her blaming Jack, as a newborn child for being “bred” in a handbag is utterly ridiculous, not to mention impossible.
Satirises upper class’s superficial concern with pedigree and bloodlines, reputations are for more important for archetypal aristocrat Lady B than Jack’s actual dispositional attributes. Ironically she does not reprobate him for any of his other flaws such as smoking and unemployment, merely his lack of parentage - something which unlike the other things is completely out of his control.
“And you do not seem to realise, dear Doctor, that by persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful; this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray.”
Miss Prism
humorous flirtation between two otherwise prude characters - unexpected
“You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?”
Lady B
Lady Bracknell - despite her current wealth and aristocracy - is always seeking out ways in which her family can further climb the social ladder. One of the quickest ways of gaining socioeconomic capital was for a son or daughter to marry into a family of equal or higher social status. Thus, Lady Bracknell clearly hopes to marry Gwendolen into a highly esteemed family—not to “form an alliance with a parcel.” To Lady Bracknell, someone’s character is directly related to their birth. Jack, therefore, is in her eyes not a product of the wealthy Cardews, with whom he was raised, but of a handbag and the Brighton line at Victoria station.
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
algy
“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.”
lady b
“I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”
Jack,
The title of the play is only spoken in the last line of the play. Wilde’s characteristic wit and wordplay - particularly the interplay between the name “Ernest” and the adjective “earnest” - endures throughout. It is not clear here whether Jack means the name or the adjective here - to be sincere and truthful, however it is likely that he too intends the pun; he has learnt the importance of his true christan name - and his father’s and the importance of being earnest- being honest and confessing the truth to Gwendolen that he now knows who he is and who his family is.
“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
lady b
As the epitome of Victorian high society, lady b directly associates someone’s birth and familial pedigree with their character. Thus, she instantly perceives Jack as someone who is “careless” due to his lack of recorded ancestry, though this is evidently not his fault. Lady B represents Victorian elitists who hold themselves and the people around them to what they believe to be high moral standards - ironically though, these standards were created and fulfilled only to impress the high society they were around.
In TIOBE - which scathingly critiques Victorian high society through witty and clever dialogue - all of the lovers end up together, and in class affirming unions too. However, in Wilde’s and most of his contemporary society this rarely ever happened - usually unions of love were replaced by arranged marriages to preserve socioeconomic ties. Thus, if the engagements seemed to good to be true it’s because they were - marriages beneficial to both love and class were extremely rare. But as Miss P. declared in fiction, “The good ended happily and the bad unhappily - once both men tell the truth they are rewarded with their loves.
