Morality Flashcards
Algernon speaks to Lane about Lane’s accidental marriage at the beginning of the play.
‘Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?’
Jack scolds Algernon when he asks if Jack has told Gwendolen about his attractive ward Cecily.
‘The truth isn’t the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.’
Jack explains to Algernon his reasons for needing a second identity to escape the responsibilities of being Cecily’s guardian.
‘A high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness.’
Miss Prism and Cecily discuss Miss Prism’s three-volume novel. Cecily hopes that it doesn’t end happily, but Miss Prism retorts that ‘___________________.’
‘the good end happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.’
Miss Prism believes it to be virtuous for a man to take responsibility for the wickedness of his actions.
‘As a man sows so let him reap.’
When Cecily first meets Algernon 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. That would be hypocrisy.’
Gwendolen views ‘Ernest’ as an extremely reputable and moral character.
‘Ernest has a strong upright nature. He is the very soul of truth and honour. Disloyalty would be as impossible to him as deception.’
Having learnt of Algernon’s attempts to woo his ward, Jack condemns his behaviour, calling his conduct ‘___’.
‘an outrage’
Jack pretends that Algernon has been called home when he visits Jack’s estate in Hertfordshire, telling Algernon that ‘___________.’ Algernon replies that ‘________________________.’
‘your duty as a gentleman calls you back.’
‘my duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.’
When Jack and Algy enter the house to apologise to the women for their deceit, Gwendolen accepts their apology.
‘in matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.’
Lady Bracknell tells Cecily and Algernon that ‘________________________________________________.’
‘I do not approve of mercenary marriages. When I married Lord Bracknell, I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way.’
Jack mistakes Miss Prism for his mother.
‘Unmarried! I do not deny that is a serious blow. But after all, who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? Why should there be one law for men and another for women?’
Jack’s ending declaration.
‘I’ve now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest’.
