Poetry - Quotations

Question 1

Aesthetic movement
Dandy stock character
“Art for art’s sake”
Subversion of Victorian gentlemen 
Foregrounds Algernon’s character

Answer 1

“I don’t play accurately… i play with wonderful expression” - AM

“Pleasure, pleasure, what else would bring one anywhere” - AM

Question 2

Subversion of ideas of responsibility- Algernon subverting the victorian gentleman
Used as satirical mockery of the upper class viewing themselves as “superior”
Masters and servants

Answer 2

“If the lower orders don’t set us an example what on earth is the use of them?” - AM

Question 3

Comic reversal, Algernon seems to be boasting, he seems almost proud of his immoral, deceptive actions
Introduces the use of deception
Supports the victorian idea that men are less moral than women

Answer 3

“I’ve bunburied all over Shropshire” - AM

“Ernest in town and Jack in the country” - JW

Question 4

An inversion of normal life completely immoral 
Epigrammatic reversal 
Encouraging adultery (a sin)
Love and Marriage are huge themes 
Ridicule of marriage and religion

Answer 4

“the truth is rarely pure and never simple” - AM

“Three’s company, two is none” - AM

Question 5

Undermining Lady Bracknell’s authority and seriousness
Demonstrates the flamboyance/ over excessive behaviour of the upper class, both ridicules/celebrates this - comedy of manners

Answer 5

“Marry into a cloakroom and form an alliance with a parcel” - LB

“It produces vibrations” - GB

Question 6

Town Vs Country comical division

Town is exciting, the country is boring and people there are uneducated

Answer 6

“What on earth do you do there?” - AM

“A girl like Gwendolen… can hardly be expected to reside in the country” - LB

Question 7

Empowerment of women - Gwendolen is dominant in her relationship with Jack.
Foregrounds their relationship as a plotline - comic love journey towards marriage, have to overcome obstacles
Comic reversal of the confident male persona
Lady Bracknell too, appears to be dominant in her marriage, making decisions herself

Answer 7

“I am never wrong” - GB

“I intend to develop in many directions” - GB

She has Jack stumbling over his words - “ever since i met you … i have ever met since i met you” - JW

“You’re uncle would have to dine upstairs”- LB

Question 8

Superficial personality of Cecily

Follows the aesthetic movement

Answer 8

“I look quite plain after my german lesson” - CC

Question 9

Purpose of fiction in the Victorian era was to encourage morality - the morally questionable characters such as Algernon, Ms Prism etc all end happily

Answer 9

“The good ended happily, the bad unhappily” - MP

Question 10

Innuendo
Comic confusion, Dr Chasuble’s sentence makes no sense
He’s attempting to appear intellectual to the women

Answer 10

“I would hang upon her lips…my metaphor was drawn from bees. Ahem!” - DC

Question 11

Subverts expectations of the supposed ingenue character

Clever, resourceful, finding a way out of learning German by getting Ms Prism to go on a walk with Dr Chasuble

Answer 11

“Ms Prism has just been complaining of a headache” - CC

Question 12

Algernon’s subversion of the upper class gentleman
Morally dubious
Dandy-like stock character
Reflection of Oscar Wilde

Answer 12

“I have a business appointment, that i am anxious to miss” - AM

“My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures” - AM

Question 13

Subversion of religion, Catholicism
Ironic/Satirical
It’s like he’s trying to fit in with the upper classes by acting smart

Answer 13

“My serman… can be adapted to almost any occasion” - DC

Question 14

Subversion of gender roles
Empowerment of women
Cecily is dominant in her relationship with Algernon, she gives him commands

Answer 14

“Don’t cough, Ernest”, “silly boy” - CC
“Hopelessly doesn’t seem to make much sense” - CC
“I am very much hurt indeed to hear you broke it off” - AM

Question 15

Social spheres debate, subversive as the women usually belongs at home

Answer 15

“The home seems to me the proper sphere for the man” - GB

Question 16

Superficiality of the upper class characters
No real substance of love, but aesthetics like beauty 
All the upper class characters are parallels of each other

Answer 16

“I like his hair so much” - CC

“Its always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone of the name Ernest” - CC

Question 17

Acknowledgement of the idea that everyone in upper class society is always deceiving everyone

Answer 17

“This is not time for wearing the shallow mask of manners” - CC

Question 18

It demonstrates the significance of superficiality in the play
“Sincerity” is seen as much less important in life
“Vital means necessary for life” - appearances, style and superficiality is shown as important
Context - Aestheticism
Comic inversion of norms, it’s an epigrammatic reversal

Answer 18

“Style not sincerity is the vital thing” - Gwendolen to Cecily

“He has nothing but he looks everything” - Lady Bracknell on Algernon

Question 19

Comic theme of deception runs through the play and is seen as an acceptable and desirable way to live one’s life
Empowerment of women, Lady Bracknell deceiving Lord Bracknell

Answer 19

“I do not propose to undeceive him” - LB

Question 20

Possessing the wealth to own three addresses inspires confidence
Demonstrating the rank and property Victorian Gentleman were expected to have.
Demonstrates the flamboyance/ over excessive behaviour of the upper class, both ridicules/celebrates this - comedy of manners

Answer 20

“Three addresses always inspires confidence” - LB

Question 21

Demonstrates the importance of being in society
Non-sequitur - attending dinner parties makes you a trustworthy person
Ridiculousness of the upper class
Wilde was an outsider to society, being Irish

Answer 21

“One of the Marksbys is occasionally to be seen at dinner parties… i am satisfied” - LB

“Never speak disrespectfully of society … only people who can’t get into it do that” - LB

Question 22

Comically absurd, impossible just to decide to die

Non-sequitur (when on think doesn’t follow/link to the next)

Answer 22

“The doctors found out that Bunbury couldn’t live… so Bunbury died”- AM

Question 23

Acknowledging the continuous deceptions that take place in their daily lives - the constant lying and deception that takes place in the play
LB is making a serious point - perhaps a reason why the play isn’t trivial
It seems that all of the upper class take part in deceiving people
Subverts the idea that women had a moral superiority over men.

Answer 23

“We live… in an age of surfaces” - LB

“London society is full of women… who have of their own free choice, remained thirty five for years” - LB

Question 24

Has the possibility to be making a serious point about society however is more likely a demonstration of the upper class choosing and changing things to suit them. 
Jack needs to keep his reputation clean
Jack’s aim is also to persuade LB that he is the right man to marry Gwendolen

Answer 24

“Why should there be one law for men and one another for women” - JW

Question 25

Strange and unbelievable ending, built on coincidences, which are perhaps flimsy, showing the triviality of the play and the lives of the upper class

Answer 25

“Miss Prism… i was the baby you placed in it” - JW

Question 26

Nothing has changed, throughout the course of the play
The purpose of Victorian fiction was to encourage morality, however despite the large amount of immorality that takes place in the play, the characters all appear to have a happy ending - being allowed to marry who they want.

Answer 26

“It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all he has been speaking nothing but the truth, can you forgive me” - JW