TIOBE - Key Quotes Flashcards
‘sentiment is my forte. I keep science for life.’
Algernon, Act 1
- Highly formalised language: style of language is at least as important as the substance of what is said. No real meaning.
- Wilde’s critique on the upper class.
- Natural or artificial?
‘Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?’
Algernon, Act 1
- Wilde immediately satirises marriage & introduces the key theme of it - comedic structure (AO2).
- Wilde’s negative view of marriage - link to his wife, Constance Lloyd and their marriage in 1884.
‘I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding.’
Lane, Act 1
- ‘consequence’ - Wilde & Constance Lloyd.
- Suggests that Vic. society was modernising - you were only supposed to marry once.
- Wilde uses Lane to set up the key themes of marriage & class. He is also used to set up the genre, ‘comedy of manners’ and as Wilde’s mouthpiece.
‘When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people.’
Jack, Act 1
- Key theme: appearance v. reality (artifice/pretence).
- Idea of social pressures of Victorian society leading men to live double lives - link to Wilde. In London, he was with Constance. In the country, he was with Bosie.
‘I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.’
Jack, Act 1
- Key theme of love introduced - not true love because it is based on deception & mistaken identity.
- Jack & Gwendolen as true lovers.
‘I thought you had come up for pleasure?…I call that business.’
Algernon, Act 1
- Algy’s view on marriage = concept of transactional marriage = high class transactions.
‘[Enter Lane with the cigarette case on a salver].’
Lane, (stage direction) Act 1
- Wilde uses Lane to introduce key theme of mistaken identity through cigarette case.
- Case as a motif for secrecy/lies.
- Wilde gave cigarette cases to prostitutes - inscribed w/ his name. The cases were used as evidence in his trial.
‘Well, my name is Ernest in town & Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to me in the country.’
Jack, Act 1
- Key theme of mistaken identity.
- Victorian men = double lives.
‘I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.’
Algernon, Act 1
- Bunbury as a symbol representing deception, fiction & escapism.
- As defined by Algernon, Bunburying is the practice of creating an elaborate deception that allows one to misbehave while seeming to uphold the very highest standards of duty and responsibility. Jack’s imaginary, wayward brother Ernest is a device not only for escaping social and moral obligations but also one that allows Jack to appear far more moral and responsible than he actually is. Similarly, Algernon’s imaginary invalid friend Bunbury allows Algernon to escape to the country, where he presumably imposes on people who don’t know him in much the same way he imposes on Cecily in the play, all the while seeming to demonstrate Christian charity.
- The practice of visiting the poor and the sick was a staple activity among the Victorian upper and upper-middle classes and considered a public duty. The difference between what Jack does and what Algernon does, however, is that Jack not only pretends to be something he is not, that is, completely virtuous, but also routinely pretends to be someone he is not, which is very different. This sort of deception suggests a far more serious and profound degree of hypocrisy. Through these various enactments of double lives, Wilde suggests the general hypocrisy of the Victorian mindset.
[Sees Jack and bows to him with an icy coldness.]
Lady Bracknell (stage directions), Act 1
- Detached
- Based of Bosie’s mother - Sybil Montgomery.
‘I intend to develop in many directions.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Gwendolen is a satire/parody of the New Woman - verbalises sexual attractions.
- Reversal of power relations between sexes: she is the one predominantly in charge.
‘Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle, but he never seems to take much notice . . . as far as any improvement in his ailment goes.’
Lady Bracknell, Act 1
- Right wing view of illness, repression of ill, disabled hidden away.
- Establishes LB as a comically formidable woman - henpecked husband who has retreated strategically into illness rather than have to face his wife.
‘Yes, I am quite well aware of the fact. And I often wish that in public, at any rate, you had been more demonstrative. For me you have always had an irresistible fascination. Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you. [Jack looks at her in amazement.] We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Artifice - how others perceive Gwendolen is important to her.
- Stereotype of woman who doesn’t stop talking - Victorian society would be shocked that she has power & dominance (NW) - Jack is left in awe of her.
‘It suits you perfectly. It is a divine name. It has a music of its own. It produces vibrations.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Defies ‘Angel in the House’ - Coventry Patmore’s 1854’s poem.
- Gwendolen as an example of NW: coined by Sarah Grand in her 1894 article ‘The New Aspect of the Woman Question.
- Wilde published TIOBE 11 months after Sarah’s article.
- ‘Vibrations’ alludes to sexual attraction to the name Ernest.
‘I am afraid you have had very little experience in how to propose.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Gwendolen is dominating & takes control over the proposal, Jack ends up being pushed into it by Gwendolen.
‘What wonderfully blue eyes you have, Ernest! They are quite, quite blue. I hope you will always look at me just like that, especially when there are other people present.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Male gaze taken by Gwendolen - NW
- She is most concerned about surface appearance/artifice/superficiality.
‘[He tries to rise; she restrains him.]’
Gwendolen (stage direction), Act 1
- Gwendolen takes physical control of Jack - men become powerless w/ the NW.
- Ascending & descending planets - power switching.
- Wilde uses close proximity to show their relationship.
‘[They rise together]’
Gwendolen (stage direction), Act 1
- Typically, the man was in control in the Victorian era. With the rise of the NW, equality was important.
- Proximity is used to parody this equality - critique on societal, Victorian restraints.
‘[Looks in her pocket for notebook and pencil.]’
Lady Bracknell (stage direction), Act 1
- Visual humour & hyperbole of Victorian upper class mother.
- Wilde uses LB for satirising the female matriarch role, looking for marriages for her daughter = financial security = transactional marriage.
‘What between the duties expected of one during one’s lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one’s death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up.’
Lady Bracknell, Act 1
- Death duties = inheritance tax = 40%.
- Gwendolen’s opinion doesn’t matter - LB is more concerned about finances than Gwendolen’s welfare.
‘Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy?’
Lady Bracknell, Act 1
- Concerned with inheritance & reputation - family names were important in Vic. era - surnames could be traced back generations.
- Looked down on working class.
‘The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentleman of a very charitable and kindly disposition, found me, and gave me the name of Worthing, because he happened to have a first-class ticket for Worthing in his pocket at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It is a seaside resort.’
Jack, Act 1
- Adoption frowned upon - confusion of what class he belonged to.
- Wilde wrote TIOBE in Worthing, Sussex.
‘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. And I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to? As for the particular locality in which the hand-bag was found, a cloak-room at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion’
Lady Bracknell, Act 1
- Ridiculous comparison - Jack’s mere adoption v French Revolution.
- Fear of aristrocracy’s lack of power - poorer classes taking over.
- Social indiscretion - illegitimate child, sex before marriage, context relationship etiquette.
‘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? Good morning, Mr. Worthing!’
Lady Bracknell, Act 1
- Lord Bracknell = afterthought, trying to justify why she’s so overreactive.
- Introduction of potential tragedy and blocks the marriage/love plot (AO2) “Social death”.
‘By the way, did you tell Gwendolen the truth about your being Ernest in town, and Jack in the country?’
Algernon, Act 1
- Irony of not telling the truth - Earnest/Ernest meaning seriousness & honesty.
- Wilde lied to his wife - Constance Lloyd.
‘The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me.’
Gwendolen, Act 1
- Gwendolen challenges Jack’s intellect - switching gender stereotypes.
‘To-morrow, Lane, I’m going bunburying.’
Algernon, Act 1
- Movement to the green world (country) - comedic structure (AO2)
