TIOBE - Main Quotes

Question 1

Algernon tells Lane this when he is playing the piano, Act 1, first page. What themes does it link to?

Answer 1

“I don’t play accurately … i play with wonderful expression
Links to the aesthetic movement, Victorian Gentleman

Question 2

Algernon asks this question to Jack in Act 1 when jack tells him about his house in the countryside. What themes does it link to?

Answer 2

“What on earth do you do there?”

Comedy of Manners idea that the city was exciting and educated and the country was boring with uneducated people

Question 3

Algernon tells Jack this in Act 1 when they are discussing how to behave towards women. What themes does it link to?

Answer 3

“The only way to treat a woman, is to make love to her if she is pretty and if she is not, to someone else”

Links to stereotypical male behaviour

Question 4

Cecily says this to Gwendolen in Act 2 when they are arguing over who is to marry Earnest. What themes does it link to?

Answer 4

“This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners”
Links to Comedy of Manners idea about the upper-class changing their behaviour in private verses to in public
Irony - They continue to wear the shallow mask
Satire - Criticizing their fakeness

Question 5

Algernon says this to Jack in Act 1 when Jack tells Algernon he loves Gwendolen and wants to marry her. What themes does it link to?

Answer 5

“Divorces are made in heaven”

Is subversive about religion

Question 6

Ms Prism says this to Cecily towards the start of Act 2 when they are discussing their diaries and how they end. What themes does it link to?

Answer 6

“The good end happily, the bad end unhappily, that is what fiction means”
Metafiction
Links to Morality

Question 7

Gwendolen says this to Cecily in Act 3 after they have both stormed inside after finding out both men lied to them about their identities. What themes does it link to?

Answer 7

“They’re eating muffins, that looks like repentance to me”
Subversive/ satire towards religion
Links to Morality

Question 8

Cecily says this to Ms Prism towards the start of Act 2 when they are discussing their diaries and how they end. What themes does it link to?

Answer 8

“I hate happy endings, the depress me so much”
Subversion of gender-roles
Comic reversal of the ingenue type character
Links to Morality

Question 9

Gwendolen says this to Cecily in Act 2 when they are discussing Gwendolen’s invalid father. What themes does it link to?

Answer 9

“The home seems to be the proper sphere for men”
Referencing the two spheres debate
Epigrammatic - Comic reversal
Subversive

Question 10

Jack says this to Gwendolen in Act 3 at the very end of the novel when he finds out his name really is Ernest. What themes does it link to?

Answer 10

"It is a terrible thing to find out a man has been telling the truth his whole life, can you forgive me?"
Links to Morality 
Links to Triviality
Comic reversal
Comic resolution

Question 11

“Gwendolen says this to Jack in Act 3 at the very end of the novel when he tells her he has never lied at all. What themes does it link to?

Answer 11

“I am sure you will change”
Comic reversal
Comic resolution

Question 12

Algernon says this to Jack in Act 1 when Jack says that bunburying is wrong and that he wants to marry Gwendolen. What themes does it link to?

Answer 12

“Any man who marries without knowing bunbury will have a tedious time of it”
Links to Morality, Women more moral that men
Links to duplicity
Links to disguises
Links to confusion

Question 13

Jack says this to Gwendolen in Act 1 when he professes his love to her and asks her to marry him. What themes does it link to?

Answer 13

“Ever since i met you, i have admired you more than any girl i have ever met, since i met you”

Subversive

Question 14

Gwendolen says this to Jack in Act 1 when they are talking about his name and she says how much she loves the name Ernest. What themes does it link to?

Answer 14

“It is a divine name, it has music of it’s own. It produces vibrations”

Foolish

Question 15

Lady Bracknell says this to Jack in Act 1 when he tells her about his origins so he can marry Gwendolen. What themes does it link to?

Answer 15

“You can hardly imagine that i… would dream of allowing our only daughter, to marry into a cloak room and form and alliance with a parcel.”
Links to aspects of well-made - events of the past are resurfaced
Victorian gentleman
Comedy of Manners - Stock Character - Victorian dowager
Metaphor describing him as a parcel strips him of his masculinity and says he is just an object, comic reversal as a woman was typically a man’s property just an object.

Question 16

Algernon says this to Cecily in Act 2 when they are talking in the garden and he is avoiding going away as Jack demands he does. What themes does it link to?

Answer 16

"I have a business appointment that i am anxious to miss"
Dandy-like Stock Character
Subversive 
Aesthetic Movement
Victorian Gentleman

Question 17

Algernon says this to Cecily in Act 2 when they meet for the first time and she asks if he wants to go inside and eat something. Algernon says this to Cecily in Act 2 when

Answer 17

“Might i have a buttonhole first, I never have any appetite unless i have a buttonhole first.”
Comedy of Manners - Dandy-like Stock Character
Subversive of the Victorian Gentleman
The upper classes frivolity/ reliance on the superfluous but aesthetic objects. Quote is nonsensical in literal terms, as appetite and flowers rarely correlate, but Algernon, in reflection of the upper class, demands unnecessary accessories for the sake of “Civility” and “beauty”.

Question 18

Jack scolds Algernon when he asks if Jack has told Gwendolen about his attractive ward Cecily in Act 1 when they are discussing how to behave towards women. What themes does it link to?

Answer 18

“The truth isn’t the sort of thing one tells to a nice sweet refined girl”
Stereotypical gender roles
Victorian Gentleman

Question 19

Cecily says this to Algernon in Act 2 when he professes his love to her and asks her to marry him and she is writing in her diary what he says but tells him he’s speaking nonsense. What themes does it link to?

Answer 19

“Hopelessly doesn’t seem to make much sense, does it?”

Subversion of gender roles and the ingenue character

Question 20

Lady Bracknell says this to Algernon in Act 3 when they are discussing society and educated people. What themes does it link to?

Answer 20

"Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon, only those who can't get into do that"
Reformist attitudes towards the upper-class
Comedy of Manners - Stock Character - Victorian Dowager

Question 21

Lane says this to Algernon at the very start of the play when referring to his piano playing. What themes does it link to?

Answer 21

“I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir”
Lower Classes
Witty
Stock characters

Question 22

Algernon narrates this out loud when referring to Lane and how the lower class should act

Answer 22

"Really if the lower if the lower classes don't set a good example, what on earth is the use for them? They seem as a class to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility"
Links 
Subversive of the Victorian gentleman
Class system
Satirical