TIOBE (quotes) social class Flashcards
ACT 1, PART 1
algernon and lane talking about marriage
ALGERNON: “Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.”
meaning
Though a hedonistic bachelor himself, Algernon’s views on marriage reflect those of the aristocratic class in Victorian society. Marriages were often arranged between families, as it was considered important to preserve upper class pedigrees within these unions. To Algernon, Lane’s lackadaisical approach to marriage represents the “immoral” ways in which he believes members of the lower class engage in unions. Coming from Algernon, this statement is hypocritical, since he himself often acts fairly immoral—he lives luxuriously, and often beyond his means, despite being a member of a wealthy aristocratic family. His tone in this quote is also condescending and classist. Though he is young and careless with his actions and money, he believes that his pedigree is enough to know what is best for those with less money and education.
ACT 1, PART 1
stage directions introducing algernon’s flat
Morning room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room.
meaning
Algernon’s room as ‘artistically’ and ‘luxuriously’ furnished is representative of the decadent and excessive aristocracy. Wilde intended to satirise this through emphasising his decadent home. Furthermore, him playing piano is another symbol of the upper-class wealth where talents and education was deemed a sign of wealth.
ACT 1, PART 2
lady bracknell talking about jack’s parents
LADY BRACKNELL: “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune…to lose both seems like carelessness.”
meaning
In this quote, Lady Bracknell is appalled when Jack states he has “lost” both of his parents. As a baby, Jack was found in a handbag in a cloak room in Victoria station and adopted by a wealthy aristocrat, Mr. Thomas Cardew. As the epitome of high Victorian society, Lady Bracknell directly associates someone’s birth and familial pedigree with their character. Therefore, she immediately characterizes Jack as someone who is “careless” because of his lack of recorded parentage, even though this is, of course, not his fault. Throughout the play, Lady Bracknell continues to make similarly ridiculous statements that she herself takes utterly seriously. Wilde uses the character of Lady Bracknell to represent Victorian elitists who held themselves and the people around them to what they believed to be high moral standards—the irony being that these moral standards were both created and fulfilled only to impress the high society around them.
ACT 1, PART 2
lady bracknell refusing jack’s proposal to gwendolen because she is their only daughter
LADY BRACKNELL: “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.”
meaning
As Lady Bracknell further presses Jack about his history, he admits that he was found by his adopted father in a cloak room at Victoria Station. Though already wealthy and aristocratic, Lady Bracknell is always seeking out ways in which her family can climb higher on 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.
ACT 2, PART 2
algernon justifying his ‘bunburying’ after pretending to be ‘ernest’
ALGERNON: “My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.”
meaning
Jack is furious with Algernon for arriving in the country and pretending to be Ernest when Jack has just announced to everyone that Ernest has died. Jack calls a carriage to send Algernon back to town, telling him he must go back to complete his “gentlemanly duties.” In this quote, Algernon states that despite his duties in town as a member of the aristocracy, he’s never had any problem doing as he pleases. This is in large part due to his “Bunburying” and his wealth—if he had to hold a consistent job, of course, he would not be able to escape to the countryside whenever he pleased. Men of wealth and influence like Jack and Algernon can essentially do whatever they wish and never have to worry about their actions having repercussions.
ACT 3, PART 1
gwendolen & cecily’s collective admiration for the name ‘ernest’
GWENDOLEN AND CECILY: “Your Christian names are still an insuperable barrier. That is all!”
meaning
Despite the their first tense conversation, Gwendolen and Cecily become fast friends when they discover that they have both been duped by men who claim to have the name “Ernest.” Gwendolen has always wanted to love someone by the name of Ernest, while Cecily has fallen in love with the idea of the rebellious Ernest who lives in the city. When Gwendolen discovers that her Ernest’s real name is Jack, and Cecily discovers that Algernon is Jack’s friend, not his crazy brother Ernest, the girls both call off their engagements. Just like Lady Bracknell’s dismissal of Jack because of his lack of a proper lineage, so Gwendolen and Cecily have their own seemingly random stipulation for a potential partner—the “Christian” name of Ernest—and they initially refuse to settle otherwise. This quote is spoken simultaneously by both women to comment on how quickly two women can become fast friends when they discover they have been manipulated by men, and to underscore the improbable and comic melodrama the action of the play has come to at this point.
ACT 3, PART 1
lady bracknell discussing jack’s lineage and comparing it to the railway stations
LADY BRACKNELL: “Mr. Worthing, is Miss Cardew at all connected with any of the larger railway stations in London? I merely desire information. Until yesterday I had no idea that there were any families or persons whose origin was a Terminus.”
meaning
When Lady Bracknell discovers that Algernon is engaged to Cecily, she demands to know her lineage. Since Algernon is her nephew, anyone that he marries is associated with her, too, and she does not want to mar her social capital with relatives who marry below their stature. Lady Bracknell speaks extremely condescendingly to everyone around her, as her status and social-climbing sensibilities mean that she is constantly trying to impress people with her aristocracy and wealth. Wilde writes many witty, self-defeating lines for Lady Bracknell, as she is the character who most obviously parodies the worst tendencies of the aristocratic class in Victorian society. Her question as to whether Cecily is associated with any of the “larger railway stations” is very dry satire regarding what Lady Bracknell previously learned about Jack being found in the cloakroom as a baby. For Lady Bracknell, allowing anyone in her family to marry into such appalling lineage would be “the end”—hence her scathing comment about someone whose “origin,” or lineage, is a “Terminus,” or a train terminal.
