Transformation and deception

Question 1

“why, we have been engaged for the past three months!”

Answer 1

Wilde is an Aesthete - relationship between life and art - “Does art imitate life, or life imitate art?”
-characters participate - fine art of fabrication not just to deceive, but also to create a reality that is more like fiction.
-Exclamative - ironically states its as though it is an abvious fact of truth.

Question 2

Gwendolen: If you are not [wicked], then you have certainly been deceiving us all in a very inexcusable manner. 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.

Answer 2

-Dramatic irony – Algy is living a double life. -Exposes the ridiculous rules of Victorian society

Question 3

Gwendolen: ‘Jack… It produces no vibrations. The only really safe name is Ernest’ ‘Ernest has a strong upright nature. He is the very soul of truth an honour’

Answer 3

-Dramatic irony
-humorous – unknowingly insulting jacks name to his face.
-Satirizes superficiality of upper class and the. Importance invested in a name.
-Need for social change.