Truth and Lies in AIH - Sean McEvoy Flashcards
What did McEvoy say were the ‘main modes of activity of the extremely wealth upper-class men and women who feature as the principal characters’ ? ( 3 things)
‘Going alone with a lie, covering up a lie, and even celebrating an avoidance of truth in highly polished and supremely witty language’
How does McEvoy describe Robert being blackmailed by Cheveley?
‘Blackmailed by the sly, cunning and too-artfully dressed Mrs Cheveley’
‘A work of art, on the whole, but showing the influence of too many schools.’
What does McEvoy describe Cheveley is doing to Robert when she asks him to lie in Parliament?
‘In effect, to use his position as a privileged insider for financial gain in the same way once again.’
What does McEvoy suggest Robert has acquired?
‘He acquires a superiority over mere morality and the people who adhere to it in an act of heroic self-projection.’
What does McEvoy suggest has now caused Robert to regret his past?
‘He only regrets his actions now he has been found out by his wife, whose illusions are shattered (temporarily), and as he faces the prospect of the end of his political career.’
What does McEvoy call Goring?
‘Goring is the paradoxer-in-chief.’
What does McEvoy suggest Wilde’s characters do when they are using witty paradoxes?
When they ‘utter these witty paradoxes they are self-consciously turning conversational language into art, where the style and elegance of the speech gives it an authority as it amuses.’
What does McEvoy suggest we, as an audience, are supposed to not do in regards to Wilde’s characters?
We are not supposed to take his ‘witty, flippant characters seriously, and so their hypocrisy is brought out all the more strongly, as if they know they are fakes themselves.’
What does McEvoy suggest Wilde undermines in his witticisms?
‘Wilde’s undermining of the whole idea of truth in his witticisms works as a kind of liberation from the dominant authority figures in his plays.’
