Act One
1. Why does Jack Worthing call himself "Ernest"
instead when he is in "town"
(London)?
2. How does Wilde satirize the attitudes and lifestyles of
the British
aristocracy in Lady Bracknell's interview with Jack?
3. What is the essence of such Wildean aphorisms as the
following?" "[Women
flirting with their own husbands] looks so bad. It is simply
washing one's clean
linen in public."
4. What point is Wilde making about journalism in general
and reviewers in
particular when Algernon remarks, "You should leave
that [literary criticism] to
people who haven't been at University. They do it so well in
the daily papers"?
5. What tools of satire –irony, juxtaposition,
understatement, paradox –are
apparent in this opening act? CITE SPECIFIC LINES FROM THE
PLAY.
Act Two
1. "Gwendolen and Cecily are not so much opposites as
complements." Explain
this remark by reference to their speeches and actions.
2. Early on in Act One Jack Worthing articulates the
difference between city life
and country life. Show three ways in which the life of the
country (as
exemplified by the Manor House, Woolton, Herfordshire) is
very different from
the bachelor life of The Albany, London.
3. Like Jack, Algy leads a double life, utilizing an escape
mechanism when
necessary to free himself of a life of social obligation and
lead a life of
unrestrained pleasure. Explain their differing motivations,
but how both are
"confirmed Bunburyists," nevertheless.
4. The comedy of mistaken identity is a very old dramatic
form – as old, in fact,
as comedy itself – which Wilde manages to revitalize in The
Importance of Being
Earnest. The key mistaken identity in this play, of course,
is that of “Ernest”
himself. What comic consequences result from Algernon’s
assuming the role of
Ernest Worthing?
5. What role does food have within the play? (Notice how
Jack and Algy are
eating muffins at key points – and then those pesky cucumber
sandwiches in
Act I…)
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