AIH ACT 1

Question 1

Cheveley in stage descriptions at start

Answer 1

“ an orchid, And makes great demands on one’s curiosity….A work of art on the whole but showing the influence of too many schools. A mask with a manner. “

Question 2

London Society by Lord Caverdsham

Answer 2

speaks of ‘being sent down to dinner with my wife’s milliner…gone to the dogs a lot of damned nobodies talking about nothing’… while Mabel says it is full of ‘beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics’

Question 3

Mrs Chevely accented with

Answer 3

red… ‘scarlett’ lips ‘rouge’ on her pale complexion and ‘venetian red hair’

Question 4

VALUE OF MARRIAGE

Answer 4

Nowadays people marry as often as they can…it is most fashionable’

Question 5

SRC before as

Answer 5

‘intensely admired by the few and deeply respected by the many’

Question 6

Insincere / politician compliments of SRC to Cheveley

Answer 6

‘our attaches at Vienna write to us about nothing else’

Question 7

Fan

Answer 7

‘Drops up fan…”Allow me!”… picks up fan’

Question 8

Mrs Cheveley promiscuity

Answer 8

knew Baron Arnheim ‘intimately’

Question 9

Lord Goring in stage descriptions

Answer 9

‘He is clever but would not like to be thought so…A flawless dandy…he plays with life…he is fond of being misunderstood…”the idlest man in london”

Question 10

Healthy relationship

Answer 10

‘ i delight in your bad qualities i wouldn’t have you part with one of them’

Question 11

Lord Caversaham says Goring

Answer 11

‘seems to me to be living entirely for pleasure’

Question 12

IRONY OF GORING

Answer 12

‘it is a very dangerous thing to listen. If one listens one may be convinced and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person.’

Question 13

Mrsa Marchmont

Answer 13

‘our husbands never appreciate anything in us. We have to go to others for that’ (affairs = wilde poking fun at institute of marriage = cynical as Goring says ‘and those are the views of the two ladies who are known to have the most admirable husbands in London’)

Question 14

Mrs Marchmond

Answer 14

‘cant stand’ how ‘hopefully faultless’ their husbands are….’there is not the smallest element of excitement in knowing him’…’we have married perfect husbands and we are well punished for it’…’it is tragic how much they trust us’

Question 15

Basildon; ‘i am positively dying for supper Magaret…i never take supper thank you

Answer 15

Vicomte’

Question 16

Misogyny

Answer 16

The ‘financial scheme…this Argentine Canal Company’… is ‘a tedious

Question 17

SANCTIMONIOUS

Answer 17

‘It is a swindle. Let us call things by their proper names. It makes matters simpler.’

Question 18

Cheveley’s control

Answer 18

‘I am not in the mood tonight for silver twilights or rose-pink dawns. I want to talk business. [Motions to him with her fan to sit down again beside her.]’

Question 19

SRC feigning ignorance

Answer 19

“ I am afraid I don’t quite understand what you mean.” WHEN Mrs Cheveley suggests fraud

Question 20

GENTLEMAN

Answer 20

If you will allow me I will call your carriage for you. You have lived so long abroad Mrs. Cheveley that you seem to be unable to realise that you are talking to an English gentleman. … mere 5 lines latter saying ‘ [Hoarsely.] It is not true.’ = quick shift

Question 21

Fan AND EXPOSED

Answer 21

[Detains him by touching his arm with her fan and keeping it there while she is talking.] I realise that I am talking to a man who laid the foundation of his fortune by selling to a Stock Exchange speculator a Cabinet secret.”

Question 22

MEN AS FOOLISH

Answer 22

‘You thought that letter had been destroyed. How foolish of you! It is in my possession.’

Question 23

PURITANISM

Answer 23

‘your Puritanism in England….Nowadays with our modern mania for morality every one has to pose as a paragon of purity incorruptibility…. a very nasty scandal

Question 24

If crime was revealed

Answer 24

“you would be hounded out of public life”

Question 25

FEMALE POWER

Answer 25

And I am much stronger than you are. The big battalions are on my side. You have a splendid position

Question 26

THE PRESS

Answer 26

their loathsome joy of the delight they would have in dragging you down of the mud and mire they would plunge you in. Think of the hypocrite with his greasy smile penning his leading article and arranging the foulness of the public placard.

Question 27

KARMIC FIGURE

Answer 27

My God! what brought you into my life? MRS. CHEVELEY. Circumstances.

Question 28

Lady Chiltern is…

Answer 28

a most admirable wife… a woman of the very highest principles…has a very ennobling effect on life though her dinner parties are rather dull sometimes. But one can't have everything

Question 29

MARKBY sexism

Answer 29

high intellectual pressure… makes the noses of the young girls so particularly large… men don't like them

Question 30

“Mrs Cheveley

Answer 30

…was a genius in the daytime and a beauty at night “

Question 31

truth

Answer 31

is a very complex thing

Question 32

High moral standards

Answer 32

It can never be necessary to do what is not honourable.

Question 33

Idealism

Answer 33

You are different. All your life you have stood apart from others. You have never let the world soil you. To the world as to myself you have been an ideal always. Oh! be that ideal still.