Key - Character - Quotes Flashcards
(Act 1) Algernon - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
Algy tells Jack that he will need to know ‘bunbury’ if he is going to marry because,
“in married life three is company and two is none.”
Implies:
- Women were considered morally superior.
- Epigram (‘Two is company, three is a crowd’)
- Shows Algy has little respect for victorian morality or marriage or arguably, women. (Contextually subversive?)
Themes:
- Deception, Algy is happy to deceive and lie and is encouraging jack to do the same.
- Gender, it is misogynistic to suggest 1 womens company wouldn’t be sufficient.
Comic Elements:
- Comedy of Manners, Wildes verbal witt here is characteristic of the COM.
(Act 1) Jack - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
“The truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a sweet refined girl.”
Implies:
- It is Ironic, Jack has acted horrified by Algys ideas of bunburying but now reveals himself to be the same. (An example of Jack not being a victorian gentleman)
- Jack also believes that women need protecting. (Stereotype)
Themes:
- Deception, Jack does not care for the truth.
Links to Comedy:
- Farce, begins the complex plot lines, a characteristic of farce, as this lie leads to later confusion between the female characters as they both believe they are engaged to a man named ‘earnest’.
(Act 2) Cecily - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
“You silly boy! Why we have been engaged for the last 3 months”
Implies:
- Use of strange, patronizing language towards Algy.
(‘You silly boy’ - She is unafraid to patronize him. The power appears to be hers here. She’s written her own destiny, in her diary, and shes made it happen.)
Links to Comedy:
- Farce, Exaggerated and absurd as we expect in farce, cecily reveals herself to be a stereotypical hopelessly shallow romantic.
- Ingenue, A stock character from the comedy of manners who is usually from the country, innocent, naive and easily manipulated. Cecily does not necessarily ‘conform’ to this here as she is showing that she is capable of manipulation.
(Act 1) Jack - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
“Miss fairfax, ever since I met you i have admired you more than any girl… I have ever met since… I met you.”
Links to Comedy:
- Funny, As it doesn’t make sense but you can tell he’s trying. (Nonsensical)
- Repetition, Jacks loss of control of his language here suggests a shift of power from him to Gwendolen.
- Ellipsis, Shows that he is stumbling.
(Act 2) Algernon - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
“I dared to love you wildly, passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.”
Implies:
- ‘Hopelessly’, doesn’t make sense, cecily calls him out on it, and Algy’s loss of control over his language suggests Cecily has the power here.
Links to Comedy:
- Hyperbole, A characteristic of farce.
(Act 1) Lady Bracknell - Suggests? Theme? Comic Elements? Context?
“Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids.”
But tells her sick husband that,
“Health is the primary duty of life.”
Links to Comedy:
- Comic reversal, Lord Bracknells ill health is never seen, and referred to as unwell. This represents the reversal of the victorian female invalid and implies his emasculation by his wife, while implying her dominance.
- Comedy of manners, A stock character from the COM - The Victorian Dowager - and older woman who has and uses her power, like Lady B.
Implies:
- Subverts, The stereotype of the dutiful wife, her husband is an invalid but she has no ‘sympathy’ for him.
Themes:
- Marriage - Gender (Appearances)
(Act 2)
Suggests?
Theme?
Comic Elements?
Context?
” The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man”
Links to Comedy:
- Epigrammatic, This seems to be a comic reversal of the phrase, ‘the home is the proper sphere for the woman’.
-Foreshadowed, In act 1 Algy tells jack that all women become like their mothers. In Act 2 this seems to be becoming true as gwendolen begins to mirror her mothers views.
Context:
- Separate spheres debate, This was a clear reference to the debate of the time, as wilde challenges the victorian view that women belong in domestic roles.
(Act 1)
Key Symbol?
(Implications from Context)
- The Cigarette Case -
- Symbol of mae deceptionand duality. Wilde made a habit of giving inscribed cigarette cases to his young male lovers. Therefore, this case is representative of Jacks/Algy’s (?) double life, which notably a masculine characteristic as only men tend to bunbury.
