Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression.
The tone of Oscar Wilde’s critique in The Importance of Being Earnest is
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Algernon. [Languidly.] I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.Lane. No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself.Algernon. Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you.Lane. Thank you, sir. [Lane goes out.]Algernon. Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest shows the difference between city and country living?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. Gwendolen, will you marry me? [Goes on his knees.]Gwendolen. Of course I will, darling. How long you have been about it! I am afraid you have had very little experience in how to propose.Jack. My own one, I have never loved any one in the world but you.Gwendolen. Yes, but men often propose for practice. I know my brother Gerald does. All my girl-friends tell me so.
Which line from The Importance of Being Earnest is an example of a commentary on marriage?
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.Algernon. I thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call that business.Jack. How utterly unromantic you are!
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.[Algernon.] [Jack puts out his hand to take a sandwich. Algernon at once interferes.] Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta. [Takes one and eats it.]Jack. Well, you have been eating them all the time.Algernon. That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. [Takes plate from below.] Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen. Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter.
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Algernon. [Languidly.] I don’t know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.Lane. No, sir; it is not a very interesting subject. I never think of it myself.Algernon. Very natural, I am sure. That will do, Lane, thank you.Lane. Thank you, sir. [Lane goes out.]
Read the excerpt from Act I of The Importance of Being Earnest.Jack. [Irritably.] Oh! It always is nearly seven.Algernon. Well, I’m hungry.Jack. I never knew you when you weren’t . . .Algernon. What shall we do after dinner? Go to a theatre?Jack. Oh, no! I loathe listening.Algernon. Well, let us go to the Club?Jack. Oh, no! I hate talking.Algernon. Well, we might trot round to the Empire at ten?Jack. Oh, no! I can’t bear looking at things. It is so silly.Algernon. Well, what shall we do?Jack. Nothing!Algernon. It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind.
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