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19 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir. I’m sorry for that, for your sake. I don’t play accurately—anyone can play accurately—but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life. |
Speaker: Algernon and Lane
Politeness to an absurd level Beauty important Cucumber sandwiches = life? |
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How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?
Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere? |
Speaker: Algernon and Jack
Pleasure motivates characters |
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Well, what shall we do?
Nothing! It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind. |
Speaker: Algernon and Jack
Elegant boredom Social emptiness Algernon doesn't mind working hard as long as there is no goal |
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Why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne? I ask merely for information.
I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand. Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that? I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person. |
Speaker: Algernon and Lane
Opposition between married life and single life Wine better at bachelor's Servants better taste than married people |
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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.
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Speaker: Algernon
Algernon thinks servants have higher morals Make fun of social conventions |
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I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The essence of romance in uncertainty.
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Speaker: Algernon
Jack tells Algernon he plans to propose Ludicrous to say nothing romantic in marriage |
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You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest looking person I ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd your saying your name isn’t Ernest. It’s on your cards. Here is one of them. [Taking it from case.] “Mr. Ernest Worthing, B.4, The Albany.” I’ll keep this as a proof that your name is Ernest if you ever attempt to deny it to me, or to Gwendolen, or to anyone else. [Puts the card in his pocket.]
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Speaker: Algernon
Jack in country, Ernest in city Foreshadows importance of name and Gwendolen's reaction |
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My dear Algy, I don’t know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. You are hardly serious enough. When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so. And as a high moral tone can hardly be said to conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness, in order to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest, who lives in The Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy, is whole truth pure and simple.
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Speaker: Jack
Ernest allows Jack to escape the country Jack has high moral responsibility |
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We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits I am told: and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you.
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Speaker: Gwendolen
She has ludicrous ideas Love artificial and poked fun at |
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Jack?... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations…
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Speaker: Gwendolen
Name important Ernest inspires confidence and happiness |
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What number in Belgrave Square?
149 The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. However, that could easily be altered. Do you mean the fashion or the side? Both, if necessary, I presume. |
Speaker: Lady Bracknell and Jack
Rigid in ideas of properness Snobby about origins Fashion changeable |
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I have lost both my parents.
Both?... That seems like carelessness. |
Speaker: Jack and Lady Bracknell
Carelessness = cannot look after Gwendolen Ridiculous |
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The fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents. It would be nearer the truth to say that my parents seem to have lost me… I don’t actually know who I am by birth. I was… well, I was found.
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Speaker: Jack
Origins |
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The line is immaterial, Mr. Worthing. I confess I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that remind one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. And I presume you know what that led to? As for the particular locality in which the hand-bag was found, a cloak-room at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion—has probably, indeed, been used for that purpose before now—but it could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognized position in good society.
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Speaker: Lady Bracknell
Jack is a parcel Origins important Received handbag morals Innocent baby Forceful pedigree |
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You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter—a girl brought up with the utmost care—to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel? Good morning, Mr. Worthing!
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Speaker: Lady Bracknell
Origins Proposal refused |
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You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose. Bunbury is perfectly invaluable. If it wasn’t for Bunbury’s extraordinary bad health, for instance, I wouldn’t be able to dine with you at Willis’s to-night, for I have been engaged to Aunt Augusta for more than a week.
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Speaker: Algernon
Language is a vehicle for deception |
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To-morrow, Lane, I’m going Bunburying.
Yes, sir. I shall probably not be back till Monday. You can put up my dress clothes, my smoking jacket, and all the Bunbury suits… |
Speaker: Lane and Algernon
Clothes make the man |
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But I don’t like German. It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson.
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Speaker: Cecily
Looks related to language? Excuses |
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I wish Uncle Jack would allow that unfortunate young man, his brother, to come down here sometimes. We might have a good influence over him, Miss Prism. I am sure you certainly would. You know German, and geology, and things of that kind influence a man very much.
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Speaker: Cecily
Not interested in influencing a man? |
