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The Importance of Being Earnest

Terms in this set (27)

"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."
Algernon
Act I
Social inversion
Epigram
"I thought you had come up for pleasure? . . . I call that business."
Algernon
Act I
Marriage, and Social satire
Epigram
"Divorces are made in Heaven."
Algernon
Act I
Marriage, and Social satire
Epigram
"'From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.'"
Algernon
Act I
The Past, and the Well Made Play
"Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read."
Algernon
Act I
Social satire, Social inversion, and Censorship
"A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it."
Algernon
Act I
Marriage, Social Satire, and Lies and deceit
"In married life three is company and two is none."
Algernon
Act I
Marriage, Social Satire, and Lies and deceit
Epigram
"I am always smart. Am I not, Mr Worthing?"
Gwendolen
Act I
Female education
"I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief."
Algernon
Act I
Mourning, and Social Satire
Epigram
"What wonderfully blue eyes you have, Ernest! They are quite, quite, blue."
Gwendolen
Act I
Spheres of Influence, and Social inversion
"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."
Gwendolen
Act I
Marriage
"And now I have a few questions to put to you, Mr. Worthing."
Lady Bracknell
Act I
Female empowerment, Spheres of Influence, and Marriage
Comedy of Manners: the Matriarch
"A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature, like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to reside in the country."
Lady Bracknell
Act I
Social inversion
"Ernest in town, and Jack in the country"
Algernon
Act I
Lies and deceit
"My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!"
Jack
Act I
Lies and deceit, and Social satire
"Yes, but it's hereditary, my dear fellow. It's a sort of thing that runs in families."
Algernon
Act I
Lies and deceit, and Social satire
"Do not speak slightingly of the three-volume novel, Cecily. I wrote one myself in earlier days."
Miss Prism
Act II
Female education
"It would hardly have been a really serious engagement if it hadn't been broken off at least once."
Cecily
Act II
Marriage, and Social satire
"You see, it [her diary] is simply a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication."
Cecily
Act I
Female education
"The home seems, to me, to be the proper sphere for the man."
Gwendolen
Act II
Social satire, Social inversion, and Spheres of Influence
"I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade."
Gwendolen
Act II
Comedy, and Social satire
Epigram
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
Gwendolen
Act II
Female education
"Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London."
Cecily
Act II
Comedy, and Social satire
Epigram
"Sugar is not fashionable any more."
Gwendolen
Act II
Comedy, and Social satire
"Cake is rarely seen at the best houses nowadays."
Gwendolen
Act II
Comedy, and Social satire
"It is very painful for me to be forced to speak the truth. It is the first time in my life that I have ever been reduced to such a painful position, and I am really quite inexperienced in doing anything of the kind."
Jack
Act II
Lies and deceit
"A moment, Mr. Worthing. A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her."
Lady Bracknell
Act III
Social satire, and Marriage
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