The Importance of Being Ernest – Act 1 Task 1 How are the characters of Algernon and Jack/Ernest created for the audience? They are presented to within a high class of society‚ with a lack of consideration or care for the lower classes. Both are bored by their high society lives and “stiff” lunches/meetings that they must attend‚ so have created alter egos which they use to have fun in a different place. Algernon has invented a sick friend called Bunbury‚ who he sometimes must spend long lengths
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An earnest person is someone who practices diligence‚ seriousness‚ and above all sincerity. That being said‚ it is difficult to find a male character in the play who possesses all three qualities of earnestness. Despite this‚ the lead characters of The Importance of Being Earnest entertained and endeared audiences for over one hundred years. Jack Worthing’s Childhood: During Act One‚ protagonist Jack Worthing reveals a most unusual and amusing backstory: As a baby‚ he was accidentally abandoned
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the titles of his works‚ being earnest is far more important than being a woman. Like Wilde and the suggested assumption that can be made by his titles‚ both works struggle to realize what is truly important in life. The Importance of Being Earnest and A Woman of No Importance have common themes of moral versus superficial values‚ societal expectations‚ and relationship complications‚ which can be seen in multiple instances throughout the works. The Importance of Being Earnest focuses on a man who goes
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Literary Analysis Essay PICKERING: [rising and standing over him gravely] Come‚ Higgins! You know what I mean. If I’m to be in this business I shall feel responsible for that girl. I hope it’s understood that no advantage is to be taken of her position. HIGGINS. What! That thing! Sacred‚ I assure you. [Rising to explain] You see‚ she’ll be a pupil; and teaching would be impossible unless pupils were sacred. I’ve taught scores of American millionairesses how to speak English: the best looking
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In the play‚ “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde he divines the Victorian society through all his characters. Marriage‚ religion and family values weighs heavily on the virtue that the people possess. The money factor is a big skeptic that contributes to the all the relationships that end in the this story. In this Act‚ Lady Bracknell’s monologue reacting to Cecily was very interesting‚ because Jack remains her guardian until she is the age of thirty-five. He often has the last say so
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Algernon Moncrief in Oscar Wilde’s "The Importance of Being Earnest" is quite simply a child at play. Algy‚ as he’s known to his friends‚ is a young bachelor not yet in his thirties living the aristocratic life of a Victorian gentleman. He has an underdeveloped sense of morality and of the world beyond him. Algy has an excellent skill for wit and as an "Oxonian"‚ his education is also rather noticeable. You might also surmise him to be unhappy if he were eating muffins as if there was no tomorrow
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To what purpose do the playwrights use props and what is significant about it? ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’: 1. Cigarette case: The cigarette case introduced in Act 1 acts as a source for introducing the conflict. It leads the audience to discover John and Algernon’s double lives and introduces the notion of ‘Bunburying’ as named by Algernon. 2. Food: Food is used as a prop quite frequently throughout the play. In Act 1‚ we see Algernon preparing cucumber sandwiches for the arrival
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where men and women were women” to the highest degree‚ a woman being head of household‚ controlling social obligations‚ managing finances‚ and taking on the stereotypically paternal role of deciding possible spouses for children. Such scenario has only been widely accepted in the past handful of decades‚ never mind a time when women had very little control over when they could leave their home‚ yet in The Importance of Being Earnest‚ such a world exists. Oscar Wilde introduces a world in which women
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more. With an actual backstory‚ readers probably would have known more about Miss Prism’s previous situation involving Jack. In the beginning of the act readers know how Cecily and Gwendolen just found out that Algernon and Jack lied to them‚ but readers don’t how betrayed they really feel. With The Importance of Being Earnest being only a play‚ readers only see the characters as they are now without seeing much depth in them. As a play there would be much more suspense‚ and audience members would
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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy that used the figure of the upper class dandy to critique the narrow-mindedness of the middle class in the 1890s. What makes this play so funny is that the upper class is illustrated as silly when they try to mock the earnest middle class. Proud characters who were bred in high society‚ such as Lady Bracknell and her daughter Gwendolen‚ may think that they are making particularly nasty snubs‚ but they do not seem to realize that Wilde cleverly
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