Society and Class by Connor Mcnamee https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso Themes in the importance of being earnest en-us 2022-01-12 22:28:30 UTC 2025-12-13 19:13:00 UTC hello@padlet.com Act I 8216571 https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso/wish/2001809017 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."

Algernon is judging Lane on his views of marriage and suggesting that the lower class is useless if they cannot set a good example. This quote is very ironic because Algernon is a part of the lower class himself, so he is really criticising himself without knowing it.

ALGERNON.
[Stiffly.] I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?

Algy is proposing to have tea time. In good society there are certain rules regarding certain times. In this case they have refreshments at 5. Their supposed position in society pertains them to do so.

ALGERNON.
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 is poking fun at modern culture because he is suggesting that it is impossible to follow all the rules of society without breaking them at the same time. Algernon ridicules society, yet he still participates in it.

JACK.
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.
Jack is talking about Cecily, his ward and is lecturing Jack on being more mature. Society helped Jack to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects for the betterment of Cecily and himself.

LANE.
[Gravely.] There were no cucumbers in the market this morning, sir. I went down twice.

Lane is the "All-knowing" butler. Here, he is covering for his master because he knows that Lady Bracknell had cucumber sandwiches specially made, and Algernon has gone and eaten them all. Lane offers a perfect explanation as to why the sandwiches are not there. This ties into society and class  because it is what one would expect the butler to do in a stereotypical old-english household.

GWENDOLEN.
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 . . . I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment’s solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.

She is explaining to Jack that she could never marry him if his name was to be Jack, Gwendolen is attracted to the name Ernest because she believes it is of a higher class than all other names and she will not settle for a lower class name such as Jack.
]]> 2022-01-20 02:03:27 UTC https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso/wish/2001809017 Act II 8216571 https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso/wish/2001894839
MISS PRISM.
You are too much alone, dear Dr. Chasuble. You should get married. A misanthrope I can understand—a womanthrope, never!

Dr. Chasuble is unmarried and Miss Prism sees it as injustice. Miss Prism is accusing Dr. Chasuble of being misogynistic. A misanthrope is a person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society.. "Womanthrope" is a play-on-words where one can presume that one dislikes womankind and avoids women's society. Just because Dr. Chasuble is unmarried does not make him any of these things. Yet, society has deemed it unfit not to marry and that is why Miss prism disapproves of his bachelorhood.

MISS PRISM.
[Bitterly.] People who live entirely for pleasure usually are.

Miss Prism does not like Jack's brother Ernest because Jack has portrayed Ernest to be a rebel and live his life entirely for pleasure. Miss Prism is once again judging people for being unmarried. She sees people who live for pleasure as inferior's, because they are not doing their job for society and it is un-proper to do so.

CECILY.
Oh, don’t cough, Ernest. When one is dictating one should speak fluently and not cough. Besides, I don’t know how to spell a cough. [Writes as Algernon speaks.]

Algernon has just coughed because Gwendolen has informed him that she could not love him whole-heartedly if his name was not Ernest. Cecily has been educated by Miss Prism and Cecily clearly cares about the higher class of the name Ernest. In this quote she preaches what is proper to do while speaking

GWENDOLEN
And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?

Gwendolen is talking about her father and how he is so far outside the family circle that he has begun to neglect his duties as a man thus becoming more feminine. Society views  a man not taking care of his family feminine, but the women are supposed to take care of the children? It really was backwards back then.

GWENDOLEN.
[Quite politely, rising.] My darling Cecily, I think there must be some slight error. Mr. Ernest Worthing is engaged to me. The announcement will appear in the Morning Post on Saturday at the latest. 

Gwendolen is getting angry at Cecily for thinking she is engaged to Mr. Ernest Worthing and she is quite right in doing so as it is her fiance. She says that the announcement will be made in the papers by Saturday. Even now, the higher class have their engagements be in the news.

]]> 2022-01-20 03:13:08 UTC https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso/wish/2001894839 Act III 8216571 https://padlet.com/8216571/qsqp6gmfl7ytaeso/wish/2003934213 GWENDOLEN 
True. In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing. Mr. Worthing, what explanation can you offer to me for pretending to have a brother? 

Gwendolen is mad at Jack for pretending to be his fake brother Ernest, and she wants him to tell the truth. But not really. She wants Jack to do it in a way that has class and not as sincere as it needs to be. The particular reason for this is Gwendolen does not care if he tells the truth as long as it does not hurt her feelings and is stylish.

GWENDOLEN.
How absurd to talk of the equality of the sexes! Where questions of self-sacrifice are concerned, men are infinitely beyond us.

Society, at the time of this story had deemed men the superior sex, and Gwendolen demonstrates it here when Jack offers to change his name for her satisfaction.

LADY BRACKNELL.
Exploded! Was he the victim of a revolutionary outrage? I was not aware that Mr. Bunbury was interested in social legislation. If so, he is well punished for his morbidity.

Lady Bracknell reacts to the shock of Algernon telling her that Bunbury had exploded. She questions whether or not he was the victim of a revolutionary outrage. Social legislation are laws to protect the common good and more so, the weaker members of society. Lady Bracknell's life of the upper class gives her a feeling of disrespect towards people of bad health and little money in society because she views herself as better than them.


LADY BRACKNELL.
Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that. [To Cecily.] 

Lady Bracknell is once again speaking about how she views society as a thing only higher class people participate in, and that anyone who doesn't is in the lower class.

LADY BRACKNELL.
Markby, Markby, and Markby? A firm of the very highest position in their profession. Indeed I am told that one of the Mr. Markby’s is occasionally to be seen at dinner parties. So far I am satisfied.

Lady Bracknell is once again interviewing Jack as to whether or not she is going to give her blessing to Algernon and Cecily's wedding. She is questioning the validity of Cecily's father of having 3 home addresses, to which Jack replies with Markby. Lady Bracknell is pleased with this because they are in the upper class of society and she even sees them at some over dinner parties.

LADY BRACKNELL.
[Sitting down again.] 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 is still interviewing Jack on Algernon and Cecily's marriage. She did not even look at Cecily before Jack had told her how much money she had.

ALGERNON.
Cecily is the sweetest, dearest, prettiest girl in the whole world. And I don’t care twopence about social possibilities.

Algernon is now telling Lady Bracknell that he does not care about Cecily's social possibilities and that he is completely in love with her. This is ironic because at the start of the book he said that he did not believe in marriage because he thought it would take away the spark. Now, he wants to get married immediately.
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