Summer Reading Packet
Ms. Othman’s 12th grade Regular English
Text: The Importance of Being Earnest
Questions to check your comprehension while reading:
Act I
1.
Why do Jack and Algernon need Ernest and Bunbury, respectively?
2.
Keep your eye on the status of the females in this play. What do you think of the fact that Cecily Cardew is Jack's
ward and that Gwendolen Fairfax is the closely guarded, yet salable, daughter of Lady Bracknell? Consider Miss
Prism and Lady Bracknell, too.
3.
Why does Gwendolen want to marry an "Ernest?"
4.
Put Gwendolen's "ideals" together with Lady Bracknell's requirements for her suitor and try to explain the importance
of marriage in this play.
5.
Play around with the account Jack gives of his birth. What is significant about his having been discovered in an
ordinary handbag lost in the cloakroom of a railroad car?
6.
Jack claims at one point that he is tired of living in a society of wits. What do you think is the function of all the witty
paradoxes and epigrams in this play?
Act II
1.
Notice that the play's setting has now been switched to the country. Is there a legitimate opposition between town
and country in Earnest?
2.
Miss Prism's Law of Fiction is that the good should end happily, and the bad unhappily. Can one apply Prism's Law
to Wilde's play as a whole?
3.
Dr. Chasuble asks Jack when he wants to be christened, and Jack seems anxious to avoid mixing with "the lower
orders" during this ceremony. This is a good time to ask, what is the use of ‘the lower orders' in this piece?"
4.
While we are on the subject of christening, what is the significance of such an event? Why, that is, are people
christened at birth?
5.
Just as Gwendolen does, Cecily has a striking way of falling in love. How did she fall in love with "Ernest" and then
develop the affair?
6.
What role does food play in The Importance of Being Earnest? (Throughout the second act, Jack and Algernon keep
munching on muffins at key points. Then there were those cucumber sandwiches in the first act. . .)
Act III
1.
Lady Bracknell's requirements will now be brought to bear on Cecily. What does Jack give her by way of introduction
to Cecily's qualities? Consider Lady Bracknell's response to this list; on what authority does she formulate her
judgment of Cecily?
2.
Miss Prism is recognized by Lady Bracknell and forced to cough up the secret of Jack's birth, and it turns out that
she mixed him up with the manuscript of her three-volume novel. What sort of novel was it? Why does the peculiar
character of this mix-up matter?
3.
What is it to "be Earnest," and what is the importance of doing so? Now that we know Jack was always Ernest,
what are we supposed to think as we walk out the playhouse door?
Thematic Questions to Consider
1.
In The Importance of Being Earnest there is a tension between the artificial behavior dictated by society, and the
natural way people wish to behave. Do you find this to be valid comment on the play? Why or why not? Explain with
examples from the play.
2.
Discuss the implications of class differences in the relevance and success of The Importance of Being Earnest.
What role does class play? How is class satirized? What role does the upper class play? The lower class?
3.
How are Victorian attitudes toward marriage and respectability explored in The Importance of Being Earnest? Cite
specific examples to support your answer.
4.
What is your response to Wilde’s description of the play as a “trivial comedy for serious people”? In what sense
does it fit this description? How is the play trivial? If so, why might a serious person enjoy it? What do you think
Wilde meant by this statement?
Vocabulary List
You are responsible for the definitions of all words and will be quizzed on them the first week of school. You are required to
define each word in the context of the play.
Act I
1. luxuriously
2. forte
3. attribute
4. consequence
5. languid
6. lax
7. excessively
8. immensely
9. extravagance
10. constitute
11. speculate
12. earnest
13. invalid
14. induce
15. sententious
16. cynical
17. expurgation
18. pulpit
19. metaphysical
20. notorious
21. recumbent
22. delicate
23. disposition
24. contempt
25. indiscretion
26. indignation
27. trivet
28. tedious
29. patronizing
30. profligate
31. apoplexy
32. loathe
33. incomprehensible
34. surmise
35. immoderate
36. luxuriously
Act II
1. forte
2. attribute
3. consequence
4. languid
5. lax
6. excessively
7. immensely
8. extravagance
9. constitute
10. speculate
11. earnest
12. invalid
13. induce
14. sententious
15. cynical
16. expurgation
17. pulpit
18. metaphysical
19. notorious
20. recumbent
21. delicate
22. disposition
23. contempt
24. indiscretion
25. indignation
26. trivet
27. tedious
28. patronizing
29. profligate
30. apoplexy
31. loathe
32. incomprehensible
33. surmise
34. immoderate
Act III
1. repentance
2. effrontery
3. vital
4. credulity
5. insuperable
6.apprise
7. cease
8. morbidity
9. terminus
10. authenticity
11. solicitor
12. distinct
13. mercenary
14. advisable
15. ostentatious
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
alienate
subsequently
unalterable
tutelage
accumulation
punctuality
celibacy
refute
cultivated
interpose
quail
consternation
sentimentality
capacious
redouble
inquisitive
irrevocable
lavish
eccentric
contrary