The Importance Of Being Earnest

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 threevolume novel. What sort of novel was it? Why does the peculiar character of this mixup 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.

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. repentance 37.

effrontery 38.

vital 39.

credulity 40.

insuperable 41.apprise 42.

cease 43.

morbidity 44.

terminus 45.

authenticity 46.

solicitor 47.

distinct 48.

mercenary 49.

advisable 50.

ostentatious 51.

alienate 52.

subsequently 53.

unalterable 54.

tutelage 55.

accumulation 56.

punctuality 57.

celibacy 58.

refute 59.

cultivated 60.

interpose 61.

quail 62.

consternation 63.

sentimentality 64.

capacious 65.

redouble 66.

inquisitive 67.

irrevocable 68.

lavish 69.

eccentric 70.

contrary

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