The Importance of Being Earnest : Quotations
The Importance of Being Earnest is a notable literary work by Oscar Wilde. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Quotations
Major Quotes
Algernon Moncrieff – Act I
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either.”
Explanation: This famous line captures Wilde’s central theme of deception, paradox, and double identity. It shows that truth in Victorian society is always complicated. At the same time, Algernon humorously stresses the paradoxes of modern life and the witty absurdities that make it interesting.
Lady Bracknell – Act I
“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
Explanation: This quote shows Lady Bracknell’s comic arrogance. It mocks upper-class values that prioritize appearances over humanity.
Gwendolen Fairfax – Act I
“The only really safe name is Ernest.”
Explanation: Gwendolen’s obsession with the name Ernest satirizes the shallow attitudes of Victorian romance.
ALGERNON – Act II
“My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.”
Explanation: Algernon ironically exposes the gap between social duty and personal pleasure in Victorian life.
Lady Bracknell – Act I
“Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
Explanation: Lady Bracknell values ignorance as refinement, which satirizes upper-class pretensions.
Jack Worthing – In Act I,
“I have always pretended to have a younger brother of the name of Ernest.”
Explanation: Here, Jack pretends to have a wicked brother named Ernest.
Jack Worthing – Act I
“I am afraid I really don’t know. The fact is, Lady Bracknell, I said I had lost my parents…I don’t actually know who I am by birth.”
Explanation: This line shows Jack’s mysterious origin. He openly admits his lack of family background. It highlights the theme of identity in the play. It reflects Victorian society’s obsession with birth and lineage.
Algernon – Act I
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
Explanation: Algernon captures Wilde’s theme of love as playful, irrational, and comic.
Lady Bracknell, in Act III
“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.”
Explanation: The quotes highlight the Obsession with Wealth and Class of contemporary society, especially Lady Bracknell.
Minor Quotes
Algernon – Act I
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”
Explanation: Wilde humorously criticizes gender roles and family patterns.
Cecily Cardew – Act II
“I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life.”
Explanation: This shows Cecily’s romantic imagination and Wilde’s satire of Victorian fantasy.
In Act I, Lady Bracknell says to Gwendolen,
“When you do become engaged to someone, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact.”
Explanation: This proves Lady Bracknell is a very dominating mother. She believes parents have the right to decide their children’s future. Her style reflects Victorian society, where children were often controlled by parents in matters of marriage and class.
In Act, Lady Bracknell says to Jack about marriage,
“A man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?”.
Explanation: This line shows her shallow view. When Jack asks to marry Gwendolen, she cares nothing for his love. She only asks about money and family. She wants to protect her daughter’s rank, not her happiness. For her, social status is more important than feelings.
In Act I, Jack says,
“My name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country.”
Gwendolen – Act II
“We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals.”
Explanation: Here, Gwendolen’s idealism is exaggerated. It mocks Victorian pretentious morality.
Miss Prism – Act II
“The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.”
Explanation: Miss Prism naively defines literature, which Wilde uses to satire conventional morality.
Jack Worthing– Act I
“The truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.”
Explanation: This quote reveals Jack’s playful cynicism and Wilde’s humor about social hypocrisy.
In Act III, Lady Bracknell declares about Jack Worthing:
“You are the son of my poor sister, Mrs. Moncrieff, and consequently Algernon’s elder brother.”
Miss Prism admits to hand handbag in Act III:
“I left it in the cloak-room of one of the larger railway stations in London.”
Explanation: Years ago, she mistakenly left a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station.
Lady Bracknell says to Jack about marriage:
“You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter… to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?”
Lady Bracknell says to Jack:
“To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life.”