Act 1 Part 1 - add quotes

First, Wilde must introduce his characters and setting

Both Jack and Algernon are living their lives through masks; deliberately, their double lives parallel Wilde's living as a married man with a clandestine homosexual life. Both characters are also recognizable to the upper- and middle-class audiences as stock figures.

Algernon is a stylish dandy

a young man very concerned about his clothes and appearance the pose of the leisure-class man about town. His fashionable apartment immediately tells the audience that they are watching a comedy about the upper class

After introducing Algernon, Wilde turns him into a

comic figure of self-gratification, stuffing his mouth with cucumber sandwiches. Self-gratification is ammunition against the repressive Victorian values of duty and virtue.The sandwiches are a light, aristocratic snack, representing the leisurely, hedonistic life of the wealthy, who focus on trifles rather than substance.

• A "Necessary" Lie: When Algernon eats all the sandwiches, he tells Lady Bracknell that the servant could not find any in the market, highlighting the prevalence of trivial lies, or "Bunburying," within the elite society.

• Ownership and Control: Algernon protects the sandwiches from Jack (Ernest), stating they are specifically for Lady Bracknell, yet steals them himself, illustrating his childish, capricious character.

• Social Status: In the Victorian era, cucumbers were a sign of status, requiring specialized care to grow, making their casual consumption at tea a display of wealth.

Algernon and Jack discuss marriage and Gwendolen

food becomes a symbol for lust, a topic not discussed in polite society

Much of what Algernon says is

hopeless triviality, beginning a motif that Wilde will follow throughout the play: Society never cares about substance but instead reveres style and triviality

Wilde seems to be saying that in Victorian society

people seem unaware of the difference between trivial subjects and the more valuable affairs of life.

Jack is a little more serious than Algernon

perhaps because of his position as a country magistrate and his concern over his unconventional lineage. Helplessly a product of his time and social standing “I certainly won't want to know Bunbury.”

Jack know

the appropriate manners, and the virtue of turning a phrase beautifully. He is an accepted upper-class gentleman, mainly because of the Cardew fortune

Novels written during this period,

such as those of Charles Dickens, often turned on melodramatic plot devices such as the orphan discovering his real identity and winning his true love. Wilde hilariously turns this popular orphan plot on its head by having Jack found in a handbag in a major railroad station. Absurdity is Wilde's forte.

Both men are living a secret life

Jack with his Ernest identity and Algernon with his friend, Bunbury. Even Lane, Algy's servant, seems to have a second life in which he filches champagne and sandwiches from his "betters." Wilde seems to be saying that in a society where all is respectable but dull, a fictitious identity is necessary to liven things up

The classic nineteenth-century farce

often turned on such mix-ups.

The deliberate use of the name Ernest is calculated

Earnestness, or devotion to virtue and duty, was a Victorian ideal. It stood for sincerity, seriousness, and hard work. Duty to one's family and name was a form of earnestness. Wilde turns these connotations upside down, making Ernest a name used for deception

Some critics suggest that earnest (in this context) means a double life.

Other critics believe that earnest is understood in some circles to mean homosexual. By using the name Ernest throughout the play, and even in the title, Wilde is making references to social criticism, his own life, and his plot devices. He playfully makes a pun using earnest/Ernest when Algernon says, "You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life," following his discussion of Ernest as Jack's name.

Marriage in Victorian England comes under fire throughout the first act

Wilde saw marriages filled with hypocrisy and often used to achieve status. Wilde also saw marriage as an institution that encouraged cheating and snuffed out sexual attraction between spouses.

When Lane says that wine is never of superior quality in a married household

Algernon questions Lane's marital status. Lane flippantly mentions that his own marriage resulted from a "misunderstanding." The nonsense continues as Jack explains that his purpose in coming to the city was to propose.

Marriage brings about an end to

the romantic excitement of flirting: "...girls never marry the men they flirt with. - Algy

Wilde seems to say that marriage is a business deal containing property, wealth, and status. Family names and bloodlines are deathly important.

Wilde corrupts the maxim, "Two's company; three's a crowd," to humorously chide the conservative audience. Algernon says, "In married life three is company and two is none." So much for the joys of wedded life.

Wilde uses food and eating as

symbols for the sensual and/or for lust

Victorian males often conducted

extra-marital affairs with the blessings of a hypocritical society.

Wilde expresses their repressed sexual drives with

the hilarious scenes of his characters eating voraciously and discussing food. He also refers to sex and vitality with the euphemism of "health."

When Algernon says that Gwendolen is

"devoted to bread and butter," Jack immediately grabs some bread and butter and starts eating greedily.

Class warfare is also a subject of this first act

. While the servants, such as Lane, wait on the upper classes, they also observe their morals.

They might not comment, but their facial expressions

betray their understanding of their own role in life, which involves waiting and doing, but not commenting.

Style and manners also come under attack.

In Victorian England, style and correct manners were much more important than substance. Algernon feels his style of piano playing is much more important than his accuracy.

Algernon's quip, "More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read," is a reference once again to

hypocrisy. Read something scandalous to be in style, but do not speak of it in polite company. Double standards abound.

Daily newspapers come under Algernon's attack as the writings of people

who have not been educated and who think of themselves as literary critics. Perhaps Wilde is saying that the critical reviews of the day should be in the hands of people who are educated to understand art.

Some critics have suggested that Wilde began his writing projects by accumulating a group of

he wished to explore. (Often, these sayings about life were widely known but not really examined closely.) He turned these hackneyed phrases upside down to suggest that, although they knew the clichés, most British audiences did not stop to think about how meaningless they were

For example, "Divorces are made in heaven"

a corruption of the familiar "Marriages are made in heaven") suggests that divorce contributes to happiness — perhaps a greater truism than the familiar phrase given the tenor of Victorian society

Wilde makes fun of peoples' trivial concerns over social status when he says

"Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations."

Wilde's use of language as a tool for

umor continues with his hilarious puns.