The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde) practice questions and exam guide

The women's truce in Act 2 is brokered when:

1. Jack and Algernon enter, expose the lies, and both are revealed as 'not Ernest'
2. Lady Bracknell arrives
3. Miss Prism intervenes
4. Chasuble preaches

Answer: A — Jack and Algernon enter, expose the lies, and both are revealed as 'not Ernest'

A) The men's lies revealed, the women immediately ally against them — Wilde's structural inversion in action.

Jack and Algernon mirror each other through:

1. Profession
2. Each maintaining a fictitious alibi figure — Ernest for Jack, Bunbury for Algernon
3. Wealth
4. Religion

Answer: B — Each maintaining a fictitious alibi figure — Ernest for Jack, Bunbury for Algernon

B) Both are 'Bunburyists' — Wilde's term for performers of the Victorian double life.

A paraphrased Wildean inversion about truth might read:

1. 'Truth is always plain'
2. 'Truth is a duty'
3. 'Truth, when interesting, is rarely simple — and modern life would be tedious if it were'
4. 'Truth must be told'

Answer: C — 'Truth, when interesting, is rarely simple — and modern life would be tedious if it were'

C) Paraphrased echo of the famous epigram — Wilde's habitual inversion of moral commonplaces.

The play has been read as queer-coded primarily because:

1. 'Bunburying' + the double-name structure + Wilde's coded vocabulary lend themselves to that reading
2. Wilde's biography only
3. It mentions Greek love
4. The audience said so

Answer: A — 'Bunburying' + the double-name structure + Wilde's coded vocabulary lend themselves to that reading

B) Insufficient on its own. A) Correct — textual + biographical readings reinforce each other. C/D) Wrong.

The play's closing line is Jack realizing:

1. 'The world is a stage'
2. 'God save the Queen'
3. 'All for love'
4. 'The vital Importance of Being Earnest'

Answer: D — 'The vital Importance of Being Earnest'

A/B/C) Wrong. D) Correct — title pun + thematic capstone.

Jack's stated reason for coming to town in Act 1 is:

1. Business
2. Family illness
3. Pleasure, specifically to propose to Gwendolen
4. A church matter

Answer: C — Pleasure, specifically to propose to Gwendolen

C) He proposes to Gwendolen the moment Lady Bracknell leaves the room.

Lady Bracknell's pronouncements about 'the right people' satirize:

1. Foreign policy
2. Industrial labor
3. Religious dogma
4. Late-Victorian social policing of class, marriage, and acceptable streets

Answer: D — Late-Victorian social policing of class, marriage, and acceptable streets

D) She is Wilde's caricature of the gatekeeper class — and she is hilariously certain.

Which Act 3 revelation rests on a handbag previously seen in Act 1's discussion?

1. Jack's foundling origin and aristocratic descent
2. Algernon's parentage
3. Cecily's wealth
4. Miss Prism's marriage

Answer: A — Jack's foundling origin and aristocratic descent

A) The handbag links Act 1 (Lady Bracknell's horror) to Act 3 (the family reconciliation).

What about Cecily changes Lady Bracknell's mind?

1. Her substantial inheritance and prospects
2. Her piety
3. Her German lessons
4. Her novel-writing

Answer: A — Her substantial inheritance and prospects

A) Lady Bracknell suddenly finds Cecily 'a most attractive young lady' once the fortune is on the table.

The central thematic inversion of the play is:

1. Comedy and tragedy
2. Rich and poor
3. Town and country
4. The trivial treated as serious, the serious treated as trivial

Answer: D — The trivial treated as serious, the serious treated as trivial

D) The subtitle declares it: 'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.' The reversal is structural and verbal.

Why is Algernon's arrival especially awkward for Jack?

1. Jack is broke
2. Jack is sick
3. Jack has just returned 'mourning' for his fictitious dead brother Ernest
4. Jack has no spare room

Answer: C — Jack has just returned 'mourning' for his fictitious dead brother Ernest

C) Jack arrives in deep mourning, ready to bury 'Ernest' — only to find Algernon claiming to be him in the garden.

What is the comic engine of the play's middle act in formal terms?

1. Slow pastoral romance
2. Mistaken identity and converging fiancees in a closed garden setting
3. Political debate
4. Travel

Answer: B — Mistaken identity and converging fiancees in a closed garden setting

B) Two 'Ernests,' two engagements, one tea table — perfect farce mechanics.

Why are Jack + Algernon both planning to be re-christened?

Both have committed to fiancées who can only love a man named Ernest. Both go to Canon Chasuble to be christened with the name.

Theme: Victorian respectability as performance.

Both Jack + Algernon openly maintain double lives. Wilde insists the entire society runs on poses. 'Ernestness' is itself impersonation.

Subtitle?

'A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.' Sets up Wilde's signature inversion: 'trivial' play = serious social critique.

Jack's true identity?

He is the lost baby — Lady Bracknell's nephew + Algernon's elder brother. His real first name, by family record, was always Ernest.

Why does Gwendolen want to marry 'Ernest'?

She claims the name 'Ernest' itself 'inspires absolute confidence.' Wilde's joke: the name = the virtue.

Why is the play called 'trivial'?

Wilde's subtitle is double-edged. 'Trivial' = light + 'trivial' = unimportant. The play insists triviality is exactly what serious people need.