Question

Read the beginning of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Title: The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde

The Persons in the Play
John Worthing, J.P.
Algernon Moncrieff
Rev. Canon Chasuble, D.D.
Merriman, Butler
Lane, Manservant
Lady Bracknell
Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax
Cecily Cardew
Miss Prism, Governess

First Act
SCENE
Morning-room in Algernon’s flat in Half-Moon Street. The room is luxuriously and artistically furnished. The sound of a piano is heard in the adjoining room.

[Lane is arranging afternoon tea on the table, and after the music has ceased, Algernon enters.]

Algernon. Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?

Lane. I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.

Which analysis of the beginning of The Importance of Being Earnest is the most accurate?

Answer 1

Answer:Answer: C) The title is helpful in establishing the play as a comedy of manners because it makes use of witty wordplay.

Answer 2

Answer: C) The title is helpful in establishing the play as a comedy of manners because it makes use of witty wordplay.

Step-by-step explanation:

This play by Oscar Wilde, follows the lives of John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff who engaged in some deception in order to escape their social responsibilities and add excitement to their lives but things take a turn when those deceptions are discovered.

From the beginning of the play, we can tell that the play will be a comedy due to the response by Lane to Mr. Moncrieff when he asked Lane if Lane had been listening. Lane's response featured witty wordplay by sarcastically suggesting that listening to Mr. Moncrieff play was impolite.