<p>Summer Reading Study Guide for The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Honors British Literature 230 Instructor: Mr. Perzinski</p><p>Please complete the following exercises in conjunction with your summer reading of The Importance of Being Earnest. All work is to be typed; all work is to follow MLA guidelines regarding citations from the play: please consult The Bedford Handbook for assistance in this matter; and all work is to be stapled before being submitted to me upon your return to school.</p><p>Directions for Part I: Define the following words, and create original sentences using the defined words that demonstrate an understanding of the words’ definitions: salver, forte, Wagnerian, expurgation, demonstrative, glibly, metaphysical, inquisitorial, trivet, apoplexy, vacillating, quixotic, neologistic, precept, carter, amity, portmanteau, profligacy, salutary, effrontery, license, usury, rheumatic, equanimity, abject, pinions, aristocratic, philanthropic, supercilious, affectation, credulity, ostentatiously, tutelage, savour, uncanonical, quails, perambulator, omnibus, tableau </p><p>Directions for Part II: Define the term Aphorism. Select five aphorisms from The Importance of Being Earnest and describe – in brief, constructed responses of a paragraph or so – what the aphorism means and why the aphorism appeals to you as a reader of the play.</p><p>Directions for Part III: Define the following terms: Irony, Verbal Irony, Dramatic Irony, Situational Irony. Provide three examples of verbal irony, three of dramatic irony, and three of situational irony from the play. Provide an explanation (of a paragraph or so in length) of the function of each instance of irony.</p><p>Directions for Part IV: Essay: In five-paragraph essay form, please construct a response to the following thoughts of scholar Kenneth Krauss regarding the play The Importance of Being Earnest:</p><p>“Without the ballast of a traditional, meaningful plot, Earnest soars to comedic heights. Its surface is </p><p> so polished that we easily may be blinded or taken in by its notion, so often articulated throughout the</p><p> script, that surface alone matters. Yet beneath the superficial brilliance, Wilde manages to create a </p><p> subtle interplay of ironies that add up to more than the wit so prominently on display. After all, Wilde</p><p> was a serious Aestheticist, and while that may strike readers as a contradiction, it is exactly that </p><p> hilarious paradox with which Earnest is so seriously concerned.”</p>