<p>Name: ______12/5/16 The Importance of Being Earnest: Textbook Close Reading Organizer Read along with the textbook excerpt (pp. 1066-1067) from The Importance of Being Earnest and study the language and its context to complete the organizer below.</p><p>List key words from the excerpt that provide context in the passage.</p><p>Define the term EPIGRAM (p. 1066).</p><p>Summarize the example of EPIGRAM developed in the excerpt.</p><p>Define the term REPARTEE (p. 1066)</p><p>Summarize the example of REPARTEE developed in the excerpt.</p><p>Characterize either Merriman, Algernon or Cecily based on the passage.</p><p>Find an example of VERBAL IRONY delivered by Algernon in the passage.</p><p>Reflect on the comedic elements within the passage.</p><p>ACT I</p><p>1. How does the opening scene between Lane and Algernon set up some of the major themes of the play? What, if anything, does the setting contribute to the subsequent action?</p><p>2. How does Algernon contrive to separate Lady Bracknell from the lovers?</p><p>3. Why does Lady Bracknell disapprove of Jack as Gwendolen’s suitor?</p><p>4. What does Algernon learn from the inscription in Jack’s cigarette case?</p><p>5. What does Jack plan to do about his fictitious brother, Ernest?</p><p>6. How does Algernon learn Jack’s address in the country?</p><p>7. Explain the double lives led by Jack and Algernon. Where and to whom is Jack known as “Ernest”? </p><p>8. What does Algernon mean when he says to Jack: “I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist”?</p><p>9. What evidence do we have that Lady Bracknell does not approve of Jack’s presence?</p><p>10. What are Lady Bracknell’s requirements for a proper suitor for Gwendolen?</p><p>11. The comic wit of Wilde’s writing often depends upon a character’s directly contradicting what we normally assume to be logical or true. We can see an example of this in Algernon’s comment that “the amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous.” Find 2 other examples of this. </p>