Analysis of Algernon's Views on Marriage in Oscar Wilde's Work

Algernon. I believe it is customary in good society to take some slight refreshment at five o’clock. Where have you been since last Thursday?

Jack. In the country.

Algernon. What on earth do you do there?

Jack.  When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses

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other people. It is excessively boring.

Algernon. And who are the people you amuse?

Jack.  Oh, neighbours, neighbours.

Algernon. Got nice neighbours in your part of

Shropshire?

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Jack. Perfectly horrid! Never speak to one of them.

Algernon. How immensely you must amuse them! By the way, Shropshire

is your county, is it not?

Jack. Eh? Shropshire? Yes, of course. Hallo! Why all these cups? Why cucumber sandwiches? Why such reckless extravagance in one so young? Who is coming to tea?

Algernon. Oh! merely Aunt Augusta and Gwendolen.

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Jack. How perfectly delightful!

Algernon. Yes, that is all very well; but I am afraid Aunt Augusta won’t quite approve of your being here.

Jack. May I ask why?

Algernon. My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.

Jack. I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her.

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Algernon. I thought you had come up for pleasure? I call that business.

Jack. How utterly unromantic you are!

Algernon. I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact.

Jack. I have no doubt about that, dear Algy. The Divorce Court was specially invented for people whose memories are so curiously constituted.

Algernon. Oh! there is no use speculating on that subject. Divorces are made in Heaven—

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Please don’t touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt

Augusta. 

Jack. Well, you have been eating them all the time. Algernon. That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt. Have some bread and butter. The bread and butter is for Gwendolen.

Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter.

Jack. And very good bread and butter it is too.

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Algernon. Well, my dear fellow, you need not eat as if you were going to eat it all. You behave as if you were married to her already. You are not married to her already, and I don’t think you ever will be.

Jack. Why on earth do you say that?

Algernon. Well, in the first-place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don’t think it right.

Jack. Oh, that is nonsense!

Algernon. It isn’t. It is a great truth. It accounts for the extraordinary number of bachelors that one sees all over the place. In the second place, I don’t give my consent.

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Jack. Your consent!

Algernon. My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin. And before I allow you to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question of Cecily. 

Jack. Cecily! What on earth do you mean? What do you mean, Algy, by Cecily! I don’t know any one of the name of Cecily.

Algernon. Bring me that cigarette case Mr. Worthing left in the smoking-room the last time he dined here.