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?

The setting at the opening of the play makes a comment on the benefits of being married.
The names of the characters in the play help Wilde illustrate the differences between social classes.
The title is helpful in establishing the play as a comedy of manners because it makes use of witty wordplay.
The first line of dialogue in the play helps Wilde emphasize a contrast between city and country life.

Read the two excerpts from act 4, scene 3, and act 5, scene 5, of julius caesar. cassius. ha! portia? brutus. she is dead. cassius. how scaped i killing when i crossed you so? o insupportable and touching loss! upon what sickness? brutus. impatient of my absence, and grief that young octavius with mark antony have made themselves so strong—for with her death that tidings came. with this, she fell distraught, and, her attendants absent, swallowed fire. brutus. why this, volumnius. the ghost of caesar hath appeared to me two several times by night—at sardis once, and this last night, here in philippi fields. i know my hour is come. volumnius. not so, my lord. brutus. nay, i am sure it is, volumnius. thou seest the world, volumnius, how it goes. our enemies have beat us to the pit, [low alarums] it is more worthy to leap in ourselves than tarry till they push us. good volumnius, thou know’st that we two went to school together. even for that, our love of old, i prithee, hold thou my sword hilts, whilst i run on it. . so fare you well at once, for brutus’ tongue hath almost ended his life’s history. night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, that have but laboured to attain this hour. . i prithee, strato, stay thou by thy lord. thou art a fellow of a good respect. thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it. hold then my sword, and turn away thy face while i do run upon it. wilt thou, strato? which statement best compares brutus’s remarks at the death of his wife, portia, to his words before his own death? brutus shows more sadness for portia’s death than he does for his own. brutus is more philosophical about his own death than he is about portia’s. brutus uses more imagery when speaking about portia’s death than about his own. brutus reacts more matter-of-factly about his own death than he does about portia’s.

Time is not always change. time can also mean continuity, and it can mean keeping acknowledged truths in mind despite differences in circumstances. there is no better example of this in things fall apart than the retellings of the proverb about the bird named eneke, the language in both retellings is almost identical despite the length of time that has passed between their repetitions. in comparing the usages of the same proverb, achebe allows his readers to note the similarities and differences between the situations, and he them understand how this story can be applied to their own lives.

The room was gaudy with its leather couch and purple walls