We completed our first timed assessment on an extract we chose from The Importance of Being Earnest, and I chose to respond specifically to the question, “How can texts offer multiple perspectives of a single issue/topic/theme?” with the scene in Act 3 where Lady Bracknell just enters the house. The dialogue is very much dominated by her and is particularly revealing of her conservative views towards marriage, in marked contrast to Algernon’s rather frivolous attitude. These tensions between these two perspectives, the conservative but hypocritical Victorian norms, and the melodramatic Romantic ideals, was what I targeted in my analysis.

The constraint of 1 hour and 20 minutes made me write much faster and with less time for careful planning than I would have liked, and I did not manage to satisfactorily finish my paragraph regarding Algernon’s views of marriage. However, with the parts which I have written, I think that overall I have sustained a fair depth of analysis supported with sufficient textual evidence (which I have highlighted in blue below) from the extract. Where I think I could have gone into more depth would be evaluating and explaining the irony of the humour in the dialogue, which I have simply asserted at points without much unpacking.