The Importance Of Being Earnest Food Quotes

It is very interesting how food and eating play a surprisingly large part in Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest. Both appear to express many different things such as, demands and emotions within the play’s characters. Moreover, food and eating also seem to be the sources of a great deal of conflict because every time food is mentioned some type of dispute between the character arises. Also, these expressions seem to not be very appropriate, respectable, or polite enough to communicate to others publicly. The fight over something as basic as food, which is something that every human being has a physical need for, might also represent another physical desire: sex. This seems to be the case because the men of the play seem to fight over food the
Additionally, Algernon tells Jack to help himself to some bread and butter because “Gwendolen is devoted to bread and butter” (Wilde, 700). However, Jack begins to devour the bread and butter as if he were going to eat all of it (Wilde, 700). Algernon even informs him that he is behaving “as if you were married to her already” (Wilde, 700). From these quotes, it is evident that the action of eating stands as a symbol for sexual desires, which can also be interpreted by Algernon’s comments about marriage. This is demonstrated when there are no sandwiches left for Lady Bracknell when she arrives (Wilde, 703). Also, the fact that Algernon lies to Lady Bracknell about having to go to “Bunbury” to visit a friend that is sick so that he will not have to eat dinner with her proves that Lady Bracknell is excluded from the world of love since she is not married or involved with someone. In another example, when Gwendolen and Cecily discover that Jack and Algernon lied about who they were and the women go inside the house, Jack and Algernon begin to devour the muffins (Wilde,