Help!! Timed ALGERNON Oh! there is no use speculating on that subject. Divorces are made in Heaven - [JACK puts out his hand to take a sandwich. ALGERNON at once interferes.] Please don't touch the cucumber sandwiches. They are ordered specially for Aunt Augusta

[Takes one and eats it).

JACK Well, you have been eating them all the time.

ALGERNON That is quite a different matter. She is my aunt.

How does Oscar Wilde use the subject of cucumber sandwiches in the passage above to reveal the characters of Algernon and Jack?

A. Jack is respectable and kind while Algernon is selfish and witty

B. Jack is rude and callous while Algernon is courteous and humble

C. Jack is witty and resentful while Algernon is dutiful and polite

D. Jack is generous and obedient while Algernon is considerate and tolerant

Jack is respectable and kind while Algernon is selfish and witty.

Explanation:

A central purpose of the scene between Algernon and Lane is to lay the foundation for the joke about the cucumber sandwiches, an incident that marks the first appearance of food as a source of conflict as well as a substitute for other appetites. Algernon has ordered some cucumber sandwiches especially for Lady Bracknell, but during the scene with Lane, he absentmindedly eats all the sandwiches himself. In this particular scene, food substitutes for the idea of sex. Algernon’s insatiable appetite, his preoccupation with food, and his habit of wantonly indulging himself politely suggest other forms of voraciousness and wanton self-indulgence. This idea becomes apparent in the early exchange between Algernon and Jack over the question of whether Jack should eat cucumber sandwiches or bread and butter. Here, Algernon interprets eating as a form of social, even sexual, presumption. Algernon can eat the cucumber sandwiches because he’s Lady Bracknell’s blood relation, but Jack, who hardly knows Lady Bracknell, should stay away from them. When Jack demonstrates too much enthusiasm for the bread and butter, Algernon reproaches him for behaving as though he were “married to [Gwendolen] already,” as though he had touched her in an aggressive or salacious manner.

a

explanation: