Not So Critical Criticism

Algernon: “Dear me, you are smart!” (Wilde 8)

Rodney: “I don’t know what that means” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life” (Wilde 40)

Desdemona: “If you say so” (Shakespeare 5.2. 35)

Rodney: “Please stop trying to confuse me” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Literary criticism is not your forte” (Wilde 6)

Desdemona: “Alas, she has no speech” (Shakespeare 2.1. 103)

Algernon: “Oh! It is absurd…more than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read” (Wilde 4)

Rodney: “Listen I don’t want to be rude. I know you’re doing your job and you’re very good at it…But still I want you to be careful what you say” (Currie 131)

Algernon: “Oh! There is no use speculating on that subject” (Wilde 3)

Desdemona: “Oh heavy ignorance” (Shakespeare 2.1. 141)

Algernon: “Girls don’t think it right” (Wilde 3)

Rodney: “Maybe you wouldn’t say it that way, but that’s what you would think” (136)

Desdemona: “Be as your fancies teach you” (Shakespeare 3.3. 88)

Algernon: “Well, that is exactly what dentists always do” (Wilde 5)