The Importance of Being Earnest

by

Oscar Wilde

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Jack’s Handbag Symbol Icon
The handbag in which Jack was found as a baby is a symbol for the comedy of errors. Jack’s inadvertent abandonment in a place as obscure and ridiculous as a handbag at a train station demonstrates the absurd results that arise when silly, as well as serious, mistakes are made.

Jack’s Handbag Quotes in The Importance of Being Earnest

The The Importance of Being Earnest quotes below all refer to the symbol of Jack’s Handbag. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Art of Deception: Fact v. Fiction Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Part 2 Quotes

You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter—a girl brought up with the utmost care—to marry into a cloak-room and form an alliance with a parcel.

Related Characters: Lady Bracknell (speaker), Jack, Gwendolen Fairfax, Lord Bracknell
Related Symbols: Jack’s Handbag, The Coatroom at Victoria Station and The Brighton Line
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
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Jack’s Handbag Symbol Timeline in The Importance of Being Earnest

The timeline below shows where the symbol Jack’s Handbag appears in The Importance of Being Earnest. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 3, Part 2
The Art of Deception: Fact v. Fiction Theme Icon
Hypocrisy, Folly, and Victorian Morality Theme Icon
...day with the baby in the stroller and the manuscript for her three-volume-novel in a handbag. She conjectures that in a moment of absentmindedness she put the manuscript in the stroller... (full context)
The Art of Deception: Fact v. Fiction Theme Icon
Name and Identity Theme Icon
Upon hearing this detail, Jack feverishly asks Miss Prism about where she left the handbag. Whimpering, she admits to having left it in a coatroom at Victoria station on the... (full context)