Jack And Gwendolen.
The scenes where Jack and Gwendolen talk whilst Lady Bracknell and Algernon are in the Music room.
Throughout these scenes we know that the dominant speaker is Gwendolen, she is very proud and confident maybe even over confident and knows her status very well.The purpose of these scenes is for the two characters to discuss their love towards eachother and for Jack to propose to Gwendolen. There would have been quite a lot of stress and empathising used in these scenes as the topic is very important to both the characters. It is an emotional and heartfelt time for them so there would also be some inflection in their voices most probably during the proposal.
Although there is Turn taking going on between the characters, You can still see the difference of status, Gwendolen talks the more and she is very confident when she talks, even admitting she is not wrong “ I thought so, infact I am never wrong”. Her dialogue is nearly always more then Jack’s, whereas jack is nervous and seems to be holding back, this could be because he is scared that he will be rejected or he wants this time to be special and leave time for them both to take it all in.
Oscar Wilde uses prosodic features to alert the audience on the intimacy of Jack and Gwendolens relationship. These features are shown when Jack proposes to her: “ gwendolen will you marry me?” these words must have been said slowly with a slow loving tone to show the impact of his love. Gwendolen replies: “ Of course I will darling” This seems to have been said with a high tone, a rising inflection with quick speed, as she must have been excited and didn’t want him to change his mind. Also the use of “of course” shows that she was overly confident and knew that he would propose.
Wilde also uses paralinguistic’s, “ these are shown in Stage directions when lady Bracknell walks in during the proposal and takes Gwendolen away: “ gwendolen goes to the door. She and Jack blow kisses to each other behind Lady Bracknells back”. This Paralinguistic of blowing kisses to each other could be done to create humour . The two lovers are blowing kisses to each other in the presence of the girls mother, and she has no idea of it. This could have been a way to make the audience intrigued, and to keep them watching . After all the play’s subtitle is “a trivial comedy for serious people”
Overall in conclusion Jack and Gwendolen do like each other, as we have seen so far Gwendolen is the dominant speaker and character in the scenes so far because of her status and upbringing , whereas Jack is a bit nervous and Is very truthful. Wilde has used a range of devices to show us the relationship between the two. As the act finishes we are left in suspence wondering whether Lady Bracknell will let the two be together or not?