Religion

Quotations and Interpretation
The play’s action is divided between the city and the country, London and the pastoral county of Hertfordshire. Traditionally, locations like these symbolize different attitudes toward life, contrasting, for example, the corruption of urban living with the simple bucolic pleasures of rural farm life. As Jack says, //“when one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.”// Wilde’s symbolism does not adhere rigidly to audience expectations, however. Though Jack is more sedate while in the country and more festive when in London, Cecily is far from the innocent she appears (and pretends to be around her guardian). Her handling of her //“affair”// with Algernon/Earnest shows her to be as competent in romance as any city woman.