The Sphinx Without A Secret by Oscar Wilde - HTML preview

Exercises

General Understanding Questions

1) What does the man in the café think about Lord Murchison? Does he like him or not?

2) What is his opinion of the woman in the picture?

3) How did Lord Murchison meet Lady Alroy? Why does he want to meet her again?

4) How does Lady Alroy behave when they next see each other? Why is this attractive to Lord Murchison?

5) How must Lord Murchison write to Lady Alroy in the future?

6) Why does Lord Murchison have doubts about marrying Lady Alroy?

7) Why is the handkerchief important in this story?

8) Why does Lord Murchison want to visit the house in Cumnor Street? What does he think happens there?

9) What does the woman who owns the house in Cumnor Street tell Lord Murchison?

10) What is Lady Alroy’s secret? What does the narrator of the story think? What does Lord Murchison think?

Detailed Understanding Questions

1) How can you think “over your drink?”

2) How could beauty be described as “plastic”?

3) What does the phrase “sink into an armchair” suggest?

4) Why does Lord Murchison say “threw open the door” rather than “opened the door”?

5) Lord Murchison tells Lady Alroy that he “caught sight of her”? Did he see her? Did he see her for long?

6) What does the guest at the party mean by describing widows “as exemplifying the survival of the matrimonially fittest”? What phrase is he changing for humorous effect?

7) Lord Murchison says that he is “sick and tired” of waiting. Is he really sick? Is he really tired? How does he actually feel?

8) The woman in Cumnor Street says the rooms are “supposed to be let”. Are the rooms actually let? Is there some doubt or problem with the rooms?

9) Lord Murchison asks: “What on earth did she do?” How is the phrase “on earth” used here?

10) What is the meaning of the narrator’s observation that Lady Alroy is “a sphinx without a secret?”

Literary Questions

1) What do the following observations mean? Are they meant to be taken seriously? Is it good advice?

a. “He would be the best of fellows, if he did not always speak the truth.”

b. “Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”

2) What impression do you have of London and Paris life from the story?

3) How could you compare the characters of Lord Murchison and the narrator of the story?

4) To what extent does Lord Murchison really love Lady Alroy? Why is mystery so attractive?

5) Why would Lady Alroy try to maintain a sense of mystery?

6) A woman should always maintain some atmosphere of mystery. Do you agree?

General Understanding Answers

1) Lord Murchison is an old friend and they speak to each other on friendly terms. Lord Murchison is rather focused on his own problems, and the narrator regards his friend with some humour; so perhaps the relationship is not particularly strong or close.

2) The woman has some secret. The narrator does not know whether the woman has a good or bad character – but she is certainly elegant. He compares her with the most mysterious of women: the Mona Lisa.

3) He met Lady Alroy by chance while she was riding in a carriage. There is no special reason he found her attractive, just this sense of mystery.

4) Lady Alroy does not answer any questions directly and seems rather distant, though not exactly unfriendly. This convinces Lord Murchison that the woman is more mysterious than before.

5) Lady Alroy tells him to write to a different address.

6) Now Lord Murchison has become worried about theis woman's mystery and wants to know what it is.

7) Lady Alroy drops the handkerchief outside the house in Cumnor Street. Lord Murchison picks it up. When Lady Alroy tells him she has been at home all day, Lord Murchison knows she is lying.

8) Lord Murchison wants to know about the house in Cumnor Street because he saw Lady Alroy enter and she will not explain why. He suspects that she is meeting another man there.

9) The woman in Cumnor Street explains that Lady Alroy only came to the house to sit by herself for a few hours. She never met any other people in the house.

10) The story does not reveal any secret. It is not explained why Lady Alroy sits alone in the house. The narrator of the story think there is no mystery at all, and that Lady Alroy just likes to make herself appear mysterious. Lord Murchison is not convinced. He thinks there is still something not fully explained.

Detailed Understanding Answers

1) This means you are thinking while you are drinking.

2) Plastic in this sense just means artificial or not natural.

3) Ships usually sink in the sea. Sinking into an armchair suggests that the chair is very soft and the person sitting down is rather heavy, so he goes down quite deep into the furniture.

4) Throwing open the door is more theatrical than merely opening the door. It creates the impression of surprise and drama when Lady Alroy enters. Lord Murchison may also use the phrase to make his story sound more exciting.

5) When you catch sight of someone, you do see them, but not usually very long or very clearly.

6) The guest is making a joke, suggesting widows live longer than their husbands. The phrase “survival of the fittest” is from Darwin, talking about human evolution.

7) He is not really sick and he is not really tired. He uses the phrase to suggest he has had enough of a situation, is bored with it, and wants it to change or end.

8) The rooms are let to Lady Alroy. The problem is that she has not been there for three months and not paid any rent. The phrase “supposed to” can suggest a difference between what should be the case, and what is actually the case.

9) The phrase “on earth” makes an observation stronger.  It is a polite idiom rather than using some swear word.

10) He means Lady Alroy is certainly mysterious, but there is really no mystery about her at all.