What is ironic about Lady Bracknell?

What is ironic about Lady Bracknell saying, “To speak frankly, I am not in favor of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable” (p.

What words best describe Lady Bracknell?

Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde’s opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power.

How is Lady Bracknell a hypocrite?

Lady Bracknell exposes her hypocritical nature further when she says she disapproves of “mercenary marriages.” Yet her marriage to Lord Bracknell was motivated primarily by money—“When I married Lord Bracknell I had not fortune of any kind. Chausible’s opinion on marriage reverses quickly.

What does Lady Bracknell say about Lady Harbury?

As for other examples of Wilde’s opinions on marriage, Lady Bracknell mentions a recently widowed Lady Harbury who looks 20 years younger since her husband died, and now she lives for pleasure instead of duty.

What type of person is Lord Bracknell?

Lady Bracknell’s offstage marriage is one of the play’s running gags, and Lord Bracknell is the butt of a good many of its jokes about marriage. He seems to be the victim of a kind of abstract domestic abuse—ignored, unconsidered, hidden away, and relegated to the status of an idiot or invalid child.

What kind of relationship do you think Lady Bracknell has with her husband?

What kind of relationship do you think Lady Bracknell has with her husband? It is a distant relationship, she only married him because he was very wealth. Same social class, both wealthy so they were a perfect match.

What does Lady Bracknell say about love?

Lady Bracknell does not believe in love; she sees through the shallow motives of her daughter Gwendolen and knows that true love certainly does not exist in the decadent society within the play.

Is Lady Bracknell rich?

Lady Augusta Bracknell, Algernon’s aunt, represents another rich source of satire: the high-society dowager who often acts as the wealthy relative of the penniless playboy protagonist.

How is Lady Bracknell a blocking figure?

Lady Bracknell is representative of the British upper class, and their attitude towards marriage. This “blocking figure” is an old, ill-tempered lady that stands in the way of lovers by enacting upon outdated social norms. By making Lady Bracknell the “blocking figure,” Wilde provides a clear target to satirize.

When Lady Bracknell interviews Jack How does Wilde satirize the mindless and pompous mentalities and lifestyles of the British aristocracy?

Wilde satirizes the vacuous mentalities and lifestyles of the British aristocracy in Lady Bracknell’s interview with Jack through her valuing of ignorance, as she puts it, ignorance is a “delicate exotic fruit”. How does Oscar Wilde use the cigarette case to facilitate the exposition of the dramatic action?

What does Lady Bracknell say that makes light of marriage in this excerpt?

What does Lady Bracknell say that makes light of marriage in this excerpt? She says that she does not want Gwendolen, an unmarried girl, to sit apart from her guardian. She says that she disapproves of Algernon as a suitable husband because he ate all of the cucumber sandwiches.

Why does Cecily fall in love with earnest?

She is obsessed with the name Ernest just as Gwendolen is, but wickedness is primarily what leads her to fall in love with “Uncle Jack’s brother,” whose reputation is wayward enough to intrigue her. Like Algernon and Jack, she is a fantasist. These elements of her personality make her a perfect mate for Algernon.