Lady Bracknell

Lady Bracknell is the total antagonist of the play. She is Gwendolen’s mother. Also, she is Algernon’s aunt who is described as snobbish, mercenary and domineering. This lady is a strongly oriented matriarch person; she doesn’t even understand that lead herself as a tyrant, she strongly believes money is more important than breeding and bullies everyone in her path. She is cunning, narrow-minded, authoritarian, and possibly the most quotable character in the play.

This lady is a disaster who blocks all marriages and all love in the book. Is it because of her love failure? Fortunately (or unfortunately, judge by yourself) her marriage was a happy one, and that is why her primary goal in life was to give the same happy love and life to her daughter and nephew. She prepares a list of eligible men in town for her daughter and even made interviews to get to know them better. Her humor in speeches she likes to give, as like her nephew, is unintentional.

Nevertheless, in this book, she is a typical representative of Victorian classism. The perfect symbol of Victorian earnestness. Through the figure of Lady Bracknell, author of the text shows in a satirical way the hypocrisy and stupidity of the British aristocracy. There always had to be some evil that has power but no heart. She doesn’t want Gwendolen to marry Jack when she finds out he is an orphan. Oh, those prejudices are such awful stuff. Also, she dislikes Cecily as a mate for her nephew, Algernon. Till what period? Right to that moment when she discovered that Cecily is rich. Only after that, she says that she is such a good and cute girl who totally matches her nephew. Is there somewhere bigger insincerity than in that episode? She is a mother of insincerity.

Lady Bracknell values ignorance, which she sees as “a delicate exotic fruit.” We even suppose that she didn’t love her husband. Just imagine a situation – when she gives a dinner party, she prefers her husband to sit downstairs and eat with the servants.