She says in Act I, “When you do become engaged to someone, I, or your father, should his health permit, will inform you of the fact”. Even though she does acknowledge that her husband should be part of the decision, she places herself before him and also belittles him by commenting on his poor health. In fact, Lord Bracknell, is never issued directly throughout the entire piece. As soon as Lady Bracknell’s introduced on the set, she begins commanding and controlling Gwendolen (and through her Jack). Evidently Lady Bracknell values society and its values, saying, “Never speak disrespectfully of Society,” but she goes totally against these values by playing the role of her husband in her daughter’s life (hypocritical).
Cecily tells Lady Bracknell how she is engaged to Algernon and after much questioning gives her consent to the marriage. There is a common theme of love in this section with both Algernon and Jack revealing their true love for Gwendolen and Cecily. One aspect of comedy that Wilde has perfectly placed in this section is Algernon’s contradiction of views on marriage. This links with earlier in the play, when he expresses how there is nothing romantic in a proposal of marriage; whereas now he has found love, his view has completely changed. Wilde constantly contradicts the direct speech from the characters.
Algernon becomes disillusioned in the process of seeking truth. In defining Algernon's preconceived notion of marriage and then describing the subsequent earnest pursuit of engagement, Wilde achieves a consequential climax that satirizes marriage. Marriage is of paramount importance in The Importance of Being Earnest, both as a primary force motivating the plot and as a subject for philosophical speculation and debate. The question of the nature of marriage appears for the first time in the opening dialogue between Algernon and his butler, Lane, and from this point on the subject never disappears for very long. Algernon and Jack discuss the nature of marriage when they dispute briefly about whether a marriage proposal is a matter of “business” or “pleasure,” and Lady Bracknell touches on the issue when she states, “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be.” Even Lady Bracknell’s list of bachelors and the prepared interview to which she subjects Jack are based on a set of assumptions about the nature and purpose of marriage.
and this is shown on the essay when she writes this ”If, by chance , I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one” Really, is sad but is the truth, men do think women’s are objects they can’t take and leave when they want and demand things and expect to received without giving. As I read the essay it was stupid to see that they didn’t realize that all the wife’s duties could also be done by men, like cleaning, working, taking care of the kids, and of course pleasing their wife’s when she
First examining marriage in Pride and Prejudice, the prime example of it in this novel is that surrounding the Bennett family who are not wealthy people, and there is nothing that Mrs Bennett wants more than to see her daughters get married to wealthy men. She presents this desperation at the very beginning of the book when she is eagerly mentioning the fact that Netherfield Park has been let, and she is said to be speaking “impatiently” when her husband does not return this eagerness. This is shown when she says “you do not know what I suffer”. This suffering may be as a result of her own marriage (which disappoints her) or the fact that she wants each of her five daughters to find wealthy husbands. She states in the first chapter that the “solace” of marriage is “visiting and news.” This explains why Mrs Bennett is so desperate for her husband to visit Bingley and find out more about him and to introduce him to their daughters.
Her husband, George Putnam repetitively proposed six times before she finally accepted marrying him. She wrote him a letter that stated “You must know again my reluctance to marry, my feeling that I shatter thereby chances in work which means most to me… Please let us not interfere with the others’ work or play… In this connection I may have to keep some place where I can go to be myself, now and then, for I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinements of even an attractive cage” (Brain Pickings -). She believed in equal responsibilities between the pair, and refused the bride’s promise to obey her husband. She had a modern view on marriage, pushing the envelope for women in relationships. Amelia conveyed her wariness of the entire situation, and laid out her expectations, including her requirement for privacy and respect for her career and accomplishments.
The play begins with Algernon suspecting that Earnest (Jack) lives a double life after reading the inscription on his case that reads ”Uncle Jack” and “little Cecily”. Failing in his attempts to lie, Jack confesses the truth while Algernon announces he too, to escape from social obligations goes to the country in order to visit his made-up sick friend- Bunbury. When Gwendolen visits Algernon with her mother, Lady Bracknell in the presence of Jack, Jack proposes to her and she agrees- confirming that she would not marry anyone with any name other than Earnest. Lady Bracknell considers Jack worthy of her daughters hand until he tells her that he was found at Victoria station, in a hand bag .Lady Bracknell forbids the match and sweeps out of the house. Jack gives Gwendolen his real address which Algernon who is interested in meeting Cecily after hearing about her, writes down on his collar secretly and in the next scene arrives at Hertfordshire, introduces himself as Earnest, Jacks brother.
Wilde’s play does not celebrate marriage as the ultimate alliance by love, instead preferring to expose its “unstylish” side stained by hypocrisy and shallowness. It’s quite clear that the institution of marriage is being lightheartedly ridiculed in The Importance of Being Earnest. The main characters in the play appear to treat marriage as something frivolous and are oblivious to the concept of mutual commitment. Cecily and Gwendolen only want to marry Algernon and Jack because they are convinced that their names are Ernest. As Gwendolen points out to Jack early in the play, “…My ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest.
Your place in society was extremely important and made a huge impact on who you married. Upper and lower classes were not to be mixed and if done so, you were looked down upon. This concept is shown when Lady Bracknell interviews John before allowing her daughter, Gwendolen, to be with him. She has no interest in approving of John until she finds out that he is in fact from a very wealthy background. Wilde also does a good job of mocking the way men and women think of each other.
LAdy Bracknell: Her major concerns where class and money. She did not like Jack because he didn’t know who his parents where making him not to know his social class. Mrs. Bracknell did not want her daughter to be married to a low social class man who could just be "interested in her daughters money". Later throughout the reading I was introduced to Cecily who was Jacks ward. She was "in love" with Algernon who was acting as if he was Earnest(i.e.