Welcome to English with Saddam. Since you are a student of the English Department at the national university, I, Md Saddam Hossain, the founder of the best English literature coaching center in Narayanganj, am here to help you get a high band in your Modern Drama subject for 4th year. In this blog, I will give you the answer to the character of Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a masterpiece of his literary career. Here, the writer has presented Lady Bracknell vividly to expose the nature of the modern ladies.

Lady Bracknell is the perfect presentation of the British aristocracy, whose attitudes and conduct rules differ. She is a self-centered, narrow-minded businesswoman, arrogant and superior in her behavior, and she holds the rule of the matriarch মাতৃপ্রধান in society.

Lady Bracknell is a very self-centered woman. She arrives at Algernon’s flat. She apologizes for being late. So, she asks for forgiveness from Algernon if they are a little late. Learning of Bunbury’s death, she is happy. She should have shown some sympathy; instead, she shows her unsympathetic and narrow-minded attitude. Regarding this, she says, 

“I think it is high time Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or die.”

Lady Bracknell is a very narrow-minded woman. She hears about Miss Prism towards the end of the play. She inquires if this Miss Prism is a female of disgusting aspect who is remotely connected with education. Dr. Chasuble responds with frustration, insisting that she epitomizes sophistication and utmost respectability. Lady Bracknell swiftly counters and replies angrily,

“It is obviously the same person.”

Lady Bracknell is a lady who wants complete control of everything. She is always in a good voice and has a mastery of rhetoric and authority. When Jack proposes to marry Gwendolen, she directly refuses it. She asks a lot of questions about his parents and assets. She says she will not marry her daughter to someone whose parentage is unknown. So, she compares Jack to an unclaimed cloakroom parcel as he has no parentage. Then she says that she will not allow her daughter,

“…to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?”

Lady Bracknell is a critical lady. None is spared from her criticism who mix with her. She’s really particular about how things should be among people of her social group. According to her, parents should decide engagements, not the children themselves. She points to Mary Farquhar as the ideal for managing a household, and she’s pretty aware of what’s considered proper, like making sure there’s just the correct number of guests at her table. She has a wholly unjustified English prejudice against France, expressing her disapproval in terms of music. Her critical comments on Algernon lie below,

“She will place me next Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant.”

Lady Bracknell is practical and dishonest. She finds Jack’s handbag origin unacceptable. Later, she advises him to acquire some relations to marry her daughter. Absent for the whole second act, she returns to dominate the third. She knows who Jack is, but she does not expose it initially. She takes a long time. But finally, she cannot but reveal the truth about the actual parentage of Jack. When she cannot keep it secret anymore, she says to Jack,

“I am afraid that the news I have to give you will not altogether please you.”

To conclude, it is clear that Wilde has successfully presented the so-called aristocracy, angry attitude, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, and stupidity of Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Here, the character represents every modern so-called old lady who acts as a significant barrier to the natural pace of human life, creating complexities and tensions.

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