Lady Bracknell In The Importance Of Being Earnest

In the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, witticism is used in characterization and in the satire of the Victorian Aristocracy. Characterization is used to describe characters and their personalities. Witticism, a literary tone, is used as a cleverly witty and often biting or ironic remark. Satire, a literary tone, is used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness, often with the intent of correcting or changing, the subject. When you read the title of the literary work Wilde wrote, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, the Victorian aristocratic social group is represented as having superficial values and being materialistic. The women in the play supersede the men. Lady Bracknell is the exact symbol of Victorian earnestness …show more content…
“Lady Bracknell. Good afternoon, dear Algernon, I hope you are behaving very well. Algernon. I’m feeling very well, Aunt Augusta. Lady Bracknell. That’s not quite the same thing. In fact, the two things rarely go together.” (Wilde). She is able to go back and forth with other characters on witty conversations and social banter. Despite her current aristocratic position, she was a social climber bent on marrying into the aristocracy. Formerly a member of the lower class, she represents the uprightness of the lower class omitted. Being who she is Lady Bracknell has opinions on society, marriage, religion, money, illness, death, and respectability. This then accounts for the comedy in the play, as the male and female role structure would seem humorous to the …show more content…
Lady Bracknell strongly believes the middle and lower classes should never be taught to think for themselves or question the aristocratic classes. This in itself, would end up breeding anarchy and the possibility that the upper class could lose their privileged position. Wilde has created, with Lady Bracknell, a memorable apparatus of his satiric wit, questioning all he sees in the Victorian