Marriage

The entire play can be seen as a social conversation about the benefits versus the drawbacks of marriage. Half of the characters think the idea of marriage is bad, including several characters who are or were married at one point. Marriage was important in the Victorian era. It was not only a social institution but an economical one. For a woman it was essentially the only means available for a stable life. Work was considered, especially for the upper classes, highly undesirable. The Importance of Being Earnest contrasts the social importance of getting married with the idea of romance, which constantly battles the practical considerations of those like Bracknell. who refuses to entertain the idea of allowing her only daughter to marry a man who does not know his actual family. Bracknell herself seems to agree with Algernon that marriage is a form of social confinement...