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The Importance of Being a Lady : Breaking Down Femininity as A Gender Norm
Brittany Harty
Weak, passive, nurturing, emotional, familial, and dependent. These are words typically
used in describing women of the patriarchal nineteenth century. However, Oscar Wilde has
powerful, active, arrogant, ruthless, and independent Lady Bracknell of The Importance of Being
Earnest breaking down the sturdy walls of the feminine gender role. Wilde’s doing this and
empowering Lady Bracknell demonstrates his disapproval of and sympathies for the way
women were expected to act and were treated in the time period. Wilde, having been editor for
The Woman’s World, “publicized many woman writers and publicly supported the causes of
female education”(Kileen). The woman’s struggle sympathizer, Wilde, has Lady Bracknell
break down the gender norm of femininity. He does this by having her be in the public sphere,
taking care of the arrangement of her daughters’ marriage, sheltering and belittling her sickly
domestic husband, and ultimately by instilling in her blatant androcentric ways.
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Although men of the nineteenth century were supposed to be powerful, active, brave, and
independent, Wilde has Lady Bracknell playing those roles in sheltering and providing for her
sickly husband as if he were just some disposable subordinate. In researching the life of
nineteenth century women I came across sad but not shocking findings on the British
Broadcasting Corporation site:
A woman's place was in the home, as domesticity and motherhood were
considered by society at large to be a sufficient emotional fulfillment for
females[...]It was through their duties within the home that women were offered a
moral duty, towards their families, especially their husbands, and towards society
as a whole. (Abram)
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This seems to suggest that women were expected to be strictly sympathetic towards needs of her
family and to act as nurturers in their domestic sphere and that is all. However, Wilde has Lady
Bracknell as her strong, empowered self breaking down the stereotypes and gender norms. Lady
Bracknell says, “Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the
primary duty of life. I am always telling that to your poor uncle”(Wilde 14). This quote really
contrasts Lady Bracknell against the standard nineteenth century woman found in above
research. Instead of caring for her husband she says, “illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be
encouraged in others”. Of course her husband did not choose to be ill and no one encourages
illness but Lady Bracknell has to say this in the way she does to show that she doesn’t exactly
care that her husband is ill. In the next line she says, “Health is the primary duty of life. I am
always telling this to your poor uncle”; this is actually quite funny seeing as her husband’s only
duty or role in the entire play is to be ill. She does not feel that stereotypical innate womanly
sympathy for a man, her husband, in his illness. Wilde has her go out and boldly plays her role as
well as her husband’s, without a trace of feeling sympathy for his sickly domestic person.
In an additional example of Lady Bracknell not catering to or feeling sympathetic to her
husband in his illness, the Lady dines at head of her table, where her husband should, while her
husband away in his bedroom. Lady Bracknell likes for her husband to not dine with her. We see
this when Algernon begins to refuse coming to dine with his aunt, Lady Bracknell, and she tells
him, “It would put my table completely out. Your uncle would have to dine upstairs”(Wilde 12).
This suggests that Lady Bracknell usually sits head at her table and is accompanied by a guest or
a some, but not her sickly, domesticated husband. Wilde has Lady Bracknell in charge and as the
powerful matriarch of her family, not as just a submissive housewife.
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Wilde’s play has Lady Bracknell as a very public, head-of -the-family-figure dealing with
practical matters and duties, such as arranging her daughter’s marriage. In this time period, a
woman’s father would have arranged certain aspects of the marriage due to financial issues. A
wife would not have dealt with such matters on her own but since Wilde toyed with gender
norms and roles in The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell is preforming these
normally, typically male, or fatherly tasks. A mother or any woman would not have done this on
her own. Women were supposed to be kept in a private sphere, not seeking out the public and
interrogating potential suitors for their daughter (Zigenfuss). When Lady Bracknell learns of her
daughter Gwendolen’s attempt to plan her own marriage she immediately and authoritatively
stops it saying:
Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to
some one, I [...] will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a
young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a
matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself . . . And now I have a few
questions to put to you, Mr. Worthing. (Wilde 15)
Lady Bracknell starts off this spiel with a very authoritative phrase and tone, “Pardon me, you
are not engaged to anyone”. No woman of this time period would be speaking out in public like
this, Wilde has Lady Bracknell clearly defying the gender norms here. She goes on to tell her
daughter that she will be informed of the fact should she be engaged and more assertively that it
will be, “a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be”. Lady Bracknell is telling her
daughter basically that she will absolutely not arrange her own marriage. This is Wilde satirizing
the misfortune it was to be a young woman in the patriarchal nineteenth century. Lord Bracknell
would have been this oppressive father figure, however, Wilde has Lady Bracknell so bold and
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in the public sphere, where in the nineteenth century, men belonged and women did not. This
undermining of stereotypical gender roles speaks to Wilde’s sympathy for women and their
inequalities.
Wilde was noted a man who held equal standards for men and women and actively
participated in helping women better their lives. Scholar, Michele Mendelssohn discusses
Wilde’s life and work for women:
Wilde’s valuation of women was, for his time, a positive one, particularly when
measured in terms of his support for “the ‘feminine’ in all its guises[...] This
attitude is exemplified in his approach to women’s publishing. One of Wilde’s
first decisions as editor of the Ladies’ World was to modify the name to the
Woman’s World. The former title was “too feminine, and not sufficiently
womanly,” he said. The magazine needed to become more serious and
responsible, to reflect “a high standpoint, and deal not merely with what
women wear, but with what they think, and what they feel. (Mendelssohn)
This information can help to show Wilde’s support of woman and their sympathies, connecting
back to his work and activism at The Woman’s World. He wanted to help shift and shape their
magazine from a trivial read about just clothes and beauty to a more serious and respectable
magazine that expressed a woman’s whole self, not just her feminine aspects and ways.
Additionally, in his play, Wilde has Lady Bracknell show not a trace of the stereotypical
emotional and sympathetic ways of a women in regards to her daughters possible suitor, Jack’s
tragic orphan story. Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack with her premeditated questions as her
daughter would like to marry him, thinking she will be able to determine a mans worth by his
answers. Upon interrogating him, the subject of his parents come up. Lady Bracknell learns that
Jack had been abandoned at birth and left in a handbag somewhere. She says to poor Jack,
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“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like
carelessness” (Wilde 18). By saying, “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a
misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” Lady Bracknell is showing her lack of emotion
and sympathy. Of course Jack did not choose to lose his parents, he was abandoned at birth.
Lady Bracknell, a mother, has no sympathy for an orphan child, which is out of character for any
caring mother. A woman was stereotypically expected, in the norms of the nineteenth century, to
be emotional and sympathetic. However, in learning of Jack’s tragic abandonment, Wilde has
Lady Bracknell show neither of such behaviors, going as far as to blame Jack for the issue.
Throughout the play, Wilde has Lady Bracknell avoiding stereotypically feminine feelings and
behaviors to show that women did not need to be subordinate and submissive to men.
Oscar Wilde truly makes a statement against the nineteenth century gender roles,
specifically femininity through the powerful, active, arrogant, ruthless and independent role of
Lady Bracknell. She is everything that a woman of the times should not be. She shelters Lord
Bracknell, her extremely domestic and sick husband, meanwhile taking care of public affairs and
duties that he should have taken care of, as the man of the family, such as arranging her
daughter’s marriage. In addition to her taking on the responsibilities her husband should have
had, Lady Bracknell’s personality and attitudes are far from domestic, nurturing, emotional and
familial; which were the average housewife’s ways of life. Wilde has Lady Bracknell’s character
the way she is to combat and criticize the conventional ways of the nineteenth century and their
unfair, double standard, gender roles as he was a great sympathizer for women’s causes.
Towards the end of the play, Wilde really seems to be talking directly to us through his
characters, just blatantly showing his feminist philosophy. He has Jack inquire, “Why should
there be one law for men, and another for women?”(Wilde 57). Lady Bracknell righteously
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shows that there should not be one law for men, and another for women because she knocks
down the thick and sturdy walls of the feminine gender roll and thrives in her power, activity,
arrogance, ruthlessness and independence.
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Work Cited
Kileen, Jarlath. "Oscar Wilde and Feminism." The Anachronist 10 (2004): n. pag. Web. 3 Dec.
2012
Mendelssohn, Michele. "Notes on Oscar Wilde's Transatlantic Gender Politics." Journal of
American Studies 46.1 (2002): 155-69. JSTOR. Web. 3 Dec. 2012
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Print.
Ziegenfuss, Jen. Marriage in the Victorian Era. Marriage in the Victorian Era. N.p., n.d. Web.
4 Dec. 2012.