Top 10 Lady Bracknell Quotes
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of Oscar Wilde’s wittiest plays, and Lady Augusta Bracknell may just be one of Wilde’s, and indeed modern literature’s, most preposterously funny creations. Her ignorant and often absurd comments are a spiky satire of Victorian aristocracy, making her the most quotable of the play’s characters.
From Edith Evans’ notorious delivery in the 1952 movie, to Judi Dench’s terrifying dominance in the 2002 film adaptation (also starring Colin Firth and Reece Witherspoon), and David Suchet’s celebrated performance in the 2015 West End production, plenty of legendary actors have tackled the role.
In celebration of Stephen Fry taking on the mantle (or should we say hat?) of Lady Bracknell in the West End transfer of Max Webster’s “sublimely mischievous” (Time Out) production, we’ve gathered our favourite Lady Bracknell quotes from The Importance of Being Earnest. Many of Lady Bracknell’s iconic quotes come from the interview scene, where Jack – seeking Lady Bracknell’s approval to marry her daughter – confesses that he is an orphan who was found in a handbag as a baby, but there are many beautifully crafted one-liners dotted throughout the play. Take a look at our picks below!
1. A handbag?
2. Indeed, no woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.
3. You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter – a girl brought up with the utmost care – to marry into a cloakroom, and form an alliance with a parcel?
4. To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it has handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution – and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to.
5. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately, in England at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
6. When you do become engaged to someone, I, or your father, should his health permit him, 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.
7. To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
8. 35 is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained 35 for years.
9. To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.
10. Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.
Don’t Miss the 2025 London Show
Check out our guide to Stephen Fry on Stage, and be sure to book tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest starring Stephen Fry, Olly Alexander, Shobna Gulati and Hugh Dennis, playing at the Noël Coward Theatre this autumn!
What’s your favourite Lady Bracknell quote?
Did we miss out your favourite quote? Let us know in the comments which line you think is the most iconic!
Comments