https://akaboredman.dev/blog/oscar-wilde/ Recent content in Oscar Wilde on Bored Into a Trance Hugo en-US BY-NC-SA 4.0 Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:50:00 -0300 https://akaboredman.dev/lady-bracknell-and-the-comedy-of-self-contradiction/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:50:00 -0300 https://akaboredman.dev/lady-bracknell-and-the-comedy-of-self-contradiction/ <p>Wilde&rsquo;s humor works in a quiet way. He does not make his characters obviously ridiculous. Instead, he lets them speak seriously, and trusts the reader to notice when what they are saying does not quite add up.</p> <p>The passage from Act II is a good example of this. Lady Bracknell says, in the space of a few sentences, that one should never speak badly of Society, that Algernon has nothing but debts, that she disapproves of marriages driven by money, and that she herself married without any fortune but never let that stop her. Then she gives her consent.</p>