Lady Bracknell. Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to some one, 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 . . . Wilde uses Lady Bracknell’s words to poke fun at marriage by having her
