She does not believe that she has a reputation worthy enough of being allowed entry into the upper echelons of Victorian society. Her perception of Cecily, and her prospects for marrying her nephew -- change dramatically, however, when Lady Bracknell ascertains how much money the young woman stands to inherit. The following quotation suitably demonstrates this point.
A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her. Few girls of the present day have any really solid qualities, any of the qualities that last, and improve with time. We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces (Act III).
Once Bracknell finds out how much money Cecily is worth, the latter becomes "attractive." The true irony in this quotation is the fact that Lady Bracknell's sudden change in attitude about Cecily as a prospect for her nephew is demonstrative of the "surface" morality which she claims is worthy of "regret." Yet it is unequivocally Victorian, which is why Lady Bracknell's character exemplifies this attribute.
Finally, it is worth noting that Lady Bracknell herself is not above unscrupulous behavior. In addition to caring...
She wants to keep her daughter from marrying Jack, and when Gwendolyn slips away without her mother's permission, Lady Bracknell bribes one of her domestics in order to find out where Gwendolyn went, which the following quotation proves. "Apprised, sir, of my daughter's sudden flight by her trusty maid, whose confidence I purchased by means of a small coin, I followed her at once by a luggage train" (Act III). In this quotation Lady Bracknell explains to Jack that she bribed Gwendolyn's maid to find out where Gwendolyn fled to. Bribery is not considered moral character, or something befitting of scrupulous people and the values that Victorian
society claims to espouse. Yet such tactics are readily employed not only in conventional Victorian society, but in almost any lofty society in which there are large amounts of money and high stakes. Therefore, in committing this slip of morality, Lady Bracknell is merely embracing a traditional flaw of Victorian society.
Thus it is apparent that Lady Bracknell represents conventional Victorian society in Wilde's
play. She cares about superficial things such as money, family lineage and reputation, as well as
unethical behavior to achieve her objectives while frowning on others who are of a lower ranking in society. What else could be more quintessentially Victorian?
