"Nothing will induce to part with Bunbury,and if you ever get married, which seems to me extremely problematic, you will be very glad to know Bunbury".(1,p7) This way you will have an excuse to get away from your wife.
Marriage is such a strain on a person that it even makes them appear old and unhealthy. When Lady Harbury's husband passes away Lady Bracknell and Algernon make sarcastic comments on her appearance. "I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger.(1,p8) As if to say that losing her husband was a good thing and is an improvement on her life. "I hear her hair has turned quite gold from grief." (1,p8) Even when together, a couples" lives are not the same in the eyes of others "No married man is ever attractive except to his wife"(1,p26). Miss Prism remarks to Dr.Chasuble and he replies "And often,Ive been told, not even to her". (1,p26).
There are many jokes towards the subject of proposal and why people would want to get married. How men don"t take marriage seriously and will propose to any women as Gwendolen explains to Jack "Yes, but men often propose for practice. I know my brother Gerald does. All my girlfriends tell me so." (1,p11) Implying that men don"t understand the true meaning of getting married. And if there is a man who really feels as if he wants to marry he is either very wise or very dumb like Lady Bracknell explains "I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing." (1,p12) A man either knows exactly what he is getting into when he is getting married or he is an ignorant and stupid man who knows nothing.
If and when a couple decides to get married even the engagement must have problems to prove it is real as Cecily explains to Algernon "It would hardly have been a serious engagement if it hadn"t been broken off at least once."( 1,p33) Engagements are not a serious thing the first time it is proposed.