Jack. Oh, Gwendolen is as right as a trivet. As far as she is
concerned, we are engaged. Her mother is perfectly unbearable.
Never met such a Gorgon . . . I don't really know what a Gorgon is
like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case,
she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair . . .
I beg your pardon, Algy, I suppose I shouldn't talk about your own
aunt in that way before you.

Algernon. My dear boy, I love hearing my relations abused. It is
the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are
simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest
knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to
die.

Jack. Oh, that is nonsense!

Algernon. It isn't!

Jack. Well, I won't argue about the matter. You always want to
argue about things.

Algernon. That is exactly what things were originally made for.

Jack. Upon my word, if I thought that, I'd shoot myself . . . [A
pause.] You don't think there is any chance of Gwendolen becoming
like her mother in about a hundred and fifty years, do you, Algy?

Algernon. All women become like their mothers. That is their
tragedy. No man does. That's his.