Lady Windermeres Fan Commentary

First staged by George Alexander at the St. James theatre.

A striking feature of Society Drama is the theme of the social acceptability or
otherwise of those characters who do not conform to societys mores.
Principal themes in Lady Windermeres Fan is that there is no real disjunction
between morals and manners, between what Londons elite did and what it said it
did.
At the plays centre is an exploration of the possible anatagonism between what is
claimed for etiquette as the ethical and social code of London Society and what
observing it could actually entail.
Wilde saw the behaviour of Londons elite as a matter of power and therefore of
politics rather than of morality.
A striking feature was its faithful reflection and endorsement of social class.
The theatre at the time offered Londons society a largely favourable reflection of
itself and of its values
The plays posed familiar moral problems, particularly problems of sexual morality
and resolved them in ways which confirmed the ethics of their audience.
The plots all fall into these categories: they concern young mens responsibilities for
class and country; or the effort of parvenus or declasses to penetrate London society
by marriage. Or the familiar figure of a woman with a past a woman like Mrs
Erlynne, whose former sexual conduct qualifies her from polite society and whose
guilty secrets are inevitably revealed during the course of the play.
As Mrs. E knows the social institution of marriage was one of the most effective ways
of moving across social and class barriers and of gaining access to Londons society.
The consequences of wise and unwise marriages are a constant theme in Society
Drama, and the way in which Society policed itself is a recurrent motif.
There is an idea of the naturalness of a specific sexual ethic is a question which
Wilde raises in LWF.
There is ironic distance between morality of the play as whole and the specific moral
decisions of individual characters.
Wilde saw the behaviour of Londons elite as a matter of power, and therefore of
politics, rather than of morality.
Lady Windermeres desertion of her husband, child and home would still have been
considered more damaging than her husbands supposed philandering.
Another stock theme would be adultery and the breakdown of marriage.
In the plays early drafts there is a strong implication that London Societys code of
sexual ethics was founded on hypocrisy, as well as an implication that purity is itself
only a form of self-deceit.
Once Mrs. Es has been revealed to the audience as Lady Windermeres mother, the
dramatic impetus of the play changes , in the sense that the radical emphasis on
hypocrisy in society which characterized the first two acts of the play is replaced by

the less challenging concentration on the tensions of a mother/daughter

relationship.
Mrs E shows us that the appearance of morality and purity must be maintained at all
costs, by deceit if necessary, and that deceit itself is justified by the hypocrisy of the
society in which she lives.

As Mrs. E takes on the role of a mother, the scene takes on a character more usual in
Victorian Melodrama.

The play sets the selflessness of parental love against the selfish and destructive
nature of sexual love.

Wildes dandies are only free in the play to talk about breaking moral codes.
Darlington can utter or hint immoral sentiments but he is forbidden to act immorally,
for as soon as he does that he breaks societys moral code, he abandons the pose of
dandy and to all intents and purposes, ceases to have any significant critical function
for the rest of the play

Wildes dandies ruthlessly exploits feature of behaviour present to a lesser extent in

all the other characters of the play.

Wildes characters are given the opportunity of second chances= satirical

The play allowed Wilde to expose Society for what it really was; but he was not
allowed to disturb it.

All social intercourse in Lady Windermeres Fan seems to work by the convention
that an individual character modifies his or her speech in accordance with the
expectations of his or her discusser.

Duchess of Berwick maintains that her nieces do not talk scandal, but merely remark
on what they see to everyone so the Duchess of Berwick employs a variety of
verbal masquerades to ensnare Hopper.

There are only two characters in the play who make consistent attempts at
truthfulness: Lady Windermere, who is finally reduced to a form of lying and Lord
Augustus

All potential contradictions in Societys values are reconciled by the plays happy
ending.

It is very partial justice which prevails in the last scene. Lady Windermeres honour is
preserved, while Mrs Erlynne remains condemned for exactly the same faults.

It has an ambiguous yet none the less comic ending which is important because it
reminds us of the conventions of the late nineteenth century play.

Wilde could mock the values of the audience who supported them, but that mockery
had limits.

A very fine line between what is portrayed to society about being a good woman
and a bad woman

The smooth operation of London Society, with its series of regulates and accepted
excuses, is seen to depend upon lies.