“It is a curious thing, Duchess, in the game of marriage – a game, moreover, which has gone out of fashion – the wives hold all the honors and lose invariably the honors. strange thing.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'? Get an Original EssayOscar Wilde's play 'Lady Windermere's Fan' presents a window into the mind and manners of Victorian class society Superior of London. It satirizes the hypocrisy that underlies the everyday behavior of so-called aristocrats and humorously mocks their superficial morality and beliefs, particularly those relating to marriage. In Victorian society, women were treated as the "weaker vessel" for men to care for and care for, first her father, then her husband. However, Wilde shows us how different characters have different views on marriage. Men treat it like a game and talk about it in a trivial way. For example, in the above dialogue from Lord Darlington in Act One, Darlington calls marriage a game, and later refers to "modern husband" as the "strange trick" that wives lose while holding " all honors.” His comment is reflected in Cecil Graham's dialogue in the next act: "By the way, Tuppy, who is it?" Have you been married twice and divorced once, or divorced twice and married once? I'm saying you've been divorced twice and married once. It seems so much more likely.” The fact that neither Lord Augustus nor Tuppy remembers the facts shows how inconsequential he regards marriage and divorce. Wilde gives us insight into all aspects of marriage. The first stage is the courtship period or the period of young love. Lady Agatha Carlisle has reached marriageable age and her mother, the Duchess of Berwick, is very determined to make her a good marriage. She wants to trap Mr Hopper, the son of a wealthy Australian entrepreneur, and someone she describes as someone "people are paying so much attention to at the moment". This shows that for the Duchess of Berwick, Mr. Hopper's social fame and status are just as important, if not more, than his financial status. She said, “I think he is attracted by my dear Agatha’s intelligent speech.” Readers know, however, that Agatha is a shy, docile, obedient, soft-spoken girl who says nothing other than "Yes, Mom." In Act II, the Duchess attempts to pass Agatha off as a lucrative wife by exaggerating her abilities and trying to make her appear intelligent: "Be careful, take good care of my little chatterbox, Mr. Hopper" and "Agatha the found on the map. She manipulates the circumstances to allow the young man to propose: “Did you keep these five dances for him, Agatha? and “The Last Two Dances You Could Spend on the Patio with Mr. Hopper.” At the end of the same act, she completes her mission and now begins plotting to stop the couple from moving to Australia, "I think on the whole that Grosvenor Square would be a healthier place to reside. There are many vulgar people who live in Grosvenor Square, but in any case, there are no horrible kangaroos crawling", whereas previously she had pretended to be fascinated by the place: "It must be so pretty with all those dear little kangaroos flying around.” She talks about her success to Lady Windermere: “Love – well, not love at first sight, but love at the end of the season, which is so much more satisfying.” of marriage is the marriage of the early years, such as that of Margaret Windermere and Arthur Windermere They are married.for two years, have had an heir and have no secrets from each other. Their love is so strong and powerful that Lady Windermere finds it hard to believe that her husband could ever be unfaithful to her, when the Duchess of Berwick informs her as a "sympathizer" of her husband's alleged affair with the famous Mrs. Erlynne. , “Duchess, Duchess, it’s impossible! We have only been married two years. Our child is only six months old.” Their marriage is unusual at a time when most men and women married for better economic or social prospects than for true love. However, by the end of the play, their marriage has changed. They now keep secrets from each other in order to stabilize their relationship. An example of a marriage in recent years is that of the Duchess of Berwick. She has no illusions in life and knows full well that her husband is a Don Juan: “Before the end of a year, he was chasing all kinds of petticoats, all colors, all shapes, all materials”. She doesn't take his aberrations seriously because he thinks it's normal for men. She answers Lady Windermere's question as to whether all men are evil: "Oh, all of them, my dear, all of them, without any exception." Thus, readers learn that in Victorian society, a man had a legal wife who managed his household and fathered legal heirs, as well as a so-called friend. But this is not unexpected, and the husband always returns to his wife, “a little damaged, of course”. The wives, in turn, nag and harass them from time to time, "just to remind them that we have a perfectly legal right to do this." The final type of marriage is that of a bonded marriage, like that of Mrs. Erlynne. Ms. Erlynne is an infamous woman with not a past, but "at least a dozen, and they're all in good shape." She is attractive and openly flirts with all men in order to show them her superiority. Very little is said about Mrs. Erlynne's past. The audience only knows that Mrs. Erlynne is a divorced woman who eloped twenty years ago with her lover, leaving her little daughter and her husband. We don't know how she survived all these years, but it is likely that she used men like Lord Augustus to provide her with money. But Wilde bows to Victorian morality and prudery and keeps this aspect of his life veiled. Lord Windermere calls Ms Erlynne "a divorced woman, acting under a false name, a bad woman attacking life". In reality, Mrs. Erlynne is an independent and strong-willed woman who, finding herself trapped in the shell of a loveless marriage, rebelled like any man: she had an affair. The only difference was that she was not a man and her action only brought her ignominy and discredit in British society. Wilde here criticizes the rigid laws of Victorian morality which allowed men to have affairs, but not women. A fact revealed by the Duchess of Berwick in the first act: “Oh, men don't matter. With women, it’s different.” We can see that while Lady Windermere objects to Mrs. Erlynne's attendance at her ball and even though she declares, "I will have no one in my house about whom there is any scandal," she happily invites the proclaimed dandy Lord Darlington and the Divorced Man. Lord Augustus. Thus, despite her many ideals, Lady Windermere also does not hesitate to differentiate between men and women. At the end of the play, Mrs. Erlynne decides to remarry in order to regain her position in society. However, she plans to marry Lord Augustus, a submissive man whom she can dominate and thus control her marriage, as she wishes. She said: "I will make him a.