Lady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four-act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first performed on Saturday, February 20, 1892, at the St. James's Theatre in London.
The story concerns Lady Windermere, who suspects that her husband is having an affair with another woman. She confronts him with it but although he denies it, he invites the other woman, Mrs. Erlynne, to his wife's birthday ball. Angered by her husband's supposed unfaithfulness, Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband for another lover. After discovering what has transpired, Mrs. Erlynne follows Lady Windermere and attempts to persuade her to return to her husband and in the course of this, Mrs. Erlynne is discovered in a compromising position. It is then revealed Mrs. Erlynne is Lady Windermere's mother, who abandoned her family twenty years before the time the play is set. Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices herself and her reputation to save her daughter's marriage.
The most notable symbol in the play, Lady Windermere's fan, represents the idealistic view of how women were to behave during the time the play is set. Whenever I hear this play mentioned in idle conversation, or when I sit down to read it again, I wonder what the fan would be in our modern times. A few decades ago, I would have said it was the apron, but now, in the 2000s, I don't really think there is one symbol to embody society's view of how women should behave and that is a symbol in itself, a symbol blatantly stating just how far women have come to remove themselves from prescribed behaviors.
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