“It is a curious thing, Duchess, about the game of marriage – a game, by the way, which is going out of fashion – the wives keep all the honours, and invariably lose the strange trick." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Oscar Wilde's play "Lady Windermere's Fan" presents a window into the minds and customs of London's Victorian high society. It satirizes the hypocrisy that underlies the everyday behavior of so-called aristocrats and wittily pokes fun at their morals and superficial beliefs, especially those related to marriage. In Victorian society, women were treated as the "weakest vessel" who had to be cared for and provided for by men, first by her father and then by her husband. However, Wilde shows us how different characters have different views regarding marriage. Men treat it like a game and talk about it trivially. For example, in the above dialogue of Lord Darlington in Act I, Darlington calls marriage a game, and later refers to the "modern husband" as the "strange trick" that wives lose although they hold "all the honors." His comment is mirrored by Cecil Graham's dialogue in the next act: “By the way, Tuppy, which is it? Have you been twice married and once divorced, or twice divorced and once married? I say you've been divorced twice and married once. It seems much more likely." The fact that neither Lord Augustus nor Tuppy can remember the facts shows how irrelevant he considers marriage and divorce. Wilde provides us with insight into all aspects of marriage. The first step 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 keen on making a good match for her. She wishes to snare Mr. Hopper, the son of a wealthy Australian entrepreneur, and someone she describes as someone who "people are paying a lot of attention to right now." This shows that for the Duchess of Berwick, Mr. Hopper's social fame and status are just as important as his financial position, if not more. She says: “I think he is attracted by dear Agatha's intelligent chatter.” Readers, however, know that Agatha is a shy, docile, obedient, soft-spoken girl, and says nothing beyond "Yes, Mommy." In Act II, the Duchess tries to pass Agatha off as a profitable wife by exaggerating her abilities and trying to make her seem intelligent, "Be careful, take great care of my little chatterbox, Mr. Hopper" and "Agatha found him on the map”. Manipulates the circumstances to allow the young man to propose: “Did you save those five dances for him, Agatha?” and “The last two dances you could spend on the terrace with Mr. Hopper”. his mission, and now begins to plot to prevent the couple from moving to Australia, "I think on the whole that Grosvenor Square would be a healthier place to reside. There are a lot of vulgar people living in Grosvenor Square, but in any case there are no hideous kangaroos crawling about", although she had previously pretended to be fascinated by the place: "It must be so nice with all those dear little kangaroos flying here and there. ”. He mentions his success to Lady Windermere: "Love – well, not love at first sight, but love at the end of the season, which is much more satisfying." The next stage of marriage is the early marriage, such as that of Margaret Windermere and Arthur Windermere. They have been happily married for two years, they had an heir and nothey hide secrets. Their love is so strong and powerful that Lady Windermere finds it difficult to believe that her husband could ever be unfaithful to her, when the Duchess of Berwick informs her as "a well-to-do" of her husband's alleged affair with the infamous Mrs. Erlynne. , “Duchess, Duchess it's impossible! We have been married for only two years. Our baby is only six months old." Their marriage is unusual in an era when most men and women married for better economic or social prospects than any true love. However, by the end of the show their marriage has changed. Now they keep secrets from each other to stabilize their relationship. An example of a marriage in later years is that of the Duchess of Berwick. She has no illusions in life and knows perfectly well that her husband is a Don Juan: “Before the year is over he runs after all the petticoats, every colour, every shape, every fabric”. He does not take his aberrations seriously because he believes this is normal for men. She answers Lady Windermere's question whether all men are bad: "Oh, all, my dear, all, without any exception." Thus readers learn that in Victorian society a man had a legal wife who managed his household and produced legitimate heirs, and also a so-called female friend. But this is not unexpected, and the husband always returns to his wife, “slightly damaged, of course.” The wives in turn nag and scold them from time to time, “just to remind them that we have a perfectly legal right to do so.” The last type of marriage is that of a slave marriage, like that of Mrs. Erlynne. Mrs. Erlynne is an infamous woman with not one past, but “at least a dozen, and all of whom are fit.” She is seductive and openly flirts with all men to show them her superiority. Very little is said about Mrs. Erlynne's past. The public knows only that Mrs. Erlynne is a divorced woman who eloped with her lover twenty years ago, leaving behind her young daughter and husband. We don't know how she survived all these years, but it's likely that she used men like Lord Augustus to get her money. But Wilde bows to Victorian morality and modesty and keeps this aspect of his life veiled. Lord Windermere calls Mrs Erlynne "a divorced woman, who goes about under an assumed name, a wicked woman who preys on life." In reality, Mrs. Erlynne is an independent and willful woman who, finding herself trapped in the shell of a loveless marriage, rebelled as any man would: she had an affair. The only difference was that she was not a man and her act only earned her ignominy and discredit in British society. Here Wilde criticizes the strict laws of Victorian morality that allow men to have affairs, but not women. A fact that is revealed by the Duchess of Berwick in the first act: “Oh, men don't count. With women it's different." We can see that while Lady Windermere objects to Mrs. Erlynne's presence at her ball and although she states, "I will have no one in my house where there is scandal," she willingly invites the proclaimed dandy Lord Darlington and the divorced man Lord Augustus. Thus, despite her many ideals, Lady Windermere also does not hesitate to distinguish between men and women. At the end of the play, Mrs. Erlynne decides to remarry to regain her position in society. However, she intends to marry Lord Augustus, a submissive man who will be able to dominate and therefore control her marriage, as she wishes. He says, “I will make him an admirable wife, as wives are.” Lady Plymdale highlights society's skepticism towards happy married couples when she says: "Nowadays it is very dangerous for a husband to pay attention to his wife in.