Marriage as a Window into Victorian Morality: A Study of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan

Abstract

This study on Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan unfolds the notion of morality in Victorian people. In exploring morality the playwright examines the system of marriage and other social pretentions of the then society. In the play most of the characters are engaged in extramarital affairs but at the same time they regard themselves as the most virtuous generations of the history. This suggests the ironic lives of Victorian people and their internal corruptions. Outwardly, marriage is a window to see the social life so it is hard to break, at the same time most of the characters lack faithfulness in marital relation. Besides mercenary hunting and social prestige, males marry for his physical needs and female for social security. Exploring these tendencies of the characters as the representative traits, the playwright makes the Victorian society visible to the world.