Lady Windermere's Fan
Public-domain ebook
Lady Windermere's Fan
by Oscar Wilde
Language: en3,018 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Plays/Films/Dramas·British Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #790.
About this book
The piece is a stage drama that opens with Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington engaged in a sharp, witty exchange about sincerity, vanity and the moral expectations of their social circle. Their conversation, set against a backdrop of tea service and the arrival of servants, quickly brings the central concerns of marriage, familial duty and aristocratic reputation to the fore. The Duchess of Berwick soon enters, bringing gossip about a scandal‑ridden woman named Mrs. Erlynne and hinting at the strain on Windermere’s young marriage. Through rapid dialogue the play establishes a world where propriety, the fear of public judgment and the tension between private desire and public decorum dominate the characters’ lives.
Wilde’s language is sparkling, epigrammatic and unmistakably Victorian, with a rhythm that mimics the polite yet biting banter of London’s upper class. Readers who relish clever repartee, social satire and the psychological nuances of marriage and mother‑daughter relationships will find this early‑stage work engaging, while those preferring straightforward narratives may prefer his later, more polished plays.
Characters in Lady Windermere's Fan
- Lady WindermereYoung aristocratic woman in a white silk gown, delicate features, hair in an elegant updo, Victorian ballroom setting
- Mrs. ErlynneMature, refined lady wearing a sleek black dress, dark hair swept back, poised expression, Victorian high society ambience
- Duchess of BerwickElderly noblewoman with powdered wig, ornate brocade gown, jeweled necklace, dignified posture, Victorian drawing‑room backdrop
The opening · free to read
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Smiling_.] Ah, nowadays we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Shaking her head_.] No, I am talking very seriously. You mustn’t laugh, I am quite serious. I don’t like compliments, and I don’t see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn’t mean.
LORD DARLINGTON. Ah, but I did mean them. [_Takes tea which she offers him_.]
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Gravely_.] I hope not. I should be sorry to have to quarrel with you, Lord Darlington. I like you very much, you know that. But I shouldn’t like you at all if I thought you were what most other men are. Believe me, you are better than most other men, and I sometimes think you pretend to be worse.
LORD DARLINGTON. We all have our little vanities, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you make that your special one? [_Still seated at table L._]
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Still seated L.C._] Oh, nowadays so many conceited people go about Society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad. Besides, there is this to be said. If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t you want the world to take you seriously then, Lord Darlington?
LORD DARLINGTON. No, not the world. Who are the people the world takes seriously? All the dull people one can think of, from the Bishops down to the bores. I should like you to take me very seriously, Lady Windermere, you more than any one else in life.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why—why me?
LORD DARLINGTON. [_After a slight hesitation_.] Because I think we might be great friends. Let us be great friends. You may want a friend some day.
LADY WINDERMERE. Why do you say that?
LORD DARLINGTON. Oh!—we all want friends at times.
LADY WINDERMERE. I think we’re very good friends already, Lord Darlington. We can always remain so as long as you don’t—
LORD DARLINGTON. Don’t what?
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t spoil it by saying extravagant silly things to me. You think I am a Puritan, I suppose? Well, I have something of the Puritan in me. I was brought up like that. I am glad of it. My mother died when I was a mere child. I lived always with Lady Julia, my father’s elder sister, you know. She was stern to me, but she taught me what the world is forgetting, the difference that there is between what is right and what is wrong. She allowed of no compromise. I allow of none.
LORD DARLINGTON. My dear Lady Windermere!
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Leaning back on the sofa_.] You look on me as being behind the age.—Well, I am! I should be sorry to be on the same level as an age like this.
LORD DARLINGTON. You think the age very bad?
LADY WINDERMERE. Yes. Nowadays people seem to look on life as a speculation. It is not a speculation. It is a sacrament. Its ideal is Love. Its purification is sacrifice.
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Smiling_.] Oh, anything is better than being sacrificed!
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Leaning forward_.] Don’t say that.
LORD DARLINGTON. I do say it. I feel it—I know it.
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Still seated_.] Do you think then—of course I am only putting an imaginary instance—do you think that in the case of a young married couple, say about two years married, if the husband suddenly becomes the intimate friend of a woman of—well, more than doubtful character—is always calling upon her, lunching with her, and probably paying her bills—do you think that the wife should not console herself?
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Frowning_.] Console herself?
LORD DARLINGTON. Yes, I think she should—I think she has the right.
LADY WINDERMERE. Because the husband is vile—should the wife be vile also?
LORD DARLINGTON. Vileness is a terrible word, Lady Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE. It is a terrible thing, Lord Darlington.
LORD DARLINGTON. Do you know I am afraid that good people do a great deal of harm in this world. Certainly the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of such extraordinary importance. It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. I take the side of the charming, and you, Lady Windermere, can’t help belonging to them.
LADY WINDERMERE. Now, Lord Darlington. [_Rising and crossing R._, front of him.] Don’t stir, I am merely going to finish my flowers. [_Goes to table R.C._]
LORD DARLINGTON. [_Rising and moving chair_.] And I must say I think you are very hard on modern life, Lady Windermere. Of course there is much against it, I admit. Most women, for instance, nowadays, are rather mercenary.
LADY WINDERMERE. Don’t talk about such people.
LORD DARLINGTON. Well then, setting aside mercenary people, who, of course, are dreadful, do you think seriously that women who have committed what the world calls a fault should never be forgiven?
LADY WINDERMERE. [_Standing at table_.] I think they should never be forgiven.
LORD DARLINGTON. And men? Do you think that there should be the same laws for men as there are for women?
LADY WINDERMERE. Certainly!
LORD DARLINGTON. I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.
LADY WINDERMERE. If we had ‘these hard and fast rules,’ we should find life much more simple.
LORD DARLINGTON. You allow of no exceptions?
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