Lady Windermere's Fan Notes

Points | | | The use of the Dandy | As a platform for a critique on societal conventions and to inject Wilde’s commentary on Victorian society.The relationship between the Dandy and the Puritan is a constant source of conflict | “Its absurd to divide people into good and bad”-17“If you pretend to be good…”-15 In act three, the men of Lady Windermere’s Fan have gathered at Lord Darlington’s home and talk about Mrs Erlynne and women in general. Cecil Graham, a true dandy, remarks that he prefers wicked women to good women, since good women bore him. He also has a strong opinion on morality: “A man who moralises is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralises is invariably plain” (Wilde 357). He blames women for men’s bad behaviour and with his remarks regarding the transformation of men, he challenges the hypocrisy of society. He believes women prefer men who exhibit good behaviour. If men are bad, women will want to reform them. However, if men are good from the start they are not appealing: “if we are good, when they meet us, they don’t love us at all” (358). In addition, as soon as a man is reformed and shows good behaviour, a woman will leave him: “they like to find us quite irretrievably bad, and to leave us quite unattractively good” (358). This clearly shows the hypocrisy Wilde ascribes to society. Graham’s comments indicate that women secretly preferred to be with bad, immoral men. However, society disapproved of immorality, which made it hard for men to show any weaknesses in their characters.Graham also remarks- “a carefully thought out button hole is much more effective”. This shows that society is only concerned with appearances, which governs norms. In essence, fashion rules over honesty and morality. | Marriage | The monetary value of marriage, where it is about money, not love | Well, theres nothing in the world like ….knows about- 54“good heavens, how marriage ruins a man”-53“a game” that is “going out of fashion”- 19“Ah! we know your