Lady Windermere's Fan synopsis

LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

A synopsis of the play by Oscar Wilde

Two tea-time callers considerably upset Lady Windermere as she is happily preparing for her coming-of-age party that evening and admiring an unusual fan, the gift of her husband.

The first caller, the dashing Lord Darlington, intimates, hypothetically, that she should console herself with him because her husband is untrue to her; the second, the gossipy Duchess of Berwick, tells her bluntly that all London knows that Windermere is in the toils of a mysterious and fascinating Mrs. Erlynne.

Lord Darlington she dismisses with the observation that life is a sacrament; its ideal is love and its purification is sacrifice; and, she continues, because a husband is vile, should the wife be vile also? But the charge of the Duchess is supported when Lady Windermere finds, in a secret account book of her husband's, a record of large sums given to Mrs. Erlynne.

Later, Windermere, while not wholly explaining Mrs. Erlynne, tells his wife that he loves only her and their child, but he insists that she invite Mrs. Erlynne to her party. Mrs. Erlynne, he pleads, has atoned for a wrong of twenty years ago and seeks only to restore her place in society by being received by the scrupulously respectable Lady Windermere. Windermere, his appeal, refused, himself finally sends the invitation--in spite of his wife's threat to strike Mrs. Erlynne across the face with her fan.

Lady Windermere's courage fails when Mrs. Erlynne, "looking like an edition de luxe of a wicked French novel, meant specially for the English market," arrives and dominates the party. Lady Windermere takes refuge on the terrace with Darlington, who again pleads with her to leave Windermere and come to him. Rejected, he warns her that he is leaving England the following day.

Meanwhile, in the drawing-room, Mrs. Erlynne is informing Windermere that she is prepared to accept, next day, a proposal of marriage from Lord Augustus Lorton, an amiable but wealthy bore, one of the guests at the party. She demands of Windermere a considerable annual settlement as an additional attraction to Lorton. Mrs. Erlynne and Windermere leave for the terrace to discuss the matter further.

Lady Windermere, seeing them go out together, in a jealous rage writes a note to Windermere, then leaves for the apartment of Lord Darlington, resolved to accept his proposal. "It is he who has broken the bond of marriage," she decides. "I only break its *******."

Mrs. Erlynne, returning alone to take leave of her hostess, is told by a servant that Lady Windermere has gone, leaving a letter. Mrs. Erlynne reads the letter and sinks into a chair, exclaiming: "Oh, how terrible! The same words that twenty years…