theme of marriage - Lady Windermere's fan

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The theme of marriage in Lady Windermere's Fan'
Marriage is the main theme of the play; the whole four acts revolve around people's marriages and their ideals of marriage. There are four different stages of the marriage process explored; the courting, early love in marriage, marriage in later years, and an escape from a restrictive marriage.

The courting:
Lady Agatha is currently of the marrying age, thus is being shown off and dominated by her mother particularly during this season, You dear simple little thing! (Scratches out two names)' The Duchess is desperately trying to marry her daughter off to Mr Hopper, and one of her ploys to ensnare Mr Hopper is to portray that she and Agatha express an interest in his home-land, Mr Hopper, dear Agatha and I are so interested in Australia'. The Duchess' scheming nature is shown when Mr Hopper asks to dance with Agatha and she replies Well I hope she has a dance left. Have you a dance left, Agatha?' The reader knows that the Duchess has already orchestrated that Agatha has kept five dances free for Mr Hopper. The Duchess appears too be trying to present a particular picture of Agatha to Mr Hopper, maybe to make her a more appealing perspective wife, Mind you take care of my little chatter-box, Mr Hopper'. The reader knows that Agatha in reality appears to say little else but Yes, Mamma'. She also portrays Agatha as being clever and educated, Agatha has found it on the map'. By the end of the evening Mr Hopper has proposed to Agatha and been accepted, thus ending the Duchess' mission which was to manipulate circumstances in order to bring Mr Hopper and Agatha together so he could propose, The last two dances you might pass on the terrace with Mr Hopper'. She remarks of her success to Lady Windermere, not love at first sight, but love at the end of the season, which is so much more satisfactory'. Her next project is to manipulate Mr Hopper and change his mind about taking Agatha back to Australia, I think on the whole that Grosvenor Square would be a more healthy place to reside in'. She is desperate to keep Agatha close to her. Early love which matures throughout the play:
Lady Windermere has been married for two years. At the beginning of the play hers is a perfect marriage, no infidelity, they are in love, they have produced an heir, and they have no secrets from each other (this is actually an unusual marriage in this era), Windermere and I married for love'. By the end of the play the damage has been done and the marriage has altered; they are still in love, it's been proved that there's been…

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