Lady Windermere's Fan is Oscar Wilde's first successful play and struck London audiences by storm when it was first performed at St James's Theater on 20 February 1892. Seeking to tell the story of an estranged mother and her innocent daughter, it investigates Victorian society's cruel treatment of women who exercised their own will and sought life outside the home with men of their choosing. The men involved often deceived and ultimately abandoned these women, and society for its part treated them with complete contempt. Given this situation, these unfortunate women had no choice but to become prostitutes or join the infamous workhouses. Prostitution carried many health risks and social risks. If these women became pregnant the problem worsened further. Victorian society, especially privileged members of the upper classes, chose to believe, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that all was right with the world and that such women were an aberration in need of the harshest punishment in the world. social and economic terms. It never occurred to them that these women might be victims, often unknowingly, of the social codes and moral norms in force among them and that they really needed to be sympathized and supported so that they could re-enter mainstream society and obtain a second possibility. become useful and productive members. The hostile Victorian social environment and moral apparatus, together with some vested interests, are directly responsible for this sad state of affairs. Prudence, sexual repression, prevalence of puritanical attitudes that privileged the institution of the family and projected marriage as something sacred to be preserved, no matter how much women had to suffer: all this... half of the paper... ..he he mistreats so badly and so openly. She may think that her husband lives with her all the time, but in reality he is just pretending and pretending to scam her. Works quoted Guy, John. Victorian life. London: ticktock Publishing Ltd., 1997. Print.Raby, Peter. “Wilde's Society Comedies”. Oscar Wilde's Cambridge Companion. Ed. Pietro Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. 143-60. Print.Sigsworth, Eric M., ed. In Search of Victorian Values: Aspects of Nineteenth-Century Thought and Society. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1988. Print.Walkley, AB “AB Walkley on Lady Windermere's Fan.” Oscar Wilde: The critical legacy. Ed. Karl E. Beckson. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1970. 133-35. Print.Wilde, Oscar. Lady Windermere's fan. Ed. Jim Manis. State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University, 2006. Electronic Classics Series Publishing. PDF files.