Wilde's Women : A feminist study of the female characters in Oscar Wilde’s comedies of manners: Lady Windermere’s Fan, A woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband

University essay from Högskolan i Halmstad/Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle

Author: Minon Weber; [2017]

Keywords: oscar wilde; wilde; comedies of manners; victorian England; society; Victorian Society; patriarchy; feminism; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; Lady Windermere s Fan; Rita Felski; Felski; patriarchal society; transgressing gender boundaries; gender boundaries; fallen woman; fallen women; good women; good woman; stereotypes; theatre; play; plays; comedies; Oscar Wilde feminism; Oscar Wilde plays;

Abstract: Towards the end of the 19th century, Wilde produced the three comedies that I will focus on in this essay. These plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, are all comedies of manners: intelligent dramatic comedies satirising contemporary fashionable circles of society and its manners, as well as social expectations. This type of comedy is often represented by stereotypical characters, such as the fallen woman, the good woman and the young innocent maiden, all three of which I will investigate in this essay.

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