Summary
Act II opens in the Windermere’s drawing room during the ball. Guests start to arrive and Lady Windermere tries to avoid Lord Windermere. The Duchess of Berwick has come with her daughter Agatha and takes control of her "card" (20), deciding who it is proper for her to dance with. She is particularly set on Agatha spending time with Mr. Hopper.
Lord Augustus Lorton, one of Lord Windermere’s friends, enters the party and asks Lord Windermere about the rumors regarding him and Mrs. Erlynne. Lord Windermere tells him that the rumors are lies and Lord Augustus then tells his friend that he likes Mrs. Erlynne and even thinks about marrying her. Lord Windermere assures his friend that Mrs. Erlynne will also attend the ball and then he will have the chance to talk with her.
Lord Windermere tries to talk with his wife about Mrs. Erlynne but she refuses to listen to him. She again threatens to insult Mrs. Erlynne if she shows up, holding steady her promise to hit the woman with her fan.
Mrs. Erlynne arrives at the ball. Lady Windermere drops her fan. Mrs. Erlynne tries to talk in a friendly way to both Lord Windermere, who says she shouldn't have come, and Lady Windermere, who behaves very coldly to her. Mrs. Erlynne begins to talk to and befriend many at the party. Lord Augustus, Lord Windermere, and Mrs. Erlynne go off together into another room while Dumby and Lady Plymdale talk about her reputation; since Dumby has made a date to lunch at her house, Lady Plymdale asks him to take her husband along since he has been "so attentive lately" (27).
Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington come in from the terrace where they have been talking. He confesses his love for her and proposes that she run away with him. Lady Windermere refuses to answer, so Lord Darlington gives an ultimatum, telling Lady Windermere that he will leave the next day and they will never see each other again. He leaves, and Lady Windermere is joined again by party guests.
Some of the guests seem to have changed their minds about Mrs. Erlynne, giving her a chance since Lady Windermere, who is thought to have good sense, supposedly invited her to the party. The Duchess of Berwick again meddles in her daughter's relationship with Mr. Hopper, inviting him over for lunch to talk with her husband.
Mrs. Erlynne teases Lord Windermere by demanding more money of him so that she can marry Lord Augustus. He doesn't wish to discuss the matter with her, but it is clear that she has some control over him, and they move to the terrace to discuss a sum.
Later that night, when the guests have started to leave, Lady Windermere makes the decision to run away with Lord Darlington. She leaves a note for Lord Windermere explaining what she is going to do. The note is found by Mrs. Erlynne, who immediately goes after Lady Windermere to try and stop her from running away with Lord Darlington. It is revealed that Mrs. Erlynne is actually Lady Windermere's mother. Mrs. Erlynne takes the note with her and lies to Lord Windermere about what it is. She also asks Lord Augustus to distract Lord Windermere by taking him to his club.
Analysis
Act II shows just how quickly social relationships can change. Because the guests at Lady Windermere's party believe she invited Mrs. Erlynne, they start to give Mrs. Erlynne a chance. Mrs. Erlynne uses her own devices as well to quickly work her way through the party, charming men and women alike, though some are still confused about how to feel about the relationships of their significant others with her. In other vignettes from the party, Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington's relationship is shown to shift suddenly, going from friendship to potential lovers.
In this act, Wilde truly begins his satire of mother/daughter relationships in Victorian England. Lord Windermere has already foreshadowed the relationship between Mrs. Erlynne and Lady Windermere. Because of Mrs. Erlynne's absence in Lady Windermere's life, Lady Windermere has been raised to be intelligent and independent. In contrast, Agatha, the daughter of the Duchess of Berwick, has almost no individuality and acts as merely an object under her mother's control.
Significantly, Lady Windermere does not carry out her threat to insult or hit Mrs. Erlynne should she come to the party. Mrs. Erlynne obviously does come to the party, but Lady Windermere merely drops her fan when this happens. This moment could be directed and acted in a few different ways, with differing effects. On one hand, Lady Windermere could drop her fan out of shock. Alternatively, she could drop her fan to call attention away from the woman. Finally, the moment could simply be used to call attention to the fan as a symbol at this important moment of the play.
This act also further questions the nature of the relationship, both in private and public, between a husband and wife. While we have already experienced a wife's reaction to supposed adultery and a husband's reaction to a wife's concerns, many characters touch on the theme in a more playful manner in Act II. For example, Lady Plymdale, one of the minor characters at the party, tells Lord Windermere that he shouldn't spend so much time with his wife in public as it makes people suspicious and later actually suggests that her husband spend more time with Mrs. Erlynne because "He has been so attentive lately, that he has become a perfect nuisance" (27). Audiences today and contemporary to Wilde's writing must question and challenge their ideas of marital relationships, especially with regard to attention.
Fear and courage emerge as themes in the conversation in which Lord Darlington reveals his feelings to Lady Windermere. She tells him that she does not have the courage to run away with him, and he replies to her, "Yes; you have the courage... Be brave! Be yourself" (29). A reader must contemplate whether Lord Darlington's equation of Lady Windermere and bravery is apt. We have already seen her question her husband's faithfulness based on incomplete evidence and fail to carry through with her threat about insulting or hitting Mrs. Erlynne. Based on this, the audience may be surprised when Lady Windermere decides to leave her husband and go to Lord Darlington's rooms to run away with him.
