Summary
Lady Windermere, back home, worries that her husband will find out that she left last night. However, when Lord Windermere comes in, he and Lady Windermere reconcile and decide to take a holiday away from English society.
Lady Windermere tells Lord Windermere that she cannot leave today as he wants because she needs to visit with Mrs. Erlynne. He does not want her to, but she is adamant. Mrs. Erlynne arrives at the Windermeres' home. She tells Lady Windermere that she will be going away. Mrs. Erlynne asks for a photograph of Lady Windermere and Lady Windermere happily complies with one in the room. Mrs. Erlynne compliments the photograph but requests one with both Lady Windermere and her child.
After Lady Windermere leaves the room to get this photo, Lord Windermere tries to make Mrs. Erlynne promise that she will not reveal the truth about her identity to Lady Windermere. He also scorns her for taking advantage of her situation - turning up in her daughter's life only when there is the possibility to make money.
Mrs. Erlynne plays with Lord Windermere's emotions by refusing to promise to not reveal her identity to her daughter and saying she will also ask Lady Windermere to give her the fan that Lord Windermere recently gave her as a present. They discuss how much Lady Windermere has always missed and revered her mother.
The tables turn, however, when Lord Windermere threatens to reveal Mrs. Erlynne's identity; in response, Mrs. Erlynne responds that she will sully her name completely if he does so that Lady Windermere will also be cast out of respected society.
Lady Windermere returns and gives Mrs. Erlynne the photograph. They start to talk about the name of Lady and Lord Windermere's child, and Lady Windermere says that she would have named the child after her mother had it been a girl. Mrs. Erlynne hints that her name and Lady Windermere's names are the same, but in the end she does not reveal their relationship. Mrs. Erlynne asks to keep Lady Windermere's fan and Lady Windermere agrees happily.
Lord Augustus enters and Mrs. Erlynne asks him to accompany her outside so that she can explain properly what has happened the night before. After a short time, Lord Augusts returns and announces that he and Mrs. Erlynne will get married and live outside England.
Analysis
Act IV is the most suspenseful of the acts as the play builds to its climax. This suspense is paired with dramatic irony since both are based on whether Mrs. Erlynne will reveal her true identity to Lady Windermere. The suspense is especially keen when Lord Windermere leaves the room upon Lady Windermere's request, since Mrs. Erlynne has told him explicitly that she can't make any promises about not telling Lady Windermere. The audience may feel torn about whether they want the tension to end by Mrs. Erlynne telling Lady Windermere everything, or whether they believe the better solution is for Mrs. Erlynne to leave Lady Windermere's life alone.
There is also irony in Act IV created by the fact that Lady Windermere and Lord Windermere have completely switched positions on the moral character of Mrs. Erlynne. While the play started off with a heated discussion in which Lord Windermere defended Mrs. Erlynne and even asked his wife to invite the woman to her birthday party, in Act IV (just a day later) Lord Windermere tries to convince Lady Windermere to never see Mrs. Erlynne again.
Wilde expands upon his theme of mother/daughter relationships in Act IV to ask a larger question about idols and ideals. Lady Windermere grew up imagining her mother based on a lie from her father and her own imagination, turning her into a revered figure. In contrast, Mrs. Erlynne is a human, and a flawed one at that. In fact, even though Lady Windermere is a mother herself, she does not change the perfect version of her mother that she has always imagined. This shows the audience the difference between our imagined idols and the reality that often lies behind them.
Wilde makes an interesting choice by not having Mrs. Erlynne reveal her identity. Because the audience is waiting for her to make a choice up until the moment she leaves, the climax of the show is really something not happening, rather than the usual cathartic event that marks a climax and makes for a gradual falling action and resolution. Instead, the audience may feel somewhat confused, or have a lingering sense of suspense and unanswered questions during the resolution and after the end of the play. By making this choice, Wilde does not allow the audience an easy ending of the show, as if purposefully making them consider the actions and characters in the show.
At the end of the play, the characters and the audience have a final moment of suspense when Lord Augustus reenters the scene and announces that Mrs. Erlynne has "explained everything" (60). However, it turns out that she has merely fed him more lies, making up a story about why she was in Lord Darlington's rooms. This lie completes Mrs. Erlynne's protection of Lady Windermere's story, but her telling such a lie just before getting engaged to Lord Augustus is a final parody of the lack of communication in marriages in Victorian England.
