Two items of the property in the play could be discussed in a deeper context when analyzing the relationship between Mrs. Erlynne and her daughter: The fan of
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Lady Windermere and the photograph of Lady Windermere with her son. Both of the items at the final scene become the gifts that Lady Windermere gives to Mrs. Erlynne.
These two items in fact represent the connection between mother and daughter relationship.
Based on Bloom and Sammells’ arguments, I elaborate on the significance of the fan and the fan as symbols. The fan firstly appears in the play as a gift that Lord Windermere gives to Lady Windermere. As a property in the play, the fan then is dropped by Lady Windermere to be an angry reminder to Lord Windermere that the coming of Mrs. Erlynne is unwelcome. The fan is a birthday present that Lord Windermere specially customizes for his wife, but it later becomes a suspicious object of adultery as Lord Windermere finds the fan on the sofa in Lord Darlington’s house.
Last but not least, the fan is the gift that Lady Windermere gives to Mrs. Erlynne as a symbol to remember their friendship and as a promise to keep the secret of that night between themselves. Bloom mentions that every time when the fan appears, the significance of it shifts from scene to scene (Bloom 58). Thus, the fan does not only show up as a property, but as a meaningful object in the play. Every time when the fan appears, the audience would be implied that there is a turning point in the play. The fan apparently witnesses Lady Windermere’s growth in the play.
Sammells describes that the fan is “the fashion accessory designed at once for display and concealment, floats free of fixed, authentic signification as it acquires shifting, multiple meanings in the course of the drama” (85). The first time when it occurs in the house of Lord Windermere, it lies on a table, and Bloom claims that it acts as a “perfect accessory to the perfect scene of the perfect wife in the perfect home” (Bloom 58). Lady Windermere regards the fan as her husband’s love towards her, and the fan here implies the innocence of Lady Windermere, as the fan is Lady Windermere’s twenty-year-old birthday present. But, next time when it appears, its
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function changes as a “failed weapon of apparently failed domesticity” (58) because Lady Windermere fails to strike Mrs. Erlynne heavily with the fan though she claims to do so when Lord Windermere insists on giving Mrs. Erlynne the invitation card.
The fan is a gift from the husband, but is dropped on the floor intentionally, and is picked up by another man (Lord Darlington). The implication of this scene then brings Lady Windermere to another stage where she is no longer the innocent one, but becomes a doubtful jealous woman. The fan then provides a crucial hint for both Lord Darlington and Lord Windermere when it is left by Lady Windermere on the sofa in Act III. Both of them recognize the fan and they all take it as a symbol. Lord Darlington regards it as an acceptation that Lady Windermere agrees to elope with him, while Lord Windermere views it as a sign that Lord Darlington seduces his wife and his wife involves in the adultery. Thus, the fan brings the danger.
However, the fan arouses the maternal instinct that Mrs. Erlynne has towards her daughter. She bravely steps out to undertake the mistakes that her daughter made. The fan stimulates the love of a mother to her daughter and becomes an opportunity for the mother to repair the relationship with her daughter. At last, Lady Windermere gives this fan to Mrs. Erlynne. The name “Margaret” on it is not only the name of Lady Windermere but also the Christian name of Mrs. Erlynne (Act IV, p.65). The fan becomes the connection of both women and symbolizes the relationship between these two women. Mrs. Erlynne becomes the final owner of the fan, and because the fan has the name “Margaret” on it, the fan represents Mrs. Erlynne. If we regard the fan not only as Mrs. Erlynne’s belonging, but also representing Mrs. Erlynne herself, then the title of this play Lady Windermere’s Fan could deeply imply another meaning, that Lady Windermere’s “fan” actually stands for Lady Windermere’s mother—Mrs.
Erlynne.
Another significant property in the play is the photograph. In fact, Lady
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Windermere has no photograph of Mrs. Erlynne, but only a miniature of young innocent-looking girl with beautiful dark hair, which represents her mother that she kisses every night (Act IV, p.60). Chodorow explains that a child “may feel invulnerable and all-powerful because it has introjected, or taken as an internal object, a nourishing and protecting maternal image, which is now experienced continuously whether or not its mother is actually there” (42). Therefore, no matter it is the miniature or the photograph, the picture of a person stands for a meaningful function.
The photograph only appears in the last scene; all the audiences know is that Mrs.
Erlynne asks Lady Windermere to give her a photograph of Lady Windermere with her son. Photograph represents a private object of a person and is significant only to the related person. For other people, Lady Windermere and her son’s photograph is just an ordinary picture; but to Mrs. Erlynne, this photograph can arouse her love to her daughter and her grandson. This photograph represents the family and the closeness of these two women. People only cherish the photograph of the loved ones, the care of Mrs. Erlynne for her daughter thus reveals undeniably in the scene. The photograph is loaded up with a mother’s love and represents the inheritance of the family blood. In the end, Mrs. Erlynne earns her daughter’s respect and love. Even though she never tells Lady Windermere about her true identity, her maternal instinct in the play is aroused naturally to prove that she is more than an unmotherly mother.
Wilde gives his character a more persuadable charm that she is neither a cold-blooded character nor an evil mother, but a mother who cares about her daughter.