Describe how the topic of marriage is treated 'Lady Windermere's Fan'.

In the play Lady Windermere's Fan, by
Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere is a young, aristocratic, and devout wife who is married to
a very well-respected man. Her marriage has been successful and she has a young child.
All seems perfectly well until she receives two big news on the day of her birthday: 
First, her friend (the Duchess) tells her that Lord Windermere-the lady's husband-has
been cheating on her by giving money to a strange
woman.

Secondly, Lady Windermere finds that Lord Darlington
is in love with her. This is significant because she seems to enjoy the attentions of a
man even though she is "happily" married.

When Lady
Windermere decides to confront her husband and declare war on the "other woman" (not
knowing that the woman is her real mother and that her husband was paying her money to
keep the secret from Lady Windermere), she is told by her husband basically not to
meddle in his business, and to act like a woman is supposed to. This is a clear
indication that marriage was a situation in which women had no control of anything,
especially of their husbands.

Additionally, the Duchess of
Berwick, who is the friend that discloses the information about Lord Windermere and the
other woman, tells Lady Windermere that cheating is an expected thing- that her own
husband waited as much as three years before he began looking at other women, and that
the best thing she could do with Lord Windermere is take him away to distract his
attention. Quite an interesting game of double
standards!

Moreover, if we compare Lady
Windermere's Fan to a play such as A Doll's House, we
will see that the character of Lady Windermere and the character of Nora are both
treated as their husband's respective playthings.  Lady Windermere is always treated
nicely and properly until she attempts to stand up for herself when she sees something
wrong.

In A Doll's House, Nora is also
treated almost like a child, pampered, and spoiled until the moment when she decides to
defend her actions and stand up to her husband. However, Nora doesend up leaving a
relationship that was obviously a farce. Lady Windermere, contrastingly, returns to
it.

Therefore, marriage is treated in these two works as a
reductionist of women. A status in which women are seen, but not heard. They must attend
to the needs of others but disregard their own. In the end, all happens for the sake of
keeping a fake appearance of a well-to-do relationship.