presentation of morality and conscience

7/28/2019 Presentation of Morality and Conscience

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Point Quote from Lady

Windermeres Fan

Analysis Quote from Mrs. Warrens

Profession

Analysis

There are double-

standards onsocietys

judgement of

morality towards

men and women

Action taken towards Lord

Windermere whensuspecting his involvement

with Mrs. Erlynne

-take Windermere away

at once to Homburg or to

Aix, where hell have

something to amuse him

and feed the wretches

well

vs. societys view on Mrs.

Erlynne upon suspecting

her scandal-these wicked women get

our husbands away from

us!

-horrid

womanabsolutely

inadmissible into society

-constant use of horrid and

wicked reveal disgust anddemonstrate how gravely they

view Mrs. Erlynnes lack of

morality

-the action of getting their

husbands away from them is an

active one and demonstrates how

the women are the immoral ones

who are held responsible in an

affair

-contrast to Duchess Berwicks

advice to take Lord Windermereon a holiday, seem to suggest

that society indulges men who

are involved in a scandal, by

pampering them

- not only is there no punishment,

taking him on a holiday is a

frivolous solution, which

demonstrates how society

trivializes the immoral crime of

men

-having something to amusehim shows how women must still

entertain and please men despite

their immorality

-the different treatment towards

Lord Windermere and Mrs.

Mrs. Warrens reason for hiding her

profession:-I darent talk about such things:

whatever would they think of us!

-men who are involved in prostition:

some half-drunken fool that think

hes making himself agreeable when

hes teasing and worrying and

disgusting a woman so that hardly

any money could pay her for putting

up with it

Vivie exclaiems:

-When I think of the society thattolerates you, and the laws that

protect you!

-Mrs. Warren has had to hide her

profession from her daughter andmuch of society because it would

be frowned upon, and the use of

the word darent demonstrates

this point as it adds gravity to the

situation

-it makes it seem as if revealing her

situation had grave consequences

and therefore, required too much

courage which demonstrates how

severe societys judgement would

be on prostitutes-the description of the male clients

as a half-drunken fool portrays

these men as people who engage

in debauchery which presents

them as rather immoral as well

-However, people like Crofts who

are as responsible for prostitution

as Mrs. Warren herself are

accepted and welcomed in society

-the laws that protect you

demonstrate how the corruptbehaviour of Crofts is officially

accepted into society

-George Crofts has been knighted

which shows he is regarded with

much respect in society, contrasted


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Erlynne demonstrate the double-

standards of society, where they

are harsh towards the

immoralities of women but easily

forgive, or even indulge men

to Mrs. Warren who has to hide

her profession in fear of judgement

from society

-the direct contrast between how

society views Mrs. Warren and

George Crofts demonstrate thedouble-standards society have

towards men and women with

regard to their morality

-both Mrs. Warren and George

Crofts are equally immoral but

Crofts is respected in society

whereas, Warren will be despised if

society knew what she was

Societys lack of

conscience has

led to a moralhypocrisy in

society

so many conceited people

go about Society

pretending to be goodTreatment of Mrs. Erlynne:

to be despised, mocked,

abandoned, sneered at- to

be an outcast!

starve for love and it will

not be given to you, beg

for love and it will be

denied you

The capitalization of Society

present society as one single

entity that behaves in the sameway, therefore, the hypocrisy

they engage in is collective

-the description of society

consisting of conceited people

who pretend to be good

demonstrate how purity and

morality is a mask for these

people, yet their arrogance and

self-righteousness fails to allow

them to see their own hypocrisy

-they are vicious in theirtreatment towards Mrs. Erlynne

who is outcasted due to her

scandals

-her monologue demonstrates

the intensity she is despised in

Description of Sir George Crofts:

-clean-shaven bulldog jaws, large

flat ears, and thick neckMP Crofts:

He gets his 22 per cent out of a

factory with 600 girls in it, and not

one of them getting wages enough

to live on

George Crofts responses to his

actions:

So you dont think me such a

scoundrel now you come to think it

over, eh?

-the features of George Crofts

resemble that of an animal, or a

dog-this resemblance signifies the

resemblance of George Croft to an

animal: his savagery and lack of a

conscience

-His brother, MP Crofts, gets rich

out of exploiting young girls

-both George Crofts and his

brother exploit women but hold

high positions, one is knighted

while the other an MP which

shows that they are respected insociety

-demonstrates how society

condones their actions and

indulges them

-George Crofts response was a


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society and how harshly she is

treated

she is not only despised, but

mocked and sneered at

demonstrate societys active

participation in tormenting her-The words starve and beg

present Mrs. Erlynne as someone

who is desperate for acceptance,

and even lowers herself to get it,

yet society intentionally rejects

her despite of this, by purposely

not giving, and denying her the

love she yearns for

-this demonstrates how vicious

society is in rejecting a desperate

woman and reveals their lack ofconscience

-this lack of conscience also

reflects their hypocrisies as the

morality of society is merely a

pretense, yet their self-

righteousness causes them to

ostracize other immoral people

instead of reflect on themselves

rhetorical question which

demonstrates how self-righteous

he is as he truly believes he is not a

bad person

-society is hypocritical because it is

made up of people like GeorgeCrofts and MP Crofts who carry out

immoral acts indirectly yet feel no

guilt but criticize people like Mrs.

Warren

Morality cannot

be clearly defined

What are called good

women may have terrible

things in them, madmoods of recklessness,

assertion, jealousy, sin.

Bad women, as they are

termed, may have in them

sorrow, repentance, pity,

The use of the words what are

called and as they are termed

demonstrate that thecategorization of a moral and

immoral woman is a superficial

construct of society

-the bitter irony is that Lady

Windermere, who was

Vivie states that she would use her

intellect and turn it to very good

account and complained about herachievement as the third wrangler,

because it doesnt pay

she has caused her mother to

whimper, to be stifled in tears by

her aggression

-Mrs. Warren is viewed as fallen

woman because she commodifies

herself-However, Vivies constant

emphasis on monetary gains

demonstrate how she sells her

intellect for money, and is also

commodifying herself


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sacrifice

there is a bitter irony in

the way we talk of good

and bad women

Lady Windermere believes

a good womans ideal isLove and purification is

sacrifice

Mrs. Erlynne says

I would have died rather

than have crossed your life

or his-oh! Died, gladly

died!

supposedly pure and righteous,

became jealous and reckless

while Mrs. Erlynne, the fallen

woman, demonstrated the very

values Lady Windermere spoke of

as being ideals of a good woman-the willingness of Mrs. Erlynne

to die to redeem Lady

Windermere demonstrates

sacrifice and love

-therefore, through this irony in

the play, Wilde demonstrates the

point that people cannot be

categorized as moral or immoral

so definitely, as they are a mix of

both

Vivie is described by her mother as a

pious, canting, hard, selfish

woman

-Vivies aggression portray her as a

villain as well, whose victim is her

mother the fallen woman

-The strange string of negative

adjectives that follow pious

demonstrate how her supposedmoral uprightness is accompanied

by ruthlessness and brutality,

which demonstrates the point that

the women claimed to be morally

upright are in fact as vicious as

fallen women

-Vivie, the morally upright woman

in the play demonstrates

heartlessness and selfishness and

therefore, as well as commodifying

herself, and therefore is no betterthan her mother, the immoral

woman

-Shaw similarly demonstrates the

point that morality in a person is

not definite and a person cannot

be wholly moral as demonstrated

through Vivie, who displays similar

characteristics to her immoral

mother

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