Act 1 Summary

The play opens in the "morning-room" of the Windermere house, where Lady Margaret Windermere is arranging roses in preparation for a "small but select" ball she and her husband are hosting that evening in honor of her birthday. Parker, the butler, announces that Lord Darlington has come to call, and shows him in. Darlington begins to flirt with Lady Windermere, who very kindly but firmly tries to discourage his attentions. She says she does not like compliments but tells him she thinks he is really a good man who is only pretending to be worse than most men. He answers that, "so many conceited people go about Society pretending to be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest disposition to pretend to be bad."

Lady Windermere makes it plain that she is not going to stoop to the Victorian...