Hamilton is an English teacher at Gary Academy, an innovative private school in Gary, North Carolina. In the following essay, Hamilton explores how the wit in Lady Windermere's Fan contributes to the structure and meaning of the plot, while also investing the play with a satirical jab at high society.

True to the legacy of the Irish raconteur, Oscar Wilde was a master of wit, famous for clever conversation peppered with epigrams. With his rolling, mellifluous voice, he was the center of attention at social gatherings, and is still considered one of the greatest conversationalists of his time.

Lady Windermere's Fan, his first play, was expected to follow on the heels of the success of his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray and it certainly did.

However, many critics, such as a reviewer at the Westminster Review, objected to the number of epigrams in the play...