In the first few minutes of the play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, the attention of the audience is drawn to the fan:
Lady Windermere. My hands are all wet with these roses. Aren’t they lovely? They came up from Selby this morning.
Lord Darlington. They are quite perfect. (Sees a fan lying on the table.) And what a wonderful fan! May I look at it?
Lady Windermere. Do. Pretty, isn’t it! It’s got my name on it, and everything. [Note the emphasis here.] I have only just seen it myself. It’s my husband’s birthday present to me. You know today is my birthday?
Lord Darlington. No? Is it really?[24]
Just before the close of the first act, it is with this fan that Lady Windermere points her threat against Mrs. Erlynne:
Lady Windermere. (Picking up fan.) Yes, you gave me this fan today; it was your birthday present. If that woman crosses my threshold I shall strike her across the face with it.
That Lady Windermere owns a fan; that it bears her name; that, as a gift chosen by her husband and recently given her, he must recognize it on sight: all these important facts have been planted by neat emphasis when Act I ends. Even in Act II, the fan is kept before the public. Just before Mrs. Erlynne enters, we have:
Lady Windermere. Will you hold my fan for me, Lord Darlington? Thanks.