Lord Arthur Savile's Crime

“Next year, for instance, I am in great danger, both by land and by sea, so I am going to live in a balloon, and draw up my dinner in a basket every evening. It is all written down on my little finger, or on the palm of my hand, I forget which.”

In this quotation, Lady Windermere is speaking using the literary device of hyperbole, or exaggeration, to talk about a prophecy that Mr. Podgers has made for her after reading her palm. This exaggeration effectively shows that these prophecies are not to be taken seriously, and that Lady Windermere views them as entertainment. This is in sharp contrast to the gravity with which Lord Arthur views the cheiromantist’s reading of his own palm.

“Well, he is not a bit like a cheiromantist. I mean he is not mysterious, or esoteric, or romantic-looking. He is a little, stout man, with a funny, bald head, and great, gold-rimmed spectacles; something between a family doctor and a country attorney. I’m really very sorry, but it is not my fault. People are so annoying.”

Lady Windermere, describing Mr. Podgers, uses parallel structure, which is a device in which similar grammar or sentence structures are repeated, as with “little, stout man”; “funny, bald head”; and “great, gold-rimmed spectacles.” She is also being ironic by suggesting that people are being deliberately difficult by not matching their appearance to their profession; inattention to one’s appearance is a faux pas.

“Lord Arthur smiled, and shook his head. ‘I am not afraid,’ he answered. ‘Sybil knows me as well as I know her.’

‘Ah! I am a little sorry to hear you say that. The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding. No, I am not at all cynical, I have merely got experience, which, however, is very much the same thing.’”

Lady Windermere speaks ironically when she quips that marriages work best when people do not know one another well. Lord Arthur’s avowal of knowledge is revealed as a sign of his ignorance—yet, at the same time, this ignorance secures his happiness more than any intimacy ever could.