The play's mood is fast-paced. With the four acts taking place over the course of less than 24 hours, the dialogue, action, and character development feel dense and busy. Over the course of this short day, the play is packed with ironic misunderstandings, melodramatic soliloquies, and intense confrontations.
Nevertheless, Wilde devotes plenty of space and time for his characters to exchange silly, cynical epigrammatic statements about the world. The mood is marked just as much by the intense moments of intrigue as by the sharp and cynical conversations between the witty characters. To prove their own modern sophistication, a majority of the characters put great effort into proving that they are everything but sentimental and sincere.
By the play's end, the audience may characterize the mood as tragicomic. The tragedy is related to how close various characters come to genuine resolution and connection. Bound by the limits of society's conventions, they are unable to tell each other the truth. Lady Windermere has had multiple emotional interactions with her mother, who she believes is dead, but the two people who know the truth will never reveal this to her. Mrs. Erlynne is clearly touched by her reunion with her daughter, but the expectations and demands that come with motherhood keep her from unmasking herself. At the same time, the play ends with a light and comedic mood, as everything turns out neatly resolved for the characters.
