What Is Meant By The Title Of JM Barrie's Play "What Every Woman Knows"�?

First performed in 1906, this play may seem old-fashioned now, but is still occasionally revived. It is the story of an ambitious young politician, married (against his wishes) to a plain and "charmless" but intelligent woman who loves him. She helps him in his political career by livening up his speeches, which although honest are unbearably dry and dull without her witty contributions.

When John, the politician, becomes ashamed of his dependence on his wife Maggie and thinks he should leave at the end of the play, Maggie reveals her "secret:" "Every man who is high up loves to think that he has done it all himself; and the wife smiles, and lets it go at that. It's our only joke. Every woman knows that." She urges the humourless John to join her in laughing at himself; as he does so, the play ends and Barrie tells us that "he is saved."