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A Woman of No Importance

Oscar Wilde

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    The great Victorian author/playwright Oscar Wilde is mostly known for his satires on English society. His dialogues are often referred to as "sparkling" and certainly witty with a great deal of laugh-out-loud humor. But along with the humor, there is also drama to varying degrees, depending on the work.
    This play, first performed in 1893, is, at least in my opinion, less sparkling, more flippant, (which could probably describe Wilde himself), and quite insulting to upper English society, and it ends with pure drama. Having read a pretty good portion of Wilde's works, I found this play a bit different, although I did like it.
    Along with biting social satire, Wilde plays with the unique roles of men vs. women in upper society, and exaggerates gender stereotypes. (I hope it is exaggeration!) He exposes men as scoundrels or overly weak and women as overly domineering or also overly weak. This play was written after the success of Lady Windermere's Fan, which likewise dealt with a secret identity, and a hushed-up sin from the past.
    It begins on the lawn of Lady Hunstanton's estate where friends have gathered to dine. Sir John Pontefract is being nagged by his bossy wife, Lady Caroline. They are conversing with the young American lady Miss Hester Worsley, a Puritan, who has quickly discovered how pretentious and obnoxious the English upper class can be. Lady Caroline mentions Mrs. Allonby, and Hester responds that she does not like her at all. Neither do we after we meet her. She does however, very much admire the gentle Gerald Arbuthnot.
    Lady Hunstanton joins them. One has the impression she is rather elderly, then soon after, comes Gerald, who is thrilled to announce that he has been asked to be the secretary of Lord Illingworth. All there think that is a wonderful opportunity, despite the fact that Illingworth is a mostly idle scoundrel with a reputation of irresponsibility. Gerald invites Hester to stroll the gardens, and she readily accepts. Lady Caroline continues to boss her husband:

Lady Caroline. John, the grass is too damp for you. You had better go and put on your overshoes at once.
Sir John. I am quite comfortable, Caroline, I assure you.
Lady Caroline: You must allow me to be the best judge of that, John. Pray do as I tell you.

He leaves, then Mrs. Allonby enters with Lady Stutfield, who is the quiet comic. She says little, other than agreeing, but everything that comes out of her mouth sounds silly. And in nearly every line, she repeats a word.

Lady Stutfield. Quite, quite wonderful.
and:
Yes; I see that. It is very, very helpful.
and
Yes; that is quite, quite true. I had not thought of that.

After a while, one starts to chuckle with every inane word she says, none of which add to the conversation! Sir John re-enters with Mr. Kelvil, M.P., whom Lady Caroline calls Mr. Kettle, no matter how many times she is corrected. He says:

Kelvil. It is the one subject of really national importance, nowadays, Lady Stutfield. I purpose addressing my constituents on the question before Parliament meets. I find that the poorer classes of this country display a marked desire for a higher ethical standard.

Lord Illingworth enters.

Lady Stutfield. Everyone I know says you are very, very wicked.
Lord Illingworth. It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.

Lord Illingworth would have been described as a "dandy," a title Wilde also had is his day. Kelvil and Illingworth have notably different life philosophies.

Kelvil. You cannot deny that the House of Commons has always shown great sympathy with the sufferings of the poor.
Lord Illingworth. That is its special vice. That is the special vice of the age. One should sympathise with the joy, the beauty, the colour of life. The less said about life's sores the better, Mr. Kelvil.
Kelvil. Still our East End is a very important problem.
Lord Illingworth. Quite so. It is the problem of slavery. And we are trying to solve it by amusing the slaves.
Lady Hunstanton. Certainly, a great deal may be done by means of cheap entertainments, as you say, Lord Illingworth. Dear Dr. Daubeny, our rector here, provides, with the assistance of his curates, really admirable recreations for the poor during the winter. And much good may be done by means of a magic lantern, or a missionary, or some popular amusement of that kind.
Lady Caroline. I am not at all in favour of amusements for the poor, Jane. Blankets and coals are sufficient. There is too much love of pleasure amongst the upper classes as it is. Health is what we want in modern life. The tone is not healthy, not healthy at all.
Kelvil. You are quite right, Lady Caroline.
Lady Caroline. I believe I am usually right.
Mrs. Allonby. Horrid word 'health.'
Lord Illingworth. Silliest word in our language, and one knows so well the popular idea of health. The English country gentleman galloping after a fox—the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.

Mrs. Allonby and Lord Illingworth openly flirt, and the group conversation continues in a like manner. Hester and Gerald return from their walk. Lady Hunstanton has invited Gerald's mother to join them and she has reluctantly agreed to arrive after dinner, which she will regret. Mrs. Allonby later privately dares Lord Illingworth to kiss the Puritan.

In the next act, the ladies are alone in the drawing room after dinner. They are openly discussing disreputable behavior amongst men and women as if it is okay, forgetting that Hester is also in the room. Unfortunately, it is the reputable behavior that the ladies are condemning:

Mrs. Allonby: Do you know, Lady Caroline, I don't think the frivolity of the wife has ever anything to do with it. More marriages are ruined nowadays by the common sense of the husband than by anything else. How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being"
Lady Hunstanton. My dear!
Mrs. Allonby. Man, poor, awkward, reliable, necessary man belongs to a sex that has been rational for millions and millions of years. He can't help himself. It is in his race. The History of Women is very different. We have always been picturesque protests against the mere existence of common sense. We saw its dangers from the first.

Lady Hunstanton. [in a low voice] I had completely forgotten that the American young lady has been in the room all the time. I am afraid some of this clever talk may have shocked her a little.

While the others hope that Hester has been reading, in fact she has heard every word spoken. She tells them off, comparing England to America:

Hester. [Standing by table.] We are trying to build up life, Lady Hunstanton, on a better, truer, purer basis than life rests on here. This sounds strange to you all, no doubt. How could it sound other than strange? You rich people in England, you don't know how you are living. How could you know? You shut out from your society the gentle and the good. You laugh at the simple and the pure. Living, as you all do, on others and by them, you sneer at self-sacrifice, and if you throw bread to the poor, it is merely to keep them quiet for a season. With all your pomp and wealth and art you don't know how to live—you don't even know that. You love the beauty that you can see and touch and handle, the beauty that you can destroy, and do destroy, but of the unseen beauty of life, of the unseen beauty of a higher life, you know nothing. You have lost life's secret. Oh, your English society seems to me shallow, selfish, foolish. It has blinded its eyes, and stopped its ears. It lies like a leper in purple. It sits like a dead thing smeared with gold. It is all wrong, all wrong.

This is somewhat of a turning point from the silliness and nonsense, and the drama intensifies when Gerald's mother, Mrs. Arbuthnot arrives. It seems she knew Lord Illingworth quite well years ago, and now forbids her son to be his secretary.

And on that I will end, and let you read the play to find out the secret and its consequences. There are four acts in all. I am a big fan of Oscar Wilde, whose fairy-tale life changed overnight to tragedy, sending him to his grave at a far too early age. You may visit the Oscar Wilde Index Page for all his works (quite a few), I have already reviewed. Most of Wilde's works are available as free eBooks at Project Gutenberg.