A Woman Of No Importance Summary

This sample of an academic paper on A Woman Of No Importance Summary reveals arguments and important aspects of this topic. Read this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs and the conclusion below.

Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and in Dublin, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and at Magdalen College, Oxford, and settled in London. Wilde began his literature career by writing poetry, but he achieved fame and success for his plays: Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880), Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1893) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

Wilde’s plays seem to have simple plots; however, the dialogue and the satire are the most effective elements of his plays. Because of this elements his plays can be accepted as comedy of manners.

In Wilde’s plays there is social and moral criticism. We can find the origins of this fact in his being representative of aestheticism. “Aestheticism was a movement developed in 1880s, which was a reaction against the moral and religious pressures of Victorian Age.

” A Woman of No Importance has been described as the “weakest of the plays Wilde wrote”. Because it begins really in the second act when we understand that there is a relationship between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot through their conversation. As in Wilde’s other plays in A Woman of No Importance there is both social and moral ciriticism.

A Woman Of No Importance Hester

Wilde satirizes the upper-class of Victorian society. The most important criticism is made by Wilde against class distinction.

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Members of upper-class are so conceited that they neglect all the other people else from themselves. They do this in a hypocritical way. Although they seem to be interested in problems of lower classes, they deal with in a insincere and superficial way. Lady Caroline shares her view about the poor: “ Lady Caroline – I am not all in favour of amusements for the poor, Jane. Blankets and coals are sufficient. ”

Members of upper-class think that they are more important everyone else because they have titles. In order to emphasize that criticism, the play is full of lords and ladies. They they do not give importance to those who do not have titles. At the beginning of the play Lady Caroline looks down on Hester who is just a simple American woman and does not have a title like her. “ Lady Caroline – I believe this is the first English country house you have stayed at, Miss Worsley? Hester – Yes, Lady Caroline. Lady Caroline – You have country houses, I am told, in America?

Hester – We have not many. ” Upper-class people are very keen on their life styles and their appearances. Lots of them live in cities such as London or Kent. They see living in the country as a deficiency. Mrs. Allonby states her dissatisfaction about the country: “Mrs. Allonby – But somehow, I feel sure that if I lived in the country for six months, I should become so unsophisticated that no one would take the slightest notice of me. ” Women of upper-class give a great deal of importance their appearances, especially their dresses.

Lady Hunstanton reveals this passion for fashion without realizing: “Lady Hunstanton – I have a great esteem for Miss Worsley. She dresses exceedingly well. All American do dress well. They get their clothes in Paris. ” Another social criticism can be found in the conversations of the characters. “The basic feature of the upper-class is to talk by making epigrams and paradoxes or saying funny things. ” For example: “Mrs. Allonby – Curious thing, plain women are always jealous of their husbands, beautiful women never are. Lord Illingworth – Beautiful women never have time.

They are always so occupied in being jealous of other people’s husbands. ” Or: “Lady Caroline – The Ideal Man! Oh, the Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says. ” Wilde criticizes the upper-class morally through the character Lord Illingworth.

Most of his speeches have an immoral aspect. Although some of the other characters know his immoral side, they still find him very attractive: “Lady Hunstanton – I am afraid, Caroline, that dear Lord Illingworth doesn’t value the moral qualities in women as much as he should. Lady Stutfield – The world says that Lord Illingworth is very, very wicked. Lord Illingworth – But what world says that, Lady Stutfield? It must be the next world. This world and I are on excellent terms. Lady Stutfield – Every one 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. Lady Hunstanton – Dear Lord Illingworth is quite hopeless, Lady Stutfield. I have given up trying to reform him. ” The play’s characters are types through which criticism of the upper-class becomes clear. As a naive and inexperienced man, Gerald accepts unciritically what society calls for. This belief in society leads him to insist upon his mother’s marriage to Lord Illingworth.

Mrs. Allonby is a woman dandy and has witty, paradoxical conversations with Lord Illingworth. Lady Caroline is always jealous of his husband. Lady Stutfield has a limited capacity for vocabulary. She agrees with what other characters say. Hester is the character through which Wilde satirizes Victorian upper-class. She is the mouthpiece of Wilde: “Hester – 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 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. ” All these critcisms seem normal. But if we consider that Oscar Wilde spent most of his life among the members of upper-class, and felt a great enjoyment, then why did he write such a critical play? Mina Urgan notes that this is due to his paradoxical views: “His contradictory attitude towards the English upper-class was not his only contradiction. He was full of contradictions. …] As we can see while examining his life and works, Oscar Wilde both conforms the rules which the society adopts and rebels against the society, he exalts both Pagans and Christians, he supports both individualism and socialism, he is both a playboy making buffoonery and a talented writer. ” His friend “W. B. Yeats claims that Wilde lived among the members of upper-class because he found examining them very interesting. ” Consequently, even if Wilde enjoyed the life style of upper-class, he did not hesitate to satirize English aristocracy.