A Woman of No Importance is a play in 1893, by Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde. It is a dark comedy looking at
the English upper class society.
Gerald Arbuthnot is torn between his father, Lord
Illingworth, and his long-suffering mother, Mrs. Arbuthnot, who refuses Lord Illingworth's proposal of marriage which has come 20 years too late. Lord Illingworth betrays his flirtations by attempting to kiss a young American heiress, in love with Gerald. In this play, Lord Illingworth discovers that the young man, Gerald, who he has employed as a secretary is in reality his illegitimate son.
Lord Illingworth is a man of about 45 and a bachelor. Witty and clever, he is a flirt, who knows how to charm women. He is the former lover of Mrs. Arbuthnot who seduced her becoming the father of Gerald Arbuthnot. Lore Illingworth enjoys the company of Mrs. Allonby, who has a similar amoral outlook like him.
The accidental meeting of Illingworth with Gerald sets the chain of events which is the main plot of the play, as he hires Gerald as his private secretary.
Mrs. Arbuthnot is a respectable widow who goes to church regularly does charity work for the poor. She is not into social functions although occasionally she visits the upper class at Lady Hunstanton's since they seem to know Gerald. Soon the audience realizes that she ahs a secret past with Lord Illingworth who fathered Gerald.
Gerald Arbuthnot is the illegitimate son of Mrs Arbuthnot by Lord Illingworth. Gerald is idealistic and want to gain a high social standing in society. Somehow he is critical of proper bearing in society believing in duty and honour that go with it, a reason why he wants his mother and Lord Illingworth to marry for sense of propriety.
Mrs. Allonby, a flirtatious woman with quite a reputation as a female dandy, dares Illingworth to kiss Miss Hester Worsley, an American Puritan. Hester is both an orphan and an heiress, which allows her to "adopt" Mrs. Arbuthnot as her mother at the end of the play.
Some of the other characters in the play include Lady Jane Hunstanton, the host of the party, a typical Victorian
aristocrat but lacking in knowledge; Lady Caroline Pontefract who has a strong aggressive character. Her traditionalist attitude and view are the opposite of Mrs. Allonby; the Venerable Archdeacon Daubeny, who is uncomfortable with the upper-class society and a peace-loving priest who is willing to sacrifice free time for his wife's benefit, seen as an invalid of dramatic proportions; Lady Stutfield, intellectually restricted as shown in her lack of vocabulary, however, a misconception of her character as it is actually a facade and desperate attempt for male attention; Mr. Kelvil, M.P., a moralist of the present time who wishes to improve society, however, he lacks the charisma and leadership to succeed; and the stereotype cast Lord Alfred Rufford, a lazy aristocrat constantly in debt and with no intention of paying back.
Gerald is able to secure his future by marrying her. As in many of Wilde's plays, the main theme of A Woman of No Importance is the secrets of the upper-classes.