Oscar Wilde

A Woman of No Importance Oscar Wilde

A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde's play A Woman of No Importance is a satire on the morality of the English upper class and the double standards of society for women and men. Lord Illingworth is a bachelor and insatiable flirt, widely admired for his wit, while the woman he seduced 20 years earlier has had to hide the shame of her son's illegitimacy. Mrs. Arbuthnot raised her son Gerald alone after Lord Illingworth refused to marry her. In Act One, Lord Illingworth offers Gerald a brilliant career opportunity, unaware that he would be his own father's secretary. After a confrontation between Mrs. Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth at the party at Lady Hunstanton's country house, Gerald is forced to choose between his mother (whom Lord Illingworth wronged) and a brilliant career. It is both a comedy of manners and a protest against gender inequality. A Woman of No Importance first premiered on April 19, 1893 at the Haymarket Theater in London. The work was published in 1894.