A Woman of No Importance
A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde is "a new and original play of modern life", in four acts, first given on 19 April 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre, London.
Wilde's first West End drawing room play, Lady Windermere's Fan, ran at the St James's Theatre for 197 performances in 1892.
[3] Wilde worked on it while staying in Norfolk in the summer, and later in a rented flat in St James's, impeded by constant interruptions by Lord Alfred Douglas.
[6] The play was first performed on 19 April 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre, London, to an audience that included Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain;[7] the Prince of Wales attended the second night.
Lady Caroline Pontefract patronises an American visitor, Hester Worsley, and proceeds to give her own opinion of everyone in the room (and her surrounding life).
The guests then discuss the rumours surrounding Lord Illingworth's aim for being a foreign ambassador, while Lady Hunstanton sends a letter through her footman to Gerald's mother, inviting her to the party.
Lord Illingworth remains near Mrs Allonby during the entire exchange until the two of them leave for the conservatory together, following a discussion of Hester's background and wealthy father.
Their discussion turns toward Hester when Mrs Allonby reprehends the young American for her casual talk of being eighteen and a Puritan.
Mrs Allonby asserts that Hester is sincere in her desire to be left alone, but Illingworth interprets her remarks as a playful challenge.
Lord Illingworth notices Mrs Arbuthnot's letter lying on a table and remarks that the handwriting on the envelope seems familiar.
The three share an uncomfortable exchange, as Mrs Arbuthnot (to Gerald's dismay) can only partially express her disapproval of Illingworth's offer.
Mrs Arbuthnot retains a strong bitterness toward Illingworth, yet also begs him to leave her son alone, expressing that after twenty years of being a mother, Gerald is all she has.
Gerald speaks of his admiration and protective attitude toward his mother, expressing that she is a great woman and wondering why she has never told him of his father.
Leading the conversation into a cynical talk about society and marriage, Lord Illingworth says that he has never been married and that Gerald will have a new life under his wing.
Soon the other guests enter, and Lord Illingworth entertains them with his invigorating views on a variety of subjects, such as comedy and tragedy, savages, and world society.
Remembering Hester's views, Mrs Arbuthnot decides to tell her son the truth about his origin and her past life with Lord Illingworth, but she does so in the third person, being sure to describe the despair that betrayed women face.
Hester then enters the room in anguish and flings herself into Gerald's arms, exclaiming that Lord Illingworth has "horribly insulted" her.
[12] Act IV opens with Gerald writing a letter in his mother's sitting room, the contents of which will ask his father to marry Mrs Arbuthnot.
Lord Illingworth then admits his defeat with the cold notion that Mrs Arbuthnot was merely his plaything for an affair, calling her his mistress.
Maurice Barrymore and Rose Coghlan played Illingworth and Mrs Arbuthnot in an 1893–94 production, and Holbrook Blinn and Margaret Anglin starred in the roles in 1916.
[25] The Era said, "If Lady Windermere's Fan showed us Mr Oscar Wilde as a playwright at his best, A Woman of No Importance exhibits all the vices of his method with irritating clearness".
[18] In 1997, Wilde's biographer Peter Raby commented: The play has been adapted for the cinema in at least four versions: British (1921), German (1936), French (1937) and Argentine (1945).
