39 pages • 1 hour read
Oscar WildeA Woman of No Importance
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1893A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Comedy and Tragedy
One of the play’s recurring motifs is the comparison between comedy and tragedy. Various characters analyze the human experience and categorize which parts fall into the genre of comedy and which parts fall into the genre of tragedy. This motif adds a metafictional element to Oscar Wilde’s work, as the literary text itself is a drama with both comedic and tragic elements.
One prominent example of the comedy and tragedy motif occurs during the banter between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Allonby. They compare the process of aging to both comedy and tragedy. Lord Illingworth first says, “I never intend to grow old. The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life” (40); Mrs. Allonby replies, “And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy” (40). The motif of comedy and tragedy helps to highlight what the characters find ironic—that people seem to become less mature as their physical form grows old.
Lord Illingworth later elaborates upon the relationship between comedy and tragedy. He says that “the world has always laughed at its own tragedies, that being the only way in which it has been able to bear them”; he further explains that “consequently, whatever the world has treated seriously belongs to the comedy side of things” (113). Once again, comedy and tragedy are used to emphasize the irony of human behavior. Here, Wilde expands upon the motif to indicate that humor is a coping mechanism to process the hardships of life, while much of what is considered serious deserves mockery. This perspective on comedy and tragedy emphasizes the power of comedy as a genre. Given that A Woman of No Importance is a comedy, despite some of its darker and more serious themes, Wilde indicates why comedy can be a useful way to critique society and address important topics.
Biblical Law
The motif of biblical law in A Woman of No Importance helps to clarify the impossible position that Mrs. Arbuthnot is in, and it explains why she is forced to lie in order to keep her place in society. While Mrs. Arbuthnot appears to live a life that is in accordance with biblical morality, she has in fact sinned according to its strictly religious code by having premarital sex and a child out of wedlock. If the truth about her actions were to come out, she—and her son, Gerald—would be entirely excluded from society. However, flagrantly amoral characters like Mrs. Allonby are accepted by society because they have not transgressed against biblical laws. While Mrs. Allonby mocks the concept of a loving marriage, for example, the fact that she is nevertheless married and has no children out of wedlock means that she will not face social exclusion.
Hester is one of the characters who is most fervent about biblical law, bringing it up in her first conversation with Mrs. Arbuthnot. Hester favors a firm enforcement of biblical law, saying that she believes men, women, and even children should be punished for their involvement in sexual immorality. Mrs. Arbuthnot does not dispute that this is the biblical law, merely remarking that “it is one of God’s terrible laws” (128). Their conversation indicates why Mrs. Arbuthnot cannot reveal the truth to Gerald. The moral framework that her son follows should technically condemn his very existence.
By the end of the play, however, Hester reevaluates the concept of biblical law, switching to a less literal interpretation of Christian morality. When she learns the truth that Gerald was born out of wedlock, she does not blame Mrs. Arbuthnot; instead, she reacts with empathy after hearing Mrs. Arbuthnot’s impassioned speech about her love for her son. Hester declares, “I was wrong. God’s law is only Love” (166). This shows that Hester begins to favor the spirit of biblical law over its literal interpretation—she comes to believe that laws about sexual morality should encourage kind and loving relationships rather than penalizing them.
Gardens
Gardens in A Woman of No Importance symbolize Eden, which is a place of pure innocence but also carries the danger of original sin. Characters in the play frequently reference the story of the fall of man from the Garden of Eden, particularly to refer to scenarios in which women give in to sexual temptation. For example, when Lady Caroline describes America as a paradise for women, Lord Illingworth quips, “That is why, like Eve, they are so extremely anxious to get out of it” (18). He implies that women want to experience sex and pleasure as much as men do. In another example, Lord Illingworth reminds Mrs. Arbuthnot that their love affair began “in [her] father’s garden” (89), mirroring how Eve fell from grace in the garden of God, the father of all humanity. Mrs. Arbuthnot then begs Lord Illingworth to “leave [her] the walled-in garden and the well of water; the ewe-lamb God sent [her]” (94), affiliating gardens with innocence and purity that should not be breached.
However, toward the end of the play, Hester and Gerald also go out to the garden after they get engaged, implying that even a seemingly virtuous union comes with a temptation to sin. The fertility of gardens implies sensuality and the power of beauty. Flowers symbolize the power of pleasure and aesthetic appeal, as seen when Mrs. Allonby says, “Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins” (24). The connection between beauty and sin suggests that human nature is irresistibly drawn toward sexual pleasure; therefore, the moral laws that aim to restrict these relationships are doomed to fail.
Importance
The concept of importance is a repeated motif throughout the play. By having two characters deliver a line that includes the title—A Woman of No Importance—and a gender-inverted version—“A man of no importance” (182)—Wilde frames the play as a subversion of social norms. At the beginning of the play, Lord Illingworth dominates the story. He controls the conversations at the party and takes agency in the narrative when he invites Gerald to be his secretary. Meanwhile, Mrs. Arbuthnot barely appears at the party, leading her to be entirely dismissed. When she sends a letter and Lord Illingworth seems to recognize her handwriting, he claims that she is “no one. No one in particular. A woman of no importance” (44).
However, the end of the play reverses this line while also reversing the gendered power dynamic in the story. At the end of the play, the setting shifts to Mrs. Arbuthnot’s home. There, she is the one who dominates both the dialogue and the narrative. Her words cause Hester and Gerald to change their minds and to decide to leave the country rather than insisting upon her marriage to Lord Illingworth. When Lord Illingworth visits and offers to marry Mrs. Arbuthnot and leave his property to Gerald, she rebuffs him and slaps him. After he leaves, Gerald and Hester find only his glove, causing Mrs. Arbuthnot to claim that it belongs to “No one in particular. A man of no importance” (182). The motif of importance in this line evokes the title, and it reframes the rest of the play. While Lord Illingworth is set up as a powerful, charming, influential character, he turns out to be impotent and incidental when it comes to the main plot of the play. The decisions made by Mrs. Arbuthnot, Hester, and Gerald matter much more than he does, deconstructing the assumptions that the audience might have about gender, class, and political power.
Related Titles
By Oscar Wilde
.webp&w=640&q=50)
