A Woman of No Importance

This play may not be as dramatic and engaging as others of Wilde's, but ooh that final line! Again Wilde tackles the subject of gender equality, this time through the conceit of a reunited pair of former lovers and an unbeknownst son. It's actually rather ridiculous that Victorian society treated jilted women in such a way, but interesting that Wilde gave his character a believable success story and an ultimate revenge on the man who mistreated her! I wonder if after the story ends the ne'er do well man actually disappears as he's been made to do, but even more importantly if the woman and her son (and presumably daughter-in-law) will go to America and live far away from the trite scandals of England. This being the second play I've show more read of Wilde's which emphasizes the benefits of American society over English, I am starting to detect a theme and Wilde has revealed his obvious disdain for England. Interesting for a man so wrapped up in its society... show less

A display of a handful of Oscar Wilde's strengths as a writer, but unfortunately also of even more of his weaknesses. The first part of the play consists of the characters lobbing glib witticisms at one another in a fairly disconnected manner; it then descends into fairly mawkish sentimentality. I give Wilde kudos for pushing back against some contemporary social mores, but I don't think A Woman of No Importance is particularly successful.

I was only reading it for dialogue models, but I got caught up in the story. I thought the way all the characters made their turns from a simplistic view of the world to a more complex and merciful one was very elegantly achieved.

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A young heiress from America is visiting the English countryside where she is shocked by what she witnesses. The society of her hosts seems frivolous and shamefully wanton. But a chance meeting at the party between an infamous cad and a woman from another era brings about startling results. Here is the woman he abandoned rather than marry. And more shockingly, his long lost son by her.

A charming and thought-provoking play about the oldest double-standard in social history.

Read as part of my omnibus "The Plays of Oscar Wilde" while listening to the BBC Radio 4X radio drama (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jr48).

This play, while containing some excellent quips including the famous exchange Lord Illingworth: "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy." Mrs. Allonby: "No man does. That is his.", lacks the lightness of touch that characterizes "An Ideal Husband" and "Lady Windemere's Fan". Instead, Wilde seems almost to pound home his point about the unfairness of society's judgement that when a couple sins, it is the woman who gets punished while the scandal barely affects the man at all.

The BBC Radio drama stars Diana Rigg as Mrs Arbuthnot, Martin Jarvis as Lord Illingworth, Annette show more Crosbie as Lady Hunstanton and Sir Michael Hordern as Sir Charles Crawford. As might be expected with this cast, it was a treat to listen to these actors. I did regret a few of the cuts that the adaptor made but they were all well chosen in the sense of not disrupting the flow of the talk. Here is one snippet that got cut which as an American I particularly like:

Lady Hunstanton: ... Well, from whatever source her large fortune came, I have a great esteem for Miss Worsley. She dresses exceedingly well. All Americans do dress well. They get their clothes in Paris.

Mrs. Allonby: They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die they go to Paris.

Lady H: Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go?

Lord Illingworth: Oh, they go to America. show less

A small gem of a drama. Oscar Wilde's perfect t use of language makes this play both witty and stinging. A mother maintains her dignity in the face of disgrace, and endears herself to her son while deflating his natural father's haughty condescension. Excellent!

The title says it all. A condemnation of a society in which mistakes are never forgiven, in which souls are lost forever, for youthful indiscretion and surrender to one's emotions.