A Woman of No Importance
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A Woman of No Importance is a play by Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. The play, published in 1893 and first performed at London's Haymarket Theatre in the same year, is a testimony of Wilde's wit and his brand of dark comedy. It looks in particular at English upper class society and has been reproduced on stages in Europe and North America since his death in 1900. A film based on this play its supposed to be starting production in fall 2006.
[edit] Plot
The scene is set in an English country house - Hunstanton (Lady Hunstanton's property). The curtains open to the terrace where we are introduced to Lady Caroline who are engaging in conversation with their American Puritan guest Hester Worsley. The discussion is joined by the powerful, charming and charismatic gentleman, Lord Illingworth who has offered the post of secretary to the fortunate Gerald Arbuthnot. Gerald's mother is invited to join the party, after arrival she realises this offer is more complicated than it seems, as Illingworth is the father of her illegitimate son, gerald, who refused marriage all those years ago. The tension mounts when Mrs Arbuthnot is caught between telling her son the truth or allowing him to go with the man who spoilt her life.Gerald finds out about his mother's past in a spectacularly Wildean moment of melodrama - after trying to kill Lord Illing worth for kissing Hester Worsley - a woman with whom he is very much in love.
The play concludes with Gerald, Hester and Mrs. Arbuthnot leaving England for America to live in a society where she will not be judged so harshly.
[edit] Characters of the Play
- Lord Illingworth
- Sir John Pontefract
- Lord Alfred Rufford
- Mr. Kelvil, M.P.
- The Ven. Archdeacon Daubeny, D.D.
- Gerald Arbuthnot
- Farquhar, Butler
- Francis, Footman
- Lady Hunstanton
- Lady Caroline Pontefract
- Lady Stutfield
- Mrs. Allonby
- Miss Hester Worsley
- Alice, Maid
- Mrs. Arbuthnot
[edit] External links
- A Woman of No Importance, available freely at Project Gutenberg
- A Woman of No Importance at IBDB
| The Plays of Oscar Wilde |
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| The Duchess of Padua, A Florentine Tragedy, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, La Sainte Courtisane, Salome, Vera; or, The Nihilists, A Woman of No Importance |
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