Who Is The "Woman Of No Importance"� In Wilde's Play?

Mrs Arbuthnot, the central character of this 1893 play, is regarded as being of no importance by the society she lives in. She is apparently a poor widow, who has struggled to bring up her son and now is lucky enough to see him being offered a post as secretary to a rich dandy, Lord Illingworth. In reality her son, Gerald, is Lord Illingworth's illegitimate child. Long ago he seduced her and refused to marry her; she left him and, refusing all help, took an assumed name and brought up Gerald in a strict. Puritannical environment. Now she faces a dilemma; to help her son succeed in the world, she must lose him to a man she despises.

The play sharply points out the hypocrisy of Victorian society, and the double standard which ostracised women for behaviour which was encouraged in men. In it, the characters are forced to question their assumptions about morality, and about which people are of "importance."