A Woman of No Importance

The third act of A Woman of No Importance focuses on showing how the desperate situation that Mrs. Arbuthnot faces is due to the moral rigidity of the characters who appear to be the most virtuous. While the previous acts have depicted figures of English high society as ridiculous, superficial, and amoral, the third act takes a turn and indicates that the most serious conflict is caused by characters like Hester and Gerald, who seem to be the most morally upright and uncompromising guests at the party. Without their judgmental and harsh attitudes, Lord Illingworth would never be able to blackmail Mrs. Arbuthnot into remaining silent about the way he previously mistreated and abandoned her.

In the conversation between Hester and Mrs. Arbuthnot, Wilde uses dramatic irony in order to create sympathy for Mrs. Arbuthnot. Hester speaks to her in a friendly manner, seeing her as an ally to her belief system and considering her to be one of the most virtuous people present at the party; however, her words accidentally condemn both Mrs. Arbuthnot and her son. While Hester has previously spoken out against the Gendered Double Standards faced by women, especially regarding the ways in which society only punishes women for their sexual transgressions, her strict interpretation of Christian law actually damages her relationship with the very people she admires. She proclaims: “Yes, it is right that the sins of the parents should be visited on the children. It is a just law. It is God’s law” (128). Even as she says this, she is unknowingly criticizing Mrs. Arbuthnot and denigrating Gerald, though Hester assumes that they would no doubt agree with her because of their own high standards of morality.

Similarly, Gerald’s own moral rigidity prevents him from listening to his own mother when she tries to warn him against associating with Lord Illingworth. Fearing that he would be angry at her for concealing his true parentage, Mrs. Arbuthnot reveals the truth in the form of a story that she frames as if it happened to someone else. However, this causes Gerald to react judgmentally toward the woman whom Lord Illingworth seduced, not realizing it is his own mother. He blames his mother for being abandoned while pregnant, asking, “After all, would a really nice girl, a girl with any nice feelings at all, go away from her home with a man to whom she was not married, and live with him as his wife? No nice girl would” (137). By using dramatic irony, Wilde wins the audience’s sympathy for Mrs. Arbuthnot, revealing why she is forced to keep her past with Lord Illingworth a secret. Furthermore, Gerald’s dismissal of women who have premarital sex exposes his own double standards and hypocrisy—he is still willing to work for Lord Illingworth despite the story his mother told him, easily blaming the woman for being immoral while excusing Lord Illingworth’s actions.