A Woman of No Importance

A Woman of No Importance comments upon the double standards of sexual morality applied to late-Victorian women. The outcome of the relationship between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot reveals how women face social ruin for premarital sex; however, for men, the same act does not affect their reputation or career.

Oscar Wilde exposes one major attribute of this double standard: The pregnancies that arise as a result of premarital sex burden women more than men. Typically, women raise the children alone while men are free to abandon their babies. When Mrs. Arbuthnot attempts to bargain with Lord Illingworth and convince him not to take on Gerald as his secretary, she points out that keeping their child has been her only consolation, while he has had other pleasures. She tells him: “I have had twenty years of sorrow, and I have only had one thing to love me, only one thing to love. You have had a life of joy, and pleasure, and success” (93). Her statement reveals that Lord Illingworth’s life has been mostly unaffected by their affair, allowing him to have a successful career and an established place in high society. Although Lord Illingworth is openly amoral and flirtatious, the guests at Lady Hunstanton’s party treat this behavior as an amusing quirk rather than a reason to exclude him from their company.