I liked it a lot. Wilde's stories are always interesting, though this one is more melancholic than his other plays. It is a four-act play, with various characters of 'society' plus the protagonists that really matter to the story. A young American girl is among the guests and tells them and us how English Society is "shallow, selfish, foolish". Hester says "you rich people don't know how you are living. You shut out from your society the gentle and the good. You laugh at the simple and the pure" and much more. There is also young Gerald, who has no father and is quite poor, therefore he didn't have a good education. There's Lord Illingworth, who has great sympathy for the boy and just made him his personal secretary, a wonderful position for a man like Gerald. The title of this story comes from his own words. After seeing Mrs Arbuthnot's calligraphy, he says it reminds him of someone he knew. When asked who that person is, he replies "oh! No one. No one in particular. A woman of no importance". At the end, this answer will come again under different circumstances, and this time it will be just and true and it'll leave a smile on the reader's face.
The women call for Gerald's mother, Mrs Arbuthnot, to join them to rejoice on the promotion, but when she comes a bad surprise awaits. She recognizes in lord Illingworth the man that twenty years ago seduced her, made her fall in love, promised her to love and marry her, but that refused to do so when she informed him that she was pregnant. She had begged him, for the child's sake, but he would not, so she left him and he never saw her or the child again. Now, upon seeing her, he understands that Gerald is his own son and is more eager than ever to have him along, but now she won't let her son go with him. She tries everything to convince Gerald not to go with him, to stay with her, but he speaks very hardly and she's about to give up when Hester comes running for help. Lord Illingworth had tried to kiss her, and Gerald who is in love with her instantly rises to her defense, declaring he would kill him for insulting her as he did. Mrs Arbuthnot shouts for him to stop, but he only stops when she reveals the truth about him being his own father. The next and final act sees Gerald writing a letter to him, to decline the offer and insist that it's his duty to marry her (the little idiot *sigh*). Mrs Arbuthnot is shocked and refuses the idea with great decision, of course. He insists, but she's not allowing even the idea of it. "Mother, you must"-"I will not. You talk of atonement for a wrong done. What atonement can be made to me? There is no atonement possible. I am disgraced: he is not. That is all. It is the usual history of a man and a woman as it usually happens, as it always happens. And the ending is the ordinary ending. The woman suffers. The man goes free"
Gerald can't understand until Hester comes in and hearing their words she throws herself in her arms, crying that she must not do such a thing. She then confesses she loves Gerald too, and that there are other places they can go to where Mrs Arbuthnot's past will no longer be important. Hester is rich, and quite happy to share it with Gerald, but she doesn't just want to go away with him, she wants her to go with them and count her as a daughter. While the young ones wait in the garden, lord Illingworth comes to say he wants his son, but she only wants him to go. He reads Gerald's letter, sill on the table, and although he doesn't feel it is his 'duty', he is ready to marry her to have his son, but to his surprise she strongly refuses. When he understands that Gerald and Hester are to get married, he also understands that his money is useless and he can not convince her. Before going he says "it's been an amusing experience to have meet amongst people of one's own rank, and treated quite seriously too, one's mistress, and one's..." but he can't go on because she slaps his face with his own glove, the disgusting man. After he goes away, Gerald and Hester come looking for her. They see the glove on the floor and ask about the visitor. "Who was it?" - "Oh! No one. No one in particular. A man of no importance" Yeah, none at all!!
Let me tell you how annoying it was to 'hear' Illingworth talk of Gerald as 'our son' or 'my son'.. as if he had any claim on him. He doesn't. He had his chance and he refused. I guess people would say 'he's still his father' but I do not like those stories. I don't like them because it's too easy to run away from the responsibility and the hard moments and then easily come back when everything's done and taken care of, and all he has to do is spend some money. I despise that. Love doesn't come from blood alone, love comes from love, from respect, admiration, devotion, and stuff like that.
Nobody should try to buy it with money. Nobody should call himself a man and be so pathetic. They should earn love, not buy it. They should try earning it, giving time and attention and care, not giving mere money.
Wilde's lines I'd like to remember:
Mrs Arbuthnot - When a man is old enough to do wrong, he should be old enough to do right also.
- You are right. We women live by our emotions and for them. By our passions and for them, if you will. I have two passions, lord Illingworth: my love of him, my hate of you. You cannot kill those. They feed each other
Lord Illingworth - if you want to know what a woman really means - which by the way is always a dangerous thing to do - look at her, don't listen to her.
Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.
Mrs Allonby - Men always want to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man's last romance.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being?
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