39 pages • 1 hour read
A Woman of No Importance
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Act IIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act II Summary
After dinner, the women at the party engage in witty conversation in the drawing room. Mrs. Allonby amuses the group by giving an ironic speech about how the ideal man is one who satisfies his wife’s whims, giving her a life of luxury and drama, rather than being a paragon of virtue. While the other women are amused by Mrs. Allonby’s cynical banter, Hester objects. She condemns English high society for the ways that it excludes all virtue and sincerity in favor of cleverness. Furthermore, she insists that only women are ever punished for sexual sins; she points out that men, on the other hand, continue to be included in society even after it is common knowledge that they had an affair. In her speech, she accidentally insults Lady Caroline’s brother, who is a known flirt. Lady Caroline does not dispute that her brother has affairs with women he has no intention of marrying, but she does not mind this because he is a charming guest at dinner parties.
At this point, Mrs. Arbuthnot arrives at the party, shifting the direction of the conversation. Lady Hunstanton asks her if she has met Lord Illingworth previously, but Mrs. Arbuthnot reveals she has not since she goes out so rarely. When Lady Hunstanton explains how Lord Illingworth—whose real name is George Harford—came to inherit the title through a series of happy coincidences, Mrs. Arbuthnot looks uncomfortable and insists that she must speak to her son at once. When the men arrive and join the ladies in the drawing room, Mrs. Arbuthnot closely watches Lord Illingworth from across the room.
Lord Illingworth tells Mrs. Allonby that he intends to seduce Hester within a week. Gerald is happy to see his mother and tells her that Lord Illingworth has asked him to be his secretary, but Mrs. Arbuthnot says that such a thing is unlikely to actually happen, as Gerald lacks the education and skills required for the position.
The other guests leave for the music room to hear a performance, but Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot stay back in the drawing room to talk privately. Their conversation reveals that Mrs. Arbuthnot is actually Lord Illingworth’s former lover, Rachel, and Gerald is his illegitimate son. Mrs. Arbuthnot describes how she fell in love with Lord Illingworth before he inherited his title, back when he was still called George Harford. She left her father to live with him and became pregnant, but he refused to marry her and legitimize the relationship; eventually, he abandoned her to raise the child alone. Mrs. Arbuthnot begs Lord Illingworth not to take her son from her, criticizing him for refusing to marry her or to support his child at any point previously. Lord Illingworth objects, saying that he could not have married her without risking his position. He asks her not to tell Gerald the truth, saying that if she does, Gerald will condemn her and judge her for her sins. Lord Illingworth urges her to be practical and allow him to take his son as a secretary and help to advance his career.
Gerald returns to the drawing room and asks if the two have come to an agreement about his career. Mrs. Arbuthnot does not tell her son the truth about his parentage, which leaves her with no good reason to object to his new position as Lord Illingworth’s secretary.
Act II Analysis
The action in Act II takes place in two sections: In the first, the women converse after dinner, and in the second, Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot have a private conversation. These divided conversations indicate the tendency of English high society to ignore and cover up the truth, preferring witty entertainment to genuine emotion. Mrs. Allonby’s witty comments are deeply cynical and ironic, yet they are accepted because they are said flippantly and amuse people. Meanwhile, Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot’s private conversation reveals secrets that could never be accepted by the other characters.
In the conversation between the women after dinner, Mrs. Allonby initially dominates the conversation with a witty discussion about the role of women in marriage, highlighting the theme of Women and Social Power. Her dialogue reveals that English high society does not treat its own moral rules seriously. For example, she quips that “nothing is so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about the good temper of most modern men. I wonder we women stand it as well as we do” (54). While Victorian manners would consider calmness a virtue, Mrs. Allonby argues that women prefer passion. Similarly, she describes an ideal man by saying: “He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. […] He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says” (58-59). In sharp contrast to expectations, Mrs. Allonby’s version of an ideal husband is one who fulfills a woman’s pleasure rather than one who behaves virtuously and encourages a woman to be virtuous.
While the play leans into Mrs. Allonby’s views by presenting them as witty and entertaining, it also critiques The Cynicism of English Society through Hester’s dialogues. While Hester’s rigid interpretation of biblical morality is framed as a flaw and a source of conflict, her earnestness also helps to expose the hypocrisy of the high society aesthetes. She describes English society as “a dead thing smeared with gold” (67), creating an image of superficial beauty concealing decay. She also implies that the lack of morality in English society has caused the country as a whole to lose its power—it is “a dead thing” compared to the vitality, innocence, and youth of America, which Hester represents. This image also parallels the characterization of Lord Illingworth. While Lord Illingworth is superficially charming, his private conversation reveals that he has acted cruelly and immorally by abandoning his former lover and mother of his child. Additionally, by exposing Lord Illingworth’s manipulative behavior and cruel blackmailing of Mrs. Arbuthnot, the play also condemns the abusive way that Lord Illingworth treats others. Thus, the audience is able to sympathize with Mrs. Arbuthnot—despite being a “fallen woman” who had premarital sex, the play depicts her as a loving mother and admired friend.
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