A Woman of No Importance: Summary

On the lawn at Hunstanton Chase, Lady Caroline Pontefract cross-examines Hester Worsley, a young American on her first visit to an English country house, and fusses over her husband, Sir John, sending him off for his overshoes. Gerald Arbuthnot, a young bank clerk, brings news that Lord Illingworth has offered to make him his secretary, and Lady Hunstanton, the hostess, writes at once to ask his mother to come up that evening. The rest of the party gathers: the daring Mrs Allonby, the gushing Lady Stutfield and Mr Kelvil, an MP who has spent the morning writing on Purity.

Lord Illingworth arrives and turns every subject into a paradox: America, votes for the uneducated, sympathy with the poor, the fox-hunting country gentleman. He strolls off with Mrs Allonby to see an orchid, and a note comes from Mrs Arbuthnot: she will come in the evening. Returning, Lord Illingworth and Mrs Allonby spar about men and women. She tells him that Hester, a Puritan, would never let him kiss her, and he takes it as a challenge. As they leave the lawn he picks up Mrs Arbuthnot's letter, remarks that the handwriting reminds him of a woman he used to know, and dismisses her as 'a woman of no importance'.

After dinner the ladies talk in the drawing-room. Mrs Allonby complains that her husband Ernest is uninteresting because he really had never loved anyone before her, and describes the Ideal Man at length. Hester, who has been listening quietly, condemns English society as shallow and selfish. She names Lord Henry Weston, who turns out to be Lady Caroline's brother, as a man with a hideous past who is asked everywhere, and demands that men and women who sin be punished alike. Mrs Arbuthnot comes in from the terrace just as Hester says, 'Let all women who have sinned be punished.' Lady Hunstanton, chattering about Lord Illingworth's family, lets slip that he was once plain George Harford, and Mrs Arbuthnot at once asks to see her son.

The men come in. Gerald brings Lord Illingworth to meet his mother; he starts at the sight of her and slowly turns his eyes to Gerald. Mrs Arbuthnot is cold and tries to discourage the appointment. When the others go to hear Hester play, the two are left alone and the truth comes out: she is Rachel, and Gerald is the son she bore after George Harford, then twenty-two, refused to marry her. He wants the boy now. She pleads with him to leave her the one thing she loves, but he points out that she dare not tell Gerald why he should refuse. When Gerald returns and asks for her reason, she says she has none, and Lord Illingworth leads him out to smoke on the terrace.

In the picture gallery Lord Illingworth tutors Gerald: youth is the Lord of Life, a well-tied tie is the first serious step in life, and the future belongs to the dandy. The guests gather and trade maxims on the secret of life; Mrs Arbuthnot says there are things women should never forgive, 'the ruin of another woman's life'. Gerald tells her they leave for India at the end of the month. Hester asks for her friendship, and the two agree that a woman who has sinned should be punished; when Mrs Arbuthnot adds the children, Hester calls it God's law.

Alone with his mother, Gerald says he loves Hester and needs the post so that he can ask her to be his wife. Mrs Arbuthnot tells him of a girl of little over eighteen whom George Harford persuaded to leave her father's house on a promise of marriage that he never kept, but she does not say the girl was herself. Gerald replies that no nice girl would have gone away with a man she was not married to, and she withdraws all her objections. At that moment Hester rushes in crying that Lord Illingworth has insulted her. Gerald swears to kill him, and his mother stops him with the words, 'He is your own father!' She sinks to the ground in shame, and Gerald raises her and leads her away.

Next morning at Wrockley, Lady Hunstanton and Mrs Allonby call and learn that Gerald has given up the post. When they go, Gerald tells his mother he has written to Lord Illingworth to say that he must marry her. She refuses. She will not stand before God's altar and swear to love and obey the man she loathes, and in a long speech she tells Gerald how she has lived for him, unable to repent a sin that gave her her son. Gerald still calls the marriage her duty, until Hester, who has come in unseen, embraces Mrs Arbuthnot and says such a marriage would be her first real dishonour. Hester declares that she has always loved Gerald, offers to share her wealth, and admits that she was wrong: 'God's law is only Love.' Mrs Arbuthnot leads her to Gerald, saying she cannot give him a father but has brought him a wife.

While the young people are in the garden, Lord Illingworth calls. He offers to leave Gerald Ashby, Harborough and his house in St James Square, and to have him for six months of every year. Finding Gerald's letter, he offers to marry Rachel to win back his son. She refuses because she hates him, tells him Gerald merely despises him, and says it was the Puritan who made Gerald see the truth. Taking his leave, Lord Illingworth recalls how she once gave herself to him and begins to call her his mistress. She strikes him across the face with his glove, and he goes. When Gerald finds the glove and asks who has called, his mother answers, 'Oh! no one. No one in particular. A man of no importance.'