A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

Every book’s journey into the life of a reader is quite unique, a story in itself. One lazy afternoon, where I did not wish to read something heavy but also something substantial & was just browsing through all books left unread; there were some very old editions of books shopped from either the book fair or picked up randomly from a library & never returned. One such book was ‘A Woman of No Importance’ by Oscar Wilde. The book certified all the criteria of my wants and was the thinnest amid the collection of books before my eyes.

I took out the book, wiped the dust & turned the first page. I have a habit of scribbling the date and the place on the first page of any book that becomes mine. I smiled after seeing, “5/11/2019; stolen from bloom boutique’. Oh yes, call me a ‘book thief’ & I would bravely embrace the title like an Olympiad Gold Medalist.

It took me back to this wonderful day at this place, where I had gone with a friend at a friend of friend’s wedding party. I recalled, how one day after the morning buffet I was just exploring the place and that is when this huge bookshelf called for my attention. I went closer, it was an open bookshelf placed in a corner for people who are rather shy to the humdrums of society and seek refuge in between the damp smell of printed pages. I saw numerous books and had a sinful desire of stealing this particular book, because, one, it was Wilde & two, the title of the book fascinated me beyond limits. I went to my friend and asked if I could just steal it & she said, “if you can successfully, without being caught then please do go ahead.” I returned back to the bookshelf after her positive affirmation, picked up this book and carried it home with me.

Since then, it was rotting amid a dozen unread books & I could spot those tiny book termites eating up the old pages. After almost three years of possessing this beauty, I finally picked it up for being the thinnest in my entire collection and now finishing it gives me an absolute incomparable delight. Oscar Wilde has his way of writing, his wit and charm totally enchanting the reader.

It is a satire on the English society and the ways of the aristocrats, the position of women & the hypocrisy of the human societal relations where women are seen either as ‘tedious’ or ‘emotional’. You will see the sexist disdain of Lord Illingworth and the struggles of Mrs. Arbuthnot to hide her sins for being a part of the pure society.

Women are a much talked about topic and the central character Lord Illingworth reduces women into two categories i.e — ‘plain women’ and ‘colored women’. The plain are the not so pretty ones and the colored are the ones not dull in appearance. The book highlights the shallow and sexist evaluation of women which certainly exists even today. The inclusion is slow, but I am hopeful that it would certainly move upwards.

‘A Woman of No Importance’ is an entertaining drama & will get you immersed. Wilde somewhere also throws light upon how the laws that have been made to confine the desires, passion & impulses of human beings have not been successful; rather it has led to the division of those who have sinned and those who are ‘called pure’. He reflects on the hypocrisy and manipulation that exists in human relations and how there is an innate desire to control & subjugate one another, though its the women, who have mostly been the victims of being classified as ‘wicked’ if for once they ever decide to stand up for themselves.

It has some real good discussions where you will find the women characters discussing their conception of an ‘Ideal Man’ & trust me you, nothing would be fundamentally as flawed as the ‘Ideal Man’. There is a constant conflict between what a woman wants and what the society wants out of her. The celebrated is the one who is all giving, all caring & sinful are those who have kept themselves before anyone else.

I cannot stop myself from sharing some beautiful lines from the book.

“It is not customary in England, Miss Worsley, for a young lady to speak with such enthusiasm of any person of the opposite sex. English women conceal their feelings till after they are married. They show them then.”

“Nothing should be out of reach of hope. Life is a hope.”

“The one advantage of playing with fire, Lady Caroline, is that one never gets even signed. It is the people who don’t know how to play with it who get burned up.”

“One should never take sides in anything, Mr. Kelvil. Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and the human being becomes a bore.”

“Nothing is serious except passion. The intellect is not a serious thing, and never has been. It is an instrument on which one plays, that is all.”

“One can survive everything now-a-days, except death, and live down on anything except a good reputation.”

“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”

“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.”

“Oh, duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does one’s self.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“Oh, talk to every woman as if you have 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.”

“The only difference between saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

“All thought is immoral. It’s the very essence of destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought of.”

“To look at anything that is inconstant is charming now-a-days.”

“As for a title, a title is really rather a nuisance in these democratic days.”

On the whole, ‘A woman of No Importance’ presents beautifully how human beings are fundamentally corrupt and how they love to wear the mask of purity. I believe after sharing these lines I do not even have to recommend the book. This is certainly for all who are in no mood to read & still wish to relish something short & worthwhile at the same time.