The New Woman
In Oscar Wilde’s play “A Woman of No Importance”, Mrs. Rachel Arbuthnot is a representation of a “New Woman” during the era where this play was made in. She was able to stand up the the male dominance that was enforced upon her and remain independent of a man. She accepted that her son was illegitimate and was proud to raise him all by herself. She challenges Lord Illingworth when he tries to insist that she marry him and make Gerald legitimate. She refuses his proposal due to her own pride of raising Gerald without a man. She wants to prove that she did not need a man in her life before and she does not need one now. She lied to people about her son’s father, so that her son would not be teased and tormented about the fact that he is illegitimate. This proves how much she really cares for her son and not her own reputation. I would think that most woman in this era would care more for their reputation and would want to marry the father of their children so that they could protect it.
Rachel refused to marry Lord Illingworth when Gerald asked her too. “What mother has ever refused to marry the father of her own child? None.” Gerald says and Rachel replies, “Let me be the first, then. I will not do it” (Wilde). She later goes on to say, “I will not say the words the Church bids us to say. I will not say them. I dare not. How could I swear to love the man I loathe, to honour him who wrought you dishonour, to obey him who, in his mastery, made me to sin? No: marraige is a sacrament for those who love each other. It is not for such as him, or such as me. Gerald, to save you from the world’s sneers and taunts I have lied to the world. For twenty years I have lied to the world. I could not tell the world the truth. Who can, ever? But not for my own sake will I lie to God, and in God’s presence. No, Gerald, no ceremony, Church-hallowed or State-made, shall ever bind me to George Harford [Lord Illingworth]. It may be that I am too bound to him already, who, robbing me, yet left me richer, so that in the mire of my life I found the pearl of price, or what I thought would be so” (Wilde). This is her way of justifying why she will not marry Lord Illingworth to Gerald. She refuses to submit to societies standards that she should marry the father of her child and justifies it by ways of telling her son that she cannot take back the lie that she has spread for twenty years to protect him. She refuses to marry a man she does not love just for her son to have a title. Rachel tells Lord Illingworth that herself as well as her son have survived all of these years without him in their lives and that they can survive the rest without him too. She wants to remain independent as she has been for most of her life and all of Gerald’s life.
The play end with Gerald questioning whose glove is in the room with his mother. Rachel replies, “Oh! no one. No one in particular. A man of no importance” (Wilde). This is Rachel’s final way of rejecting Lord Illingworth because it shows that she does not need him around and that she is truly moving on with her life. In fact the family is moving to America and leaving the English society and rules behind for a new adventure. This proves that Rachel is a “New Woman” because she does not care what society thinks of her, she is not one to follow societies rules, and she refused to marry the father of her child. Which by standards of that era was unheard of because your reputation would be tarnished for having a child out of wedlock. The only reason she lied was to protect her son who meant more to her than anyone else in the world.
Work Cited: A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde