A Woman of No Importance

“LADY CAROLINE. Well, you couldn’t come to a more charming place than this, Miss Worsley, though the house is excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here.”

Lady Caroline’s dialogue establishes her as a character who makes backhanded compliments, praising Lady Hunstanton’s party while simultaneously critiquing it. This sets up a form of verbal irony that Oscar Wilde uses throughout the play to indicate The Cynicism of English Society and how its members use a veneer of politeness to cover up their cruelty. By mentioning Lady Hunstanton’s penchant for inviting disreputable company, this quote foreshadows the conflict between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Arbuthnot.

“LADY CAROLINE. 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.”

Wilde mocks the social morals and hypocrisy of English society through Lady Caroline’s absurd claim. The notion that people need to conceal their romantic feelings until after marriage is ridiculous, but by having Lady Caroline articulate this perspective as though it were a cultural rule, Wilde exposes how unreasonable such an expectation is while also mocking the English for their preferred unemotionality.

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

This quote employs repetition and a short sentence structure to indicate the limitless nature of hope. By using the simple, short sentence “life is a hope,” Hester implies that as long as a person is still alive, there is always hope and therefore no one is beyond redemption.