The Birth of New Woman in Victorian England

Victorian women were put in an inferior position of dependency on men. They were inseparable from men as the only way to live a respectable life was together with a man. In the Victorian age when female innocence was highly valued and sex for a respectable woman was deemed appropriate only within marriage, the loss of chastity for an unwed woman led her to fall into contempt in the eyes of society. It was met with the term a “fallen woman” including negative implications for women who had intimate relations with a man outside of marriage. Oscar Wilde describes the fallen woman with the characterization of Mrs. Arbuthnot in his play, A Woman of No Importance. His description of a fallen woman is supported by the characterization of Hester, which sheds light on the changing female role in Victorian England.

Mrs. Arbuthnot has raised her son, Gerald with the shame of illegitimacy. While she has to live an isolated life in shame due to offending Victorian values, the father of her child, Lord Illingworth lives his life without any problems thanks to his male gender. When Gerald learns the fact that his father is Lord Illingworth, he wants his mother to marry Lord Illingworth so that atonement can be made. However, Mrs. Arbuthnot is aware of the fact that no matter what men do, Victorian values always protect the reputation of the male sex. She could marry the father of her child in order to become moral and respectable again but she refuses to do so, choosing instead to be alone and take care of her son independently. At this point, she gives particular importance to her own individual values and ignores what kind of woman she is in the eyes of society, so she represents changing female roles in Victorian England. However, Mrs. Arbuthnot’s confident and strong attitude does not result from the difficult experience of raising her child alone. Later, she has already rejected patriarchal power in her younger years. Here, the mother of Lord Illingworth offers her six hundred a year, which Mrs. Arbuthnot refuses to accept. Even if there is a possibility that accepting the money could make Mrs. Arbuthnot’s life financially easier, it would make her dependent on the man who had betrayed her. Thus, she refuses to live under the patronage of a man or his money and chooses to shape her fate by her own will instead of carrying the attribution of a fallen woman forever.

Hester is a young American lady who finds the English society shallow and unjust to women. She sees the repressed Victorian woman as the product of over-exaggerated moral values in the patriarchal society. Unaware of Mrs. Arbuthnot's past, Hester holds her in very high regard. When Hester finds out that Mrs. Arbuthnot is a fallen woman and that her beloved Gerald is an illegitimate child, she chooses to understand the situation of Mrs. Arbuthnot and reconciles her moral convictions with her love, respect, and admiration for the Arbuthnot. Here, Hester relies on her own individual values and respects Mrs. Arbuthnot who is seen as a fallen woman in society. Also, at the end of the play, Hester symbolizes how strong a woman can be because she offers to save both Gerald and his mother from the shallow society of London, taking them with her home. Both Mrs. Arbuthnot and Hester take their own decisions and ignore the stereotyped values of Victorian society. Therefore, Wilde portrays the birth of a new woman in Victorian England in the play.

picture: https://www.storytel.com/se/sv/books/a-woman-of-no-importance-1360791