『하찮은 여인』- 도덕적 모호성 = Moral Ambiguities in A Woman of No Importance

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Oscar Wilde showed his interest in Henry James during his life and praised him as the only great author living in England. While reading Wilde’s drama A Woman of No Importance, I found out its strong kinship with James’ novels. Wilde’s affinities with James that I’ve found out in this drama are as follows. First, Wilde in this drama made use of American character, Hester Worsley, to criticize the English upper class from his own point of view very objectively. Second, in this drama there is almost no action. This is a play in which talk all but entirely displaces action. Third, there are moral ambiguities in Wilde's attitude toward his main characters. He shows his sympathy and contempt simultaneously toward Mrs Arbuthnot and Lord Illingworth. This paper aims at tracing and exploring the third affinity.
This drama is basically a drama about a man who seduced a woman but denied marrying that woman when she became pregnant, or this drama is about a fallen woman who fled her parents for love of the man she loved, only to be deserted by him soon. So, Wilde describes Lord Illingworth as a bad guy who exploited a woman sexually while sympathizing with the sufferings Lady Illingworth went through as a woman. In this case Wilde criticizes moral corruption of the upper class represented by Lord Illingworth from the victim's point of view. However, paradoxically Wilde cannot help loving the hero, Lord Illingworth. He shows his contempt and hatred toward Mrs Arbuthnot from the point of Lord Illingworth, the aesthete and dandy. She finally becomes another selfish character who tries to possess her own son by herself and cannott forgive the sins Lord Illingworth committed 20 years ago. In the battle between the two, Lord Illingworth and Mrs Arbuthnot, there is no complete winner nor complete loser. The battle continues till the end of the drama. We just watch neutrally.

참고문헌 (Reference)

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