by Naomi Garton

Created on: September 15, 2008

In the novel A Woman of No Importance written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800's a central theme of the novel is social class as Wilde appears to be satirising upper class Victorian society in its hypocrisy. Social problems are dismissed in an insincere and superficial way, a technique of Wilde's that shows the upper class for what they are, whilst maintaining his reputation as a wit.

Wilde's first criticism of the upper class is that they are of higher status than everyone else because they possess titles. At the beginning of the play Lady Caroline begins the conversation, "I believe this is the first country house you have stayed at Miss Worsley?" and the use of the personal pronoun suggests she is of higher social status than the others present. The aristocracy at the time were a very small elite group who would do their research to find out how rich a person was. The fact that it is "the first country house" that Miss Worsley has stayed in suggests that Lady Caroline has brought up the subject to put her down because she is not of as high a class as she is and the use of the rhetorical question emphasises this.

In the novel A Woman of No Importance written by Oscar Wilde in the late 1800's a central theme of the novel is social class as Wilde appears to be satirising upper class Victorian society in its hypocrisy. Social problems are dismissed in an insincere and superficial way, a technique of Wilde's that shows the upper class for what they are, whilst maintaining his reputation as a wit.

Wilde's first criticism of the upper class is that they are of higher status than everyone else because they possess titles. At the beginning of the play Lady Caroline begins the conversation, "I believe this is the first country house you have stayed at Miss Worsley?" and the use of the personal pronoun suggests she is of higher social status than the others present. The aristocracy at the time were a very small elite group who would do their research to find out how rich a person was. The fact that it is "the first country house" that Miss Worsley has stayed in suggests that Lady Caroline has brought up the subject to put her down because she is not of as high a class as she is and the use of the rhetorical question emphasises this.

Wilde's first criticism of the upper class is that they are of higher status than everyone else because they possess titles. At the beginning of the play Lady Caroline begins the conversation, "I believe this is the first country house you have stayed at Miss Worsley?" and the use of the personal pronoun suggests she is of higher social status than the others present. The aristocracy at the time were a very small elite group who would do their research to find out how rich a person was. The fact that it is "the first country house" that Miss Worsley has stayed in suggests that Lady Caroline has brought up the subject to put her down because she is not of as high a class as she is and the use of the rhetorical question emphasises this.

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