Monologue

Mrs Allonby Monologue from A Woman of No Importance

From A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

female · sarcastic · 1:47 min

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The Ideal Man! Oh, the Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says. (LADY HUNSTANTON: But how could he do both, dear?) He should never run down other pretty women. That would show he had no taste, or make one suspect that he had too much. No; he should be nice about them all, but say that somehow they don’t attract him. (LADY STUTFIELD: Yes, that is always very, very pleasant to hear about other women.) If we ask him a question about anything, he should give us an answer all about ourselves. He should invariably praise us for whatever qualities he knows we haven’t got. But he should be pitiless, quite pitiless, in reproaching us for the virtues that we have never dreamed of possessing. He should never believe that we know the use of useful things. That would be unforgiveable. But he should shower on us everything we don’t want.

About this piece

Mrs. Allonby expresses her cynical views on the expectations placed upon men in relationships, highlighting the absurdity of their roles in flattering women while criticizing their unrecognized virtues.

30s · disgust · identity · power · futility · self-perception

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