Abstract :
Oscar wilde?S through the Characters of his play, A Woman of No
importance (1983),
Criticizes British Society of the period in the way they treat women. Women of
the period suffered from unequal treatment. Their position in both the So ciety and
family were weak.
There are two goals of this study. The first goal is to identify the women
position of the British society in the late nineteenth century as represented by the
characters in the play. The second goal is to find author?s criticism toward women
position of the British society in the late nineteenth century.
The method applied in this thesis is a library research. The writer collected
data from two sources. There are the play and some books on theory of literature,
theory of gender, theory critical approach of literature, and the Victorian period
History of Britain in order to answer the problems, the writer analyzed the play
based on Sociocultural historical approach. It is useful to find out the information
about women?s social position of the play and compare it with real condition in
England where the play was created.
The analysis is divided into two subchapters. The first subchapter
discusses several Characteristics of the Character in the play to know and to
understand about the position of the British women in the late nineteenth Century.
Although the Writer Particularly high lights on the major Character, it is also
reasonable to describe some minor Characters since their presence are important
in building the whole story. The second subchapter discusses the Author?s critism
toward women?s position of the British society in the late nineteenth Century.
The study concludes that through the Characters of the play, the Author
shares his understanding of women?s position of the British society in the late
nineteenth Century. Using the characters in the play, the Author criticizes the
society in the way they treat women and put women in the lower place. Through
the play, the Author wants to say women of the British society in the late 19
th
century suffer unequal treatment from society.