The paper discusses the main characters in Oscar Wilde's play “An Ideal Husband” and their relation to art and what it means to be an artist.
Oscar Wilde was a writer who often protested against the Victorian ideology through his work and often wrote about how societal norms and rules were mere control tools imposed by the few who wanted to establish their power over others.
Oscar Wilde’s main characters in An Ideal Husband
E. Agathokleous 2020
The 19th century was a period of many changes in the areas of technology and industrialization which led to a massive turn to urbanization (Zayani 31). In those times England managed to be ahead of everyone else becoming the world’s leading power through the telegraph system, railroads and ships and also through the country’s colonization policy that expanded its grounds and its domination (Zayani 31). Despite progress in these areas the strict moral rules and the fixed gender roles of the time greatly resisted change. Women remained inferior and had the sole role of supporting their husbands while men were considered the only ones able to deal with serious issues like politics and financial matters (Zayani 32). However, the late 19th century was the period of the beginning of social change and literary works which noticed and dealt with that change emerged (Zoyani 32). The late nineteenth century was a time when established values about the power relations between genders and also the notion of marriage were challenged (Wareham 291). Oscar Wilde was a writer who often protested against the Victorian ideology through his work and often wrote about how societal norms and rules were mere control tools imposed by the few who wanted to establish their power over others (Zayani 33).
Wilde’s play An Ideal Husband is a play that was promoted as a play about modern life and deals with the issue of a respectable gentleman who is blackmailed by a woman for an unethical deed he committed in the past (Ruby xix, Zhang 82). After his wife finds out, this Victorian gentleman has to face what could be catastrophic consequences regarding both his marriage but also his position in society (Zhang 82). With the help of a friend, the story offers a happy ending with both another marriage and a promotion of the protagonist (Zhang 82). The novel is a different take on gender relations since women in the play act more independently and are not victimized as in the past but rather acquire their own agency (Ruby, xix). A close reading of Wilde’s play An Ideal Husband offers an insight on the various characters of both men and women, specifically through three sets of couples that show different levels of modernity in a changing society.
Lady Chiltern’s ideal husband appears as “A personality of mark … intensely admired by the few, and deeply respected by the many” (Wilde Act I Sc.1A). He is a well respected man of the government and also a successful husband who however has done things in his past that he is not proud of as it is revealed later in the play. Sir Robert claims that “I wanted my success when I was young. I couldn’t wait”, and that what he did was entirely a result of “the double misfortune of being well-born and poor” while at the same time he talks about the importance of wealth in their time (Wilde, Act II Sc. 1). Despite his desire for power and wealth he is also determined to keep his wife’s love by concealing his past since he fears that if his perfect image is spoiled she will reject him “I couldn’t tell my wife. I would have lost the love of the one woman in the world I worship” (Wilde Act II Sc.1). Because of his dilemma he bursts in an accusation of the impossible standards imposed on men and reveals that his wife’s expectations of an ideal man are smothering and come in contrast with his own love that includes loving her imperfections and forgiving her faults (Wilde, Act II Sc.4C). However, in the end Sir Robert not only escapes humiliation and saves his marriage he also gets promoted (Zayani 41).
Sir Robert’s wife and one of the main female protagonists of the play, Lady Chiltern, is a woman of “grave Greek beauty” (Wilde, Act I sc.1A) which embodies an honest, solemn woman who is active in female issues; educated and supportive of her husband. Through the course of the play she undergoes a change that has a lot to do with the idea of the ideal husband and of how much she has the right to demand of him. Her appearance and also her behavior make her an idealistic Victorian woman, one in line with the patriarchal norms of the time that is focused on marriage and preserving it at all costs (Zayani, 36). However as a more modern woman she firmly believes that her husband also needs to uphold some standards in order to be a man deserving of her adoration. In Act I of the play she lays down her belief that women like to be devoted and love a man who is a role model not only for his wife, but for society in general “Robert, to the world as to myself, you have been an ideal, always” (Wilde, Act I sc.6). This is the reason she must remain faithful to her principles and dismiss her husband’s excuses when his dishonesty is finally revealed. She however listens to Lord Goring’s opinion that a woman that loves should not hold so unrealistic expectations and she should forgive her man’s mistakes. As Lord Goring says to her “I have often thought that ... perhaps, that you are just a little too unbending hard in your views on life. I think that . . . often you don’t make sufficient allowances” (Wilde Act II Sc.3A). Her husband also reinforces Goring’s views “And now what is there before me but public disgrace, ruin, terrible shame, the mockery of the world? Let women make no more ideals of men; or they will ruin other lives as completely as you—you whom I have so wildly loved—have ruined mine” (Wilde, Act II, Sc. 4B). Lady Chiltern while strict and believing that someone dishonest cannot change (Wilde Act II Sc, 4B), she in the end acts like a paradigm of the Victorian woman who sacrifices her own ideals in order to support her husband. This makes her just another woman with no other role than to submit and obey the patriarchal demand that women are not allowed a free will (Zayani 39). Lady Chiltern is in no position to argue about her moral superiority to that of her husband and she must put herself in a lower position in order to perform her duties as a proper wife should (Zayani 41).
Lord Goring manages to make Sir Roberts problem disappear by burning the evidence and convincing Lady Chiltern that her true role is as a wife is to support her husband at all costs. Lord Goring has an appeal for dressing well and leading a life of pleasure and he enacts modernity at the highest level throughout the play. He is described as “clever, but would not like to be thought so” and “A flawless dandy” who “plays with life” and “is on perfectly good terms with the world” (Wilde, Act I Sc.1C). This is especially evident in the way he humorously confronts his father who insists that his son should marry “You can’t be always living for pleasure. It is high time for you to get married” “Yes, father, but I only admit to thirty-two—thirty-one and a half when I have a really good buttonhole” (Wilde, Act III Sc.2). Goring is the most modern character of the play commentator and judge of an older society to which he does not abide (Ruby xx). He however speaks romantically on love and stresses women’s established role in marriage in his attempt to save Sir Roberts marriage and name “Now is the moment to trust in my counsel and judgment. You love Robert… What sort of existence will he have if you rob him of the fruits of his ambition” and convinces Lady Chiltern to forgive her husband and admit that “You life is more important than this. Lord Goring has made me understand. I will not spoil your life for you, nor see you spoil it as a sacrifice to me” (Wilde, Act IV Sc.5D). Lord Goring does exceptionally well in rescuing his friend from the dire situation and appears despite his dandy character in the play as a problem solver that manages to destroy Mrs. Chaveley’s threat and save his friend’s marriage (Zayani 40). His modern behavior and more relaxed life stance that goes against a fully Victorian established masculinity rather disappears as he speaks to Lady Chiltern about marriage and what the conventional roles of man and woman should be (Zayani 40). This shows that no matter his opinions and his lifestyle he still can revert to those very strict rules that defined genders in Victorian society in order to save Sir Robert.
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- Elena Agathokleous (Author), 2021, Oscar Wilde’s main characters in "An Ideal Husband", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1007698
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