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An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (05_an_ideal_husband_by_oscar_wilde.doc)

An Ideal Husband

A play by Oscar Wilde

Title:

        An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

Published:

        Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995

Context:

        With respect to historical context, Wilde wrote An Idea Husband during the decade known as the "Yellow" or "Naughty Nineties", the twilight years of England's Victorian era. This period was distinguished by England's growth as an industrial and imperial giant and an increasingly conservatism in social mores. Imperial expansion, foreign speculation, and the period's rigid system of mores – involving, for example, notions of familial devotion, propriety, and duty both public and personal – provide the backdrop for Wilde's play.

        The Aesthetic Movement of the "Yellow Nineties," a movement has its roots in dandyism and decadence. The figure of the Dandy dates back to the early nineteenth century and the fashionable English playboy Beau Brummel. Celebrated in several essays by the French poet Baudelaire in the 1860s, the Dandy, a consummate man of fashion, evolved into a figure of exaggeration, moral liberty, and the art of pretense.

        Decadence grew out of English imitations of French visions of artistic autonomy. Modeled especially on the ideas of Baudelaire, Decadence emerged in England in the 1860s with the writing of Algernon Swinburne. It flaunted the pursuit of forbidden experiences – from homosexuality to hashish – while asserting the superiority of artifice over nature. One was expected to be irresponsible, witty, artificial, and languorous, while always exhibiting astonishing superiority in style and dress.

        As a primary propagator of aestheticism, Wilde rebelled against Victorian sensibilities, calling for a world judged by the beauty of its artifice rather than its moral value. The aesthets called to forget about the duties to society in the name of individual freedom, social theatricality, and the pleasures of style and affectation. Ideal Husband dramatizes this clash in value systems rather explicitly, continually posing the figure of the dandy – a thinly veiled double of Wilde himself – against a set of more respectable, "ideal" characters.

About the play:

        Wilde and his play are by now firmly established in the English-language, and most libraries hold volumes of the individual or collected plays. The Modern Library editions of Wilde's collected comedies are the most widespread.

        In the summer of 1893, Oscar Wilde began writing An Ideal Husband, and he completed it later that winter. At this point in his career he was accustomed to success, and in writing An Ideal Husband he wanted to ensure himself public fame. His work began at Goring-on-Thames, after which he named the character Lord Goring, and concluded at St. James Place. He initially sent the completed play to the Garrick theater, where the manager rejected it, but it was soon accepted the Haymarket Theatre, where Lewis Waller had temporarily taken control. Waller was an excellent actor and cast himself as Sir Robert Chiltern. The play gave the Haymarket the success it desperately needed. After opening on January 3, 1895, it continued for 124 performances. In April of that year, Wilde was arrested for ‘gross indecency’ and his name was publicly taken off the play. On April 6, soon after Wilde's arrest, the play moved to the Criterion Theatre where it ran from April 13-27. The play was published in 1899, although Wilde was not listed as the author. This published version differs slightly from the performed play, for Wilde added many passages and cut others. Prominent additions included written stage directions and character descriptions. Wilde was a leader in the effort to make plays accessible to the reading public. In 1897, he wrote a letter describing the process of writing An Ideal Husband, which was later published under the title De Profundis.

        The play borrows from the style of Alexandre Dumas, where a theatrical device, in this case a letter, determines the outcome. Yet, Wilde keeps his work original by creating constant ironic plot twists and turns. The plot of An Ideal Husband was largely influenced by events in Paris in 1893. The directors of the Compagnie du Canal Interoceanique exploited shareholder funds, and similar political corruption lies at the heart of Wilde's play. In addition, some critics suggest that the play borrowed elements of mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, and that the character of Sir Robert Chiltern might be modeled after two contemporary politicians: Sir Charles Duilke, a dining friend of Wilde's, or Charles Stuart Parnell. Sir Charles was the Liberal Party’s Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1880 to 1882 and President of the Local Government Board from 1882 to 1885, but his career suddenly ended in 1885 when his wife divorced him. Parnell was accused of political murder, but was acquitted. Soon after he was named in divorce proceedings and withdrew from public life.

        Wilde creates his characters as artistic objects within society, and through their conversations and seemingly carefree banter, explores the themes of love, loyalty and honour. Wilde's writing, which relies on these sorts of conversation, is often referred to as epigrammatic. An epigram is defined as a concise and witty statement that expresses insight and is often ironic in tone. The opening act contains many epigrammatic statements, including Mrs. Marchmont's claim of abhorring education, and Lord Goring's claim that the only thing he knows anything about is nothing. Clearly, neither truly believes these statements, but there is truth to them. Wilde's reliance on epigrammatic conversation forces the reader to determine when there is seriousness in such statements, and when they are simply witty and somewhat false tools used to extend somewhat meaningless conversation. As such, Wilde successfully weaves the most serious themes of the play in with the most frivolous of its banter and conversation.  

        Wilde crafts his characters as works of art, and demonstrates how their culture has taught them to behave with a certain amount of pretense. The play constantly moves toward a more ideal moral standard as the characters struggle with dishonesty, hypocrisy, double moral standards, materialism, and corruption of social and political life. Wilde’s enduring message is that love, and not wealth, leads to happiness.  

Main topic:

        An Ideal Husband  tells the story of two women, whose determination that their husbands should be perfect, creates complication in the lives of the men they love. The play veils important truths behind layers of tart wit and pointed humor, skillfully blending several different genres of comedy, including, satire and farce.

        An Ideal Husband is one of the most serious of Wilde’s social comedies, and contains very strong political overtones, ironically and cynically examining the contemporary political landscape. The play's main focus is the often corrupt sources of great wealth, of which the public is usually ignorant. The characters and circumstances surrounding Sir Robert, Mrs. Cheveley, and Baron Arnheim all mirror contemporary society and how finances increasingly influence political life. Within this political realm, the play notes how social power relies not on money, but rather on information and knowledge. In the play, secret knowledge allows Mrs. Cheveley to hold great power over Sir Robert Chiltern.

        The play's action discusses and analyzes conflicts between public and personal morality, and examines the power of self-interest. Although Sir Robert is only honest when it is in his interest, Lady Chiltern, for all her talk of honor and morality, is often hypocritical in her inability to forgive others. The play does not contain a formula for public success, and Wilde maintains a very critical view of society. In the play, Wilde also examines the problematic nature of marriage, and portrays it as corrupt and corrupting. The Chilterns are foolish to try to have an “ideal” marriage based on materialistic values, such as property and high social standing. Wilde suggests a similarity between the absences of morality in their marriage and the lack of morality in the state’s politics.

        The title phrase, "an ideal husband," appears in the penultimate dialogue of Act IV as the last joke of the play. Mabel Chiltern and Lord Goring have just announced their engagement, and Lord Caversham – emblematic of an older generation of London Society – issues the threat quoted above to his dandified son. At the same time, Mabel and Goring have negotiated a union that dispenses with question regarding the ideal behavior of the married couple. As Mabel protests, the "ideal husband" belongs in heaven  “…An ideal husband! Oh, I don’t think I should like that. It sounds like something in the next world.” (Act IV, pg.245).  Goring can be whatever he wants while she wants to be his real wife who decidedly belongs to this world. Indeed, throughout the play they have assumed an amoral pose, disparaging the demands of duty and respectability. Their union thus in a sense counterpoises that of the upright Chilterns, who have just reconciled and are also on the scene.

Plot summary:

        The action of An Ideal Husband takes place within about twenty four hours. An Ideal Husband opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in London's fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Gertrude Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, his sister Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests.

        The first two speakers of the play, two minor characters, Lady Basildon and Mrs. Marchmont, set a witty tone. They are pretty, young married women, and they speak to each other languidly and cleverly. Attention then moves to various new arrivals at the reception, such as the Earl of Caversham, who inquires after his son Lord Goring, and Mabel Chiltern, Sir Robert Chiltern's sister, who chats with the Earl of Caversham. The most important arrivals, however, are Lady Markby and Mrs. Cheveley, because the latter is the play's villain.

        During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chiltern's from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina. Apparently, Mrs. Cheveley's dead mentor, Baron Arnheim, convinced the young Sir Robert many years ago to sell him a Cabinet secret, a secret that suggested he buy stocks in the Suez Canal three days before the British government announced its purchase. Sir Robert made his fortune with that illicit money, and Mrs. Cheveley has the letter to prove his crime. Fearing both the ruin of career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands.

        When Mrs. Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Robert's change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady, unaware of both her husband's past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an "ideal husband" – that is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: thus Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions. Sir Robert complies with the lady's wishes and apparently seals his doom. Also toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Lord Goring gave someone many years ago. Goring takes the brooch and asks that Mabel inform him if anyone comes to retrieve it.

        In the second act, which also takes place at Sir Robert's house, Lord Goring urges Sir Robert to fight Mrs. Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs. Cheveley were formerly engaged. After finishing his conversation with Sir Robert, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and obliquely urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving. Once Goring leaves, Mrs. Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of a brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Sir Robert's reneging on his promise, she ultimately exposes Sir Robert to his wife once they are both in the room. Unable to accept a Sir Robert now unmasked, Lady Chiltern then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him.

        In the third act, set in Lord Goring's home, Goring receives a pink letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help, a letter that might be read as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, however, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Sir Robert, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognized by the butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Ultimately, Sir Robert discovers Mrs. Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former loves, angrily storms out of the house.

When she and Lord Goring confront each other, Mrs. Cheveley makes a proposal: claiming to still love Goring from their early days of courtship, she offers to exchange Sir Robert's letter for her old beau's hand in marriage. Lord Goring declines, accusing her of defiling love by reducing courtship to a vulgar transaction and ruining the Chilterns' marriage. He then springs his trap. Removing the diamond brooch from his desk drawer, he binds it to Cheveley's wrist with a hidden device. Goring then reveals how the item came into her possession: apparently Mrs. Cheveley stole it from his cousin years ago. To avoid arrest, Cheveley must trade the incriminating letter for her release from the bejeweled handcuff. After Goring obtains and burns the letter, however, Mrs. Cheveley steals Lady Chiltern's note from his desk. Vengefully she plans to send it to Sir Robert misconstrued as a love letter addressed to the dandified lord. Mrs. Cheveley exits the house in triumph.

        The final act, which returns to Grosvenor Square, resolves the many plot complications sketched above with a decidedly happy ending. Lord Goring proposes to and is accepted by Mabel. Lord Caversham informs his son that Sir Robert has denounced the Argentine canal scheme before the House. Lady Chiltern then appears, and Lord Goring informs her that Sir Robert's letter has been destroyed but that Mrs. Cheveley has stolen her letter and plans to use it to destroy her marriage. At that moment, Sir Robert enters while reading Lady Chiltern's letter, but he has mistaken it for a letter of forgiveness written for him. The two reconcile. The ever-upright Lady Chiltern then attempts to drive Sir Robert to renounce his career in politics, but Lord Goring dissuades her from doing so. When Sir Robert refuses Lord Goring his sister's hand in marriage, still believing he has taken up with Mrs. Cheveley, Lady Chiltern is forced to explain last night's events and the true nature of the letter. Sir Robert relents, and Lord Goring and Mabel are permitted to wed.

Characters:

Lady Basildon: Mrs. Marchmont’s primary companion at the Chiltern party, she is a frequent complainer. The two women discuss a variety of "current" social issues, are highly superficial, and act as very basic, decorative characters in the plot.  Lady Basildon and her close friend Mrs. Marchmont are the first speakers in Wilde's play, setting the tone with their witty banter. Lady Basildon and her friend affect a world-weary attitude, pretending to find the fashionable London parties they go to terribly boring. As Lady Basildon says of a different party the two are planning to attend "Horribly tedious! Never know why I go. Never know why I go anywhere." (Act I, pg.165) The duo's worldly sophistication and wit undoubtedly flattered a portion of his audience whom Wilde hoped would enjoy his play, namely fashionable society women.

Sir Robert Chiltern: Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, a member of English society, and married to the honest and respectable Lady Chiltern, Sir Robert Chiltern is the “tragic hero” of the play. Early in his public career Chiltern sold state secrets to Baron Arnheim, from which he became quite rich. The past comes back to haunt him when Mrs. Cheveley arrives at his home and blackmails him with evidence of his wrongdoing. Chiltern, who is powerfully dependent on his ill-gotten wealth, struggles between succumbing to Mrs. Cheveley's blackmail and living and honest life. Fortunately, he is saved from disgrace through a variety of happenstance occurrences, and in fact discovers an even greater happiness in his marriage and government work than he had known before his status and professional career were threatened.                                     Lord Goring: Lord Goring is a very clever and dashing man who lives a life of simple luxury and avoids professional pursuits. He is always impeccably dressed in the most up to date fashion, and demonstrates substantial intelligence and a penchant for acute analysis of human behavior. Ironically, he also prides himself on rejecting the expectations of society. A close friend of Sir Robert Chiltern, Goring wisely counsels him after Mrs. Cheveley, whom Goring was once engaged to, reveals her blackmail scheme. He also works to heal the wounds between Lady Chiltern and her husband and to destroy Mrs. Cheveley's evil scheme. Lord Goring is quite successful in these endeavors and in fact proves to be a hero of the play. In the final scenes of the play, he proposes to Mabel Chiltern, who accepts him.                                                                                              Lady Gertrude Chiltern: Sir Robert Chiltern’s extremely beautiful twenty-seven year old wife, champion of the Higher Education of women, a member of the Woman’s Liberal Association, and a moral, upstanding citizen. Lady Chiltern also attended school with Mrs. Cheveley, and knows her to be dishonest and unkind. Lady Chiltern expects perfection from her husband, which makes it difficult for her to understand that he might have mistakes in his past. However, she loves her husband dearly and finally accepts that every man is somehow flawed.                                                                                                                                 Mrs. Cheveley: Mrs. Cheveley, who attended school with Lady Chiltern, is dishonest, selfish, and manipulative. The villain of the play, she arrives at the Chiltern's party and blackmails Robert Chiltern with a dishonest letter he wrote early in his public career that reveals state secrets for monetary gain. Mrs. Cheveley revels in wielding power over others and tells Sir Chiltern that in order to prevent her from publishing the letter, he must support her current financial scheme, the Argentinean Canal. Later, Lord Goring tricks her into admitting theft and successfully foils her scheme to destroy Robert Chiltern and his marriage.                                                 Mabel Chiltern: Sir Robert Chiltern's sister. Mabel constantly teases Lord Goring and flirts with him throughout the play. She complains often that Tommy Trafford proposes to her in a most unpleasant manner. In the final scenes of the play, Lord Goring proposes to her and she accepts his hand.                                             Lord Caversham: Lord Goring’s father, Caversham prides himself on dignity and honor. Caversham constantly belittles his dandy of a son publicly and privately, accusing him of an idle life and urging him to begin a professional career and marry.                                                                                                                      Lady Markby: A pleasant woman who is friends with Mrs. Cheveley and brings her to the Chiltern home. Lady Markby is very traditional in her views, rejecting higher education for women and longing for more simple days where women simply wished for the attention of a husband.                                                              Phipps: A "mask with a manner" who serves Lord Goring as his butler. He is known for his complete reticence, making him the "ideal butler". He is bsolutely impassive, he reveals nothing of his intellect or emotions and "represents the dominance of form." Phipps appears briefly at the beginning of Act III in a comic interlude with Lord Goring.                                                                                                                  Vicomte de Nanjac: A guest at the Chiltern’s party, the Vicomte talks with many of the women. He asks Mabel to dance with him, recognizes Mrs. Cheveley from knowing her in Berlin five years previous, and excessively, almost comically, compliments the English language.                                                                        Mr. Monford: A secretary to Sir Robert Chiltern, also described as a dandy.                                                      James : A minor character, James is Lord Goring's footman and appears to show Mrs. Cheveley into Lord Goring's library in Act III and withdraws when Phipps gives him a glassy stare.                                       Mason:   Butler to Sir Robert Chiltern, Mason is another minor character who announces each guest at the dinner party in Act I.                                                                                                            Harold:  Sir Robert's footman. He appears briefly in Act IV.

Narrator:

        Point of view is not located as there is no narrator figure. The figures speak in dialogues.

Chapters, books:

        The play contains four acts and a preface with a list of the persons and scenes of the play with a short description of time an place.

ACT I. The Octagon Room in Sir Robert Chiltern's House in Grosvenor Square.
ACT II. Morning-room in Sir Robert Chiltern's House.
ACT III. The Library of Lord Goring's House in Curzon Street.
ACT IV. Same as Act II.

TIME: The Present
PLACE: London.

The action of the play is completed within twenty-four hours.

Bibliography

McKenna, Neil: The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. New York: Random House, 2004.

Raby, Peter: The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde.                                                                                 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Silvanová, Barbara: Angličtina – prehľad stredoškolského učiva pre maturantov a uchádzačov o štúdium                   na vysokých školách.

Bratislava: Enigma, 1994.

Thornley, G.C.; Roberts, Gwyneth: An Outline of English Literature.

Essex: Longman Group, 2001.

Wilde, Oscar: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays.

Oxford: Oxford University press, 1995.

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