An Ideal Husband By Oscar Wilde

This play belonging to the 1890s, depicts the hypocrite aristocratic group of people from London. It in all perceptibility and plausibility, delineates that the concept of “an ideal husband” is just a misnomer 😊It is just titular! Women end up idolising their husbands, silhouetting them in an image which they never adhere to, turning out to be mere impostors! :P

 

The play divulges themes of public and private honor, social status, while using mediums of blackmailing and political -social corruption! The other two most important themes are marriage as an institution and the power of forgiveness in it. Why and who forgives is the question?

 

Robert Chiltern(the ideal husband), working as Under-Secretary of the Foreign Affairs office is enjoying a perfect marriage and social image. Is he or is he not? That’s the question 😊

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Spread across 4 acts, following is a spoiler-free abridged synopsis-

Th play opens with the alluring couple of significant wealth, stature, accomplishment and respect among the elite in London, the Chilterns!

The alluring and sophisticated, Mrs. Cheveley’s arrival brings trouble for Robert. She is carrying a secret letter as evidence for his past perfidy with the government. In stipulation(for concealing his truth) she wants him to get the government into an agreement to a building plan for Argentina, which in turn will shower money on her!

 

Lady Chiltern, his wife, emanating out Greek beauty, advising him not to fall victim to the blackmailing, is informed by Mrs. Cheveley, that Robert once had sold a govt. secret to a businessman for money, and the same secret is revealed in the secret letter. Robert and his wife’s good friend, Lord Goring(another character), is in love with Robert’s sister, Mabel. Though finally they are able to get back the letter, by plotting, Lady Chiltern can no longer consider her husband to be honest. Meanwhile, amidst all this confusion, Lady Cheveley ends up stealing the secret letter sent to Lord Goring by Lady Chiltern, considering it to be a love letter addressed to him. Irrespective of husband’s lies, Lady Chiltern is forced to forgive him. But has she or not? To know more, read the play.

 

The most remarkable feature of the play is, we cannot point fingers on one particular character for hypocrisy and double-standards, as most of the characters in the play conspire to bury Robert’s secret! Just to save his fake reputation.

 

I give 3.75 stars to this play on social satire with deep political undertones!

 

The 2 outstanding derivations for me-

 

1.   It is sad to see the kind of wealth amassed by the smug political figures at the cost of the ignorant public. Irrespective of their hideous crimes, concealing them, they keep strutting through lives guileless and  without any compunction. They have no moral scruples!

2.   Must say it is not geography- specific, that women go onto idolising their male partners. Lady Chiltern took her husband as a paragon of morality and virtue, until she finally finds out that he is a part of a past scandalous secret! Will she still keep idolising him and forgive him? Well, many would have conjectured by now, but the plight is it was, has been and continue to be so ☹

 

Sharing few remarkable quotes in no particular order-

“Mine is the general rule, and nothing ages a woman so  rapidly as having married the general rule. “

“I would to God that I had been able to tell the truth . . . to  live the truth. Ah! that is the great thing in life, to live the truth.”

“Circumstances should never alter principles!”

“Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology  cannot explain us. Men can be analysed, women . . . merely adored.”

Lady Chiltern- “You can forget. Men easily forget. And I forgive. That is how  women help the world. I see that now.”

“It is not the perfect, but the imperfect, who have need of love.  It is when we are wounded by our own hands, or by the hands of others, that love should come to cure us ­ else what use is love at all?”

“  But women who have common sense are so curiously plain, father, aren't they? Of course I only speak from hearsay.”

 

The 2 most remarkable superlatives in my purview are:-

“Women are not meant to judge us, but to forgive us when we need forgiveness. Pardon, not punishment, is their mission.”

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people  whom we personally dislike.”

 

NB- I want all of us to contemplate, does money, status, social-standing, and accomplishments bring along moral scruples and fidelity or further deteriorate them? Is it a factor to consider or is it simply the breeding and grooming one receives, to decide upon?