An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde One of his best plays, hence 9 out of 10

 An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

One of his best plays, hence 9 out of 10

 

If you want to know about An Ideal Husband, I’d say that this play is not so enlightening, not in the sense of how he should me.

At least I did not get that much on what I should or ought not to do.

The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work, a classic psychology book by the amazing John Gottman would be of much more help.

But then, I guess the main message of Oscar Wilde’s play is exactly that there is no ideal husband and we all make (sometimes huge) mistakes.

Sir Robert Chiltern is supposed to be the prototype of An Ideal Husband, with his high standing and important position in society.

He is a Member of Parliament with a lot of influence, much admired speeches and an excellent family life.

Until a woman comes along.

I have read about the play and learned that even if it is one of Wilde’s most popular and appreciated, it had its share of criticism.

For being sexist, for instance since women do not come out with such a good moral profile from a play where one of the main characters is a blackmailer.

Mrs. Cheveley is the negative, ruthless personage that comes to the Chiltern house to blackmail and force the target to do her biding.

Sir Robert, hence the Ideal Husband, turns out to have bought a secret in his past, which he then would use to profit.

So now is payback, since the villainous woman is determined to make the man speak in Parliament in favor of her project.

Alas, Sir Robert had already spoken about this canal in Argentina in the most unfavorable terms- it is a huge fraud.

But unless he wants his position destroyed and his family humiliated by his secret, he has to deliver and promote a fraudulent business model.

The situation is complicated by the fact that he does not tell his wife about the fraud (actually) that he committed in the past.

But this skeleton hidden in the cupboard is revealed by Mrs. Cheveley, who refrains from no act to get what she wants.

A friend of the family gets involved and the situation is tense and reaches a climax when one woman is hidden in the house where the other was expected, with consequences that seem to put in jeopardy everything…

The marriage of Sir Robert with Lady Chiltern is under grave danger, with the blackmailer in the possession of another weapon.

This time she has got her hands on a letter that appears to prove infidelity and even more, on the part of an otherwise moral and innocent woman.

But the past catches up with us in strange and mysterious ways- a cliché that is confirmed by what happens to the villain of the play.

I will keep mum and let you find out about the Ideal Husband and the women around, with one a terrible shrew.

The other, Lady Chiltern is the real IDEAL, since she has nothing to be ashamed of in her past- well, at least that we know of.

Her attitude is irreproachable and her standing near perfect, with the exception of a certain lack of compassion, but the she is no Buddhist, is she…

A malicious analysis of this play would raise the question

-          How would Wilde know about An Ideal Husband