An Ideal Husband
Oscar Wilde once said, "Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known"(Bolander 20). A man who truly believed in the importance of art and its significance in and reflections on society, Wilde references artists to describe nearly every character in his four-act play An Ideal Husband (Nassaar 123). Wilde uses an artist's stereotypical model to "visually emphasize the values which are paramount to [his characters and] society," as seen through Mrs. Marchmont, Lady Basildon, Lord Caversham, and Sir Robert Chiltern (Eltis 132). However, Wilde relates some of his characters to a more subtle type of artistry or artist, as in the cases with Miss Mabel Chiltern, Mrs. Cheveley, and Lord Goring. Wilde describes the first characters introduced to the audience as very elegant and dainty women; "Watteau would have loved to paint" Mrs. Marchmont and Lady Basildon (Wilde 1.1). Antoine Watteau typically painted women of high fragility and exquisite beauty. The models Watteau painted "[dress] for the part; they...avoid everything gross and uncultivated, displaying their seductions with the greatest delicacy and charm" (Craven 173). Mrs. Marchmont and Lady Basildon set the basis for the typical high-class Engl
f his time; Wilde gained fame from his "rebellious individualism barely capable of accommodating the world" (Cohen 212). Lord Goring comments on his own distinctiveness, especially in fashion: Eltis, Sos. Revising Wilde: Society and Subversion in the Plays of Oscar Wilde. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SIR ROBERT CHILTERN: One night after dinner...Baron [Arnheim] began talking about success in modern life as something one could reduce to an absolutely definite science...He expounded to us the most terrible of all philosophies, the philosophy of power, preached to us the most marvelous of all gospels, the gospel of gold...He led me through his wonderful picture gallery, showed me his tapestries...his jewels, his carved ivories, made me wonder at the strange loveliness of the luxury in which he lived; and then told me that luxury was nothing but a background, a painted scene in a play, and that power, power over other men, power over the world, was the one thing worth having...and that in our century only the rich possessed it (Wilde 2.99-116). "It would be inaccurate to call [Sir Robert Chiltern] picturesque...but Vandyck would have liked to have painted his head" (Wilde 1.96). Sir Robert plays the role of moral concern in this play. According to Craven, Sir Anthony Van Dyck's "art was inspired by no lofty convictions, but it was informed by a serious and absorbing passion-the portrayal of elegance" (107). Wilde chose Van Dyck to be Sir Robert's archetypical artist because Sir Robert's past corresponds to this definition of Van Dyck's art. Sir Robert, at age twenty-two, discovered an insatiable desire for success and power: LADY MARKBY: They do, dear. But I'm afraid such a scheme would be quite unpractical. I don't think man has much capacity for development. He has got as far as he can, and that is not far, is it?...Modern women understand everything, I am told. Lord Caversham believes London Society "has gone to the dogs, a lot of damned nobodies talking about nothing" (Wilde 1.291-2). Lord Caversham believes that his son had done nothing useful in life, which feeling he shares about London Society (Wilde 4.71-4). In the eyes of Lord Caversham, a type of pessimistic general in the play, Lord Goring parallels the deterioration of London Society.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Lord Goring, Miss Mabel, Sir Robert, Lady Basildon, LADY MARKBY, Lord Caversham, ROBERT CHILTERN, Wilde Lamia, Lady Chiltern's, Blue Books, lord goring, sir robert, miss mabel, lord caversham, oscar wilde, miss mabel chiltern, london society, lady basildon, mabel chiltern, university press, ideal husband, marchmont lady basildon, sir robert chiltern, phipps yes lord, book inc 1986,
Approximate Word count = 3001
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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