An Ideal Husband - AO5 Flashcards
Wilde - Idealism
Wilde critiques idealism and presents a mismatch between the real and the ideal (Varty, 2019)
Morality - Victorian Era
“Morality occupied a central position in the Victorian consciousness” (Gillespie, 1995)
What was a key component in “becoming a man”?
“achieving a level of material success in the wider world” (Tosh, 2007)
Wilde - moral stance
He wants to bring about an idea of moral relativism rather than moral absolutism (Varty, 2019)
Importance of marriage for men
“marriage was a true sign of masculinity” (Gillespie, 1995)
Wilde - societal expectations
“Oscar Wilde examines the impact of Victorian Society’s unrealistic expectations on the individual” (Appell, 2012)
Lady Chiltern’s focus
Her focus on morality makes her inflexible (Ellmann, 1987)
Wilde setting up ideals
“Wilde sets up impossible ideals for both genders” (Wareham, 2011)
Social pressures for men
“Men became victims of social pressures because their peers scrutinized their success” (Appell, 2012)
Important Ackerman quote
“Ideals are dangerous things” (Ackerman, 2008)
Women’s Intelligence
“they were not to hold the same knowledge as them” (Appell, 2012)
Expectations of partners
“temptations to live up to the expectations of the partner” (Appell, 2012)
Pitching against each other
“Oscar pitches the ideal perspective of Lady Chiltern against the Machiavellian one espoused by Sir Robert” (O’Sullivan, 2016)
Wilde - context, aesthetic movement
“becoming a key figure in the founding of the Aesthetic Movement” (Garay, 2006)
Marriage common
“A common premise for the potboiler melodramas of Wilde’s day” (Garay, 2006)
Garapose
“posing her husband as a pristine ideal” (Garay, 2006)
Garay - tempering
“The play calls for the tempering of the woman’s overly idealising and morally rigid love for one that can pardon human fault” (Garay, 2006)
Garay - Chevely, no qualms
“she has no qualms blackmailing Sir Robert and potentially destroying his conjugal bliss to secure her financial investments” (Garay, 2006)
Garay - foils
“Goring and Mabel Chiltern function as foils to the upstanding Chilterns” (Garay, 2006)
Garay - brooch
“The brooch also functions as an agent of vengeance” (Garay, 2006)
Wareham - victorian values
Wilde “identifies Victorian values as fraudulent” (Wareham, 2011)
Odone - husbands
“Women don’t need men; not as husbands” (Odone, 2011)
McKenna (2004)
Both Sir R. and Wilde are “far from ideal husbands”
Bloom
“Robert’s reckless ambition for power and wealth” (Bloom)
Pertise
“By a successful marriage alone was it possible for a woman to rise in the world” (Petrie, 2000)
