An Ideal Husband - AO5

Question 1

Wilde - Idealism

Answer 1

Wilde critiques idealism and presents a mismatch between the real and the ideal (Varty, 2019)

Question 2

Morality - Victorian Era

Answer 2

“Morality occupied a central position in the Victorian consciousness” (Gillespie, 1995)

Question 3

What was a key component in “becoming a man”?

Answer 3

“achieving a level of material success in the wider world” (Tosh, 2007)

Question 4

Wilde - moral stance

Answer 4

He wants to bring about an idea of moral relativism rather than moral absolutism (Varty, 2019)

Question 5

Importance of marriage for men

Answer 5

“marriage was a true sign of masculinity” (Gillespie, 1995)

Question 6

Wilde - societal expectations

Answer 6

“Oscar Wilde examines the impact of Victorian Society’s unrealistic expectations on the individual” (Appell, 2012)

Question 7

Lady Chiltern’s focus

Answer 7

Her focus on morality makes her inflexible (Ellmann, 1987)

Question 8

Wilde setting up ideals

Answer 8

“Wilde sets up impossible ideals for both genders” (Wareham, 2011)

Question 9

Social pressures for men

Answer 9

“Men became victims of social pressures because their peers scrutinized their success” (Appell, 2012)

Question 10

Important Ackerman quote

Answer 10

“Ideals are dangerous things” (Ackerman, 2008)

Question 11

Women’s Intelligence

Answer 11

“they were not to hold the same knowledge as them” (Appell, 2012)

Question 12

Expectations of partners

Answer 12

“temptations to live up to the expectations of the partner” (Appell, 2012)

Question 13

Pitching against each other

Answer 13

“Oscar pitches the ideal perspective of Lady Chiltern against the Machiavellian one espoused by Sir Robert” (O’Sullivan, 2016)

Question 14

Wilde - context, aesthetic movement

Answer 14

“becoming a key figure in the founding of the Aesthetic Movement” (Garay, 2006)

Question 15

Marriage common

Answer 15

“A common premise for the potboiler melodramas of Wilde’s day” (Garay, 2006)

Question 16

Garapose

Answer 16

“posing her husband as a pristine ideal” (Garay, 2006)

Question 17

Garay - tempering

Answer 17

“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)

Question 18

Garay - Chevely, no qualms

Answer 18

“she has no qualms blackmailing Sir Robert and potentially destroying his conjugal bliss to secure her financial investments” (Garay, 2006)

Question 19

Garay - foils

Answer 19

“Goring and Mabel Chiltern function as foils to the upstanding Chilterns” (Garay, 2006)

Question 20

Garay - brooch

Answer 20

“The brooch also functions as an agent of vengeance” (Garay, 2006)

Question 21

Wareham - victorian values

Answer 21

Wilde “identifies Victorian values as fraudulent” (Wareham, 2011)

Question 22

Odone - husbands

Answer 22

“Women don’t need men; not as husbands” (Odone, 2011)

Question 23

McKenna (2004)

Answer 23

Both Sir R. and Wilde are “far from ideal husbands”

Question 24

Bloom

Answer 24

“Robert’s reckless ambition for power and wealth” (Bloom)

Question 25

Pertise

Answer 25

“By a successful marriage alone was it possible for a woman to rise in the world” (Petrie, 2000)