'AN IDEAL HUSBAND' CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS Flashcards
B_____ : (About Lady Chiltern & Mrs Chevely)
- “Are moral opposites, and have contrary motives but both pose… by”
Bose : “Are moral opposites, and have contrary motives but both pose threats … by intruding into the traditional male, public, non-domestic sphere and trying to impose their will on it”.
B_____ : (About Lady Chiltern & Mrs Chevely)
- “By the end of the play, their intervention is…”
Bose : “By the end of the play, their intervention is repelled, leaving male authority shaken but unbroken”.
B_____ : (Gender Roles)
- “Affirmation of traditional…”
Bose : “Affirmation of traditional concepts of male and female roles”.
B______ : (Women)
- “Prove by their action that their claims of…”
Bose : “Prove by their action that their claims of authority and self-determination are wholly undeserved”.
- Cohen & others accuse Wilde of misogyny.
B_______ : (Gender Stereotypes)
- “ Wilde recultivated an eroding sexual stereotype of the Victorian era that women are…”
Bose : “ Wilde recultivated an eroding sexual stereotype of the Victorian era that women are intellectually the inferiors of men, unequipped for ambition and action, but well-suited for the homelike virtues of mercy and love”.
M__________ : (‘Real Wife’)
- “Unlike ‘ideal husbands’, which is shown to be a myth, the play legitimises…
Madden : “Unlike ‘ideal husbands’, which is shown to be a myth, the play legitimises the term ‘real wife’”.
M________ : (Gender)
- “Play completes it’s task of creating an open and malleable set of roles that men can ocupy while…”
Madden : “Play completes it’s task of creating an open and malleable set of roles that men can occupy while maintaining a rigid structured definition of the singular role society dictates for women”.
(‘AIH’ being a myth and identifying a ‘real wife’).
Sh______ : (Robert and Gertrude Chiltern)
- “Modern note is struck in RC’s assertion of the individuality and…”
Shaw : “Modern note is struck in RC’s assertion of the individuality and courage of his wrongdoing as against the mechanical idealism of his stupidly good wife”.
KA________ : (Victorian Ideology)
- “Simultaneously supports and…”
Kaneda : “Simultaneously supports and subverts the Victorian ideology”.
B______ : (Hypocrisy)
- “The basic hypocrisy of…”
Bird : “The basic hypocrisy of English society”.
K________ : (Wilde’s Dramas)
- “Oscar Wilde’s dramas reject…”
Kaneda : “Oscar Wilde’s dramas reject a single interpretation”.
In________ : (Happy Ending)
- “By the time these ‘happy endings’ are achieved…”
Innes : “By the time these ‘happy endings’ are achieved, everything they stand for has been discredited.”
Sz_________ : (Mabel Chiltern)
- “Mabel Chiltern is the character through whom Wilde grappled with…”
Szanter : “Mabel Chiltern is the character through whom Wilde grappled with questions of the public versus the private life.”
A_________ : (Sir Robert Chiltern)
- “Sir Robert proves himself one of those gentlemen who can be honest…”
Archer : “Sir Robert proves himself one of those gentlemen who can be honest so long as it is absolutely convenient, and no longer.”
B_______ : (Lady Chiltern’s Morals)
- “Rigidly moral, she finds that each good act carried out by her husband…”
Bose : “Rigidly moral, she finds that each good act carried out by her husband has been devalued and tainted by one bad act”
