bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde is an HKCEE text

Moral dilemma creates dramatic climax

This play has four acts. Each act is like the chapter of a novel. It marks the change of location and time between scenes. It allows the dramatist to shape his play so that the tension  rises and falls.  Tension is high at the end of Act Two -  you can almost hear the sigh of the audience as it comes to an end. How does Wilde tie together this rise in tension with the moral dilemma that faces Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern?

The background

Mrs Cheveley has travelled from Vienna to England in order to blackmail Sir Robert. He is a rich man and a member of Parliament in the Cabinet. She wants to make money by speculating (a risky form of investment) in a new canal being constructed in Argentina. Sir Robert is about to speak in Parliament on a report that criticises the project.  Mrs Cheveley wants him to suppress the conclusions of the report and instead  support  the scheme.

Sir Robert has a  guilty past which can ruin his career - he made his fortune  by selling a government secret.  Mrs Cheveley has a letter that proves  what he did. If she makes it public, he is ruined.

Dramatic irony

At the end of Act Two, Mrs Cheveley is going to increase the pressure on Sir Robert by telling his wife what she knows. Lady Chiltern is a woman who always tells the truth. She is honest and sticks to her principles.  She believes that once a person tells a lie, he should never be trusted again:

'A person who has once been guilty of a dishonest and dishonourable action may be guilty of it a second time, and should be shunned.'

This is called dramatic irony. This arises when the audience knows something that a character is unaware of. She does not know that Sir Robert has indeed been dishonest;  the audience knows this, and  this creates the irony.

Is morality absolute or relative?

Lady Chiltern's view of morality is that it is absolute. An action is either right or wrong, and remains so regardless of circumstances or people. Mrs Cheveley puts forward the other viewpoint - that morality is relative:

'Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.'

This is a recipe for a cynical world not based on  trust, openness or honesty. It is the voice of the sort of world-weary character in Wilde's plays for whom life is just a  game. We cannot agree with her statement, yet it does provide a moment of dramatic accusation:

'Look at him! Can he deny it? Does he dare to?'

The short exclamations and questions are sharp - like pistol shots.

An ideal husband

A pivotal moment in a play is often marked by a reference to the title. Lady Chiltern tells Sir Robert:

'Oh, when I think that I made of a man like you my ideal! The ideal of my life!'

These are fine words grounded in passionate feeling - and a huge sense of having her whole life betrayed.

Sir Robert's long speech ends the act. Drama can be created in long speeches as well as short, exclamatory ones. His key point is that no one is perfect, and it is therefore wrong for women to believe that their husbands should be some kind of God:

'All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon.'

Conclusion

This is a defining  moment in the play. Lady Chiltern has to decide whether to allow her love for her husband to override her principles - in short, whether she should forgive him because she loves him. The sympathy of the audience is surely with Sir Robert, but Wilde builds dramatic tension by making us wait until the end of the play to find out if our wish is granted and he is forgiven.



Moral dilemma  for Lady Chiltern