An Ideal Husband
Wilde's most morally complex play wraps its devastating examination of honor, corruption, and the distance between public image and private sin in his signature glittering wit. Sir Robert Chiltern has risen to the pinnacle of British politics on the strength of his spotless reputation, but Mrs. Cheveley arrives at his dinner party with proof of a youthful transgression that could destroy everything: he once sold a state secret for money. As she demands he sabotage a politically crucial treaty, Chiltern's perfect life begins to crack. His wife Gertrude, the embodiment of moral certainty, must confront whether her ideal husband ever truly existed. Wilde constructs the entire play around a single destabilizing question: can a man who did wrong in the past still be good? The answer is neither simple nor comfortable. The play premiered in 1895, the same year Wilde's own secrets would unravel in court, lending the work an uncanny edge. It's a comedy that leaves a sting, a moral puzzle dressed in champagne and bon mots.
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“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.””
— Oscar Wilde
“I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.””
— Oscar Wilde
“When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.””
— Oscar Wilde
“It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love””
— Oscar Wilde
“Ah! The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women...merely adored.””
— Oscar Wilde
“The error all women commit. Why can’t you women love us, faultsand all? Why do you place us on monstrous pedestals? We have all feet ofclay, women as well as men; but when we men love women, we love themknowing their weaknesses, their follies, their imperfections, love them allthe more, it may be, for that reason. It is not the perfect, but the imperfect,who have need of love. It is when we are wounded by our own hands,or by the hands of others, that love should come to cure us – else what useis love at all? All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. Alllives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon. A man’s love is like that.It is wider, larger, more human than a woman’s. Women think that theyare making ideals of men. What they are making of us are false idolsmerely. You made your false idol of me, and I had not the courage tocome down, show you my wounds, tell you my weaknesses. I was afraidthat I might lose your love, as I have lost it now.””
— Oscar Wilde
“I analyzed you, though you did not adore me.””
— Oscar Wilde
“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.””
— Oscar Wilde
