'AN IDEAL HUSBAND' CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS Flashcards
BOSE : (About Lady Chiltern & Mrs Chevely)
- “Are moral opposites, and have contrary motives but both pose…”
“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”.
BOSE : (About Lady Chiltern & Mrs Chevely)
- “By the end of the play, their intervention is…”
“By the end of the play, their intervention is repelled, leaving male authority shaken but unbroken”.
BOSE : (Gender Roles)
- “Affirmation of traditional…”
“Affirmation of traditional concepts of male and female roles”.
BOSE : (Women)
- “Prove by their action that their claims of…”
“Prove by their action that their claims of authority and self-determination are wholly undeserved”.
- Cohen & others accuse Wilde of misogyny.
BOSE : (Lady Chiltern)
- “More disturbing is her verbatim quotation of…”
“More disturbing is her verbatim quotation of Goring’s words, as though her identity is subsumed in his and she is allowed speech only to utter sentiments authorised by him”.
BOSE : (Gender Stereotypes)
- “ Wilde recultivated an eroding sexual stereotype of the Victorian…”
” 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”.
MADDEN : (‘An Ideal Wife’)
- “Neither fully explains nor define what, precisely, an…”
“Neither fully explains nor defines what, precisely, an ‘ideal husband’ is or looks like, the play does define what an ‘ideal wife’ should be”.
MADDEN : (‘Real Wife’)
- “Unlike ‘ideal husbands’, which is shown to be a myth, the play legitimises…
“Unlike ‘ideal husbands’, which is shown to be a myth, the play legitimises the term ‘real wife’”.
MADDEN : (Gender)
- “Play completes it’s task of creating an open and malleable set of roles that…”
“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’).
SHAW : (Robert and Gertrude Chiltern)
- “Modern note is struck in RC’s assertion of the individuality and…”
“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”.
KANEDA : (Victorian Ideology)
- “Simultaneously supports and…”
“Simultaneously supports and subverts the Victorian ideology”.
BIRD : (Hypocrisy)
- “The basic hypocrisy of…”
“The basic hypocrisy of English society”.
KANEDA : (Wilde’s Dramas)
- “Oscar Wilde’s dramas reject…”
“Oscar Wilde’s dramas reject a single interpretation”.
INNES : (Happy Ending)
- “By the time these ‘happy endings’ are achieved…”
“By the time these ‘happy endings’ are achieved, everything they stand for has been discredited.”
SZANTER : (Mabel Chiltern)
- “Mabel Chiltern is the character through whom Wilde grappled with…”
“Mabel Chiltern is the character through whom Wilde grappled with questions of the public versus the private life.”
