An Ideal Husband

While An Ideal Husband is typical Wilde in many ways, it is not Wilde at his best. Both Lady Windemere's Fan and The Importance of Being Ernest eclipse it. Still, great fun and charged with the kind of wit one expects from Wilde.

There is a play upon role reversal that is hilarious, as it is the woman who puts the man upon a pedestal and then knocks him off. There are the usual high-jinks with letters that come into the wrong hands and a ludicrous, but quite nifty, foiling of the primary villain. In fact, it has every single element that you come to expect and adore in a Wilde production. At the same time, it does manage to deal with at least one very serious issue...that of the ideal. To expect that any person can be ideal and flawless show more is to set one's self up for disaster.

One thing that struck me was the way Wilde wrote his stage directions. For each person as they enter the scene, he describes the type of art piece they would resemble. He had every physical trait and mannerism in his mind as he crafted these characters. I would love to see this play acted. I'm guessing it could be appreciated at one-step higher level seen on stage. show less

This play, while hilarious both in razor-sharp wit, social satire, and flawlessly woven dramatic irony, also has a poignant and (to me) relatable central theme. Perfect! Even if old plays arent your thing, at least watch the movie. You won't regret it.

That's the short version. The long version:

I saw this play almost by accident at the Stratford (Ontario) Theatre Festival last year and it has made me fall in love with Oscar Wilde. Previously, my only exposure had been Dorian Gray when I was much too young, but since seeing (and subsequently reading) An Ideal Husband I have discovered that pleasure in Wilde's works and read many more of his plays.

During the play, listening to Lord Goring's ubiquitous witty lines, I thought, the thing is show more that no one's really that funny in real life. Wilde probably thought of one of those lines per month, wrote them in a notebook, and then was able to write them in to the Goring's lines as though Goring could just come up with them on the spot. During intermission, though, I read the programme and discovered that, in fact, Wilde himself was that funny in real life. He is considered by some the first modern celebrity; before he published a word, he was a career party guest - people would invite him to their evens to stand around and be funny. So believe me when I tell you that An Ideal Husband is worth it just for the humour value.

But the more serious themes of the play also resonated deeply with me. As a stereotypical angsty/idealistic teenager, I found Gertrude's tension between her ideal truth and the reality very familiar. As well, the play asks important questions like What is the true nature of love? How can one continue to love someone who is not what one thought? as well as questions about sin/crime, repentance and forgiveness (on an ethical, not religious, level). The play also includes themes of honour and political corruption.

Fun fact: This play is about a man's fear of what will happen when his beloved wife finds out that he is not the man she thinks he is. This was written during a period of Wilde's life when he was becoming more and more active in the underground (and illegal - he would eventually be imprisoned) London homosexual scene - unbeknownst to his wife and the mother of his children, whom, it seems he did truly love.

All in all, this play is a perfect balance between lightness and humour and real, serious questions. It is a masterpiece.

However, in the interests of integrity, here are some imperfections:
- sexism.
- some weird (as far as I can figure out) conceptions of relationships: - Not sure why Lord Goring marries Mabel in the end. Still trying to work that out. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Disclaimer: I haven't looked at this play in a while and may have misremembered things or left important points out. If so, I apologize and I will update if I think of anything else.

Now, go read it! show less

Less absurd than for instance The Importance of Being Earnest, this play nevertheless manages to accumulate an impressive number of Wildean bon mots, whilst at the same time providing food for thought on human imperfection, power and hubris, and the necessary illusions that sustain romantic relationships. "Some Like It Hot" ended with the phrase "Nobody's perfect", whereas An Ideal Husband" starts from that very observation, and then asks how we deal with it.
Amidst all the banter, the anguish of a man with an unspeakable secret stands out, a youthful indiscretion that polite society would find an abomination. It is not hard to surmise that Wilde's own fears resonate here. As readers, we know that eventually his (not so secret) secret is show more dragged before the courts, leading to Wilde being ostracised from the society that he so lovingly mocks in these plays and to his early death. And we smile with the witticisms, but the smiles are bittersweet. show less

I wasn't nearly as impressed with this play as I was with the previous two. The drama was still entertaining, but the plot was more about political morality and unrealistic expectations, plus the characters all wound up far too happily ever after for my liking. If we're going to talk about dirty politicians they need to have their comeuppance - even though I fully admit that it's more realistic if they get away with all their scheming... Yuck!

Despite my deep and resounding love for Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey (for which I have given my sons the middle names Dorian and Henry), I have come to realize I have read shamefully little of his other work. Today I resolved to sit down with one of his well-known plays, and chose An Ideal Husband. The play is everything I've come to expect from Wilde; while the dialog doesn't sound particularly natural, it is infused with the wit and charm of Wilde's satirical authorial presence, which carries the work well. I appreciated the parallel established between politics and marriage, and enjoyed the ever-present commentary on gender, fashion, society, and art (especially the aesthetic correlation established between Wilde's show more characters and known artists/styles). I look forward to reading more of Wilde's work - both drama and short stories - in the near future. show less

“I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.”

I love Wilde’s wit. This is less laugh-out-loud funny than The Importance of Being Earnest, but it has (somewhat) more substance: about what truly makes a good marriage, and how real love forgives, and not idealizes. A lighthearted, fun read.

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

Nietzsche with a buttonhole. This is a mercenary world of ennui and style. There must be a phenomenological link? Wilde notes Wealth is the new object of worship.

The interior logic of the play is a bit neat for my taste as is the means by which the husband is reprieved. Clasps on bracelets can be annoying, yet they aren't Gordian knots.