This week we studied the play An Ideal Husband which is written by Oscar Wilde. I read nearly half of the book, due to the limitation of time, I decided to watch the movie of this play. I am really moved by the plot, diction and character of this play. The plot is divided into four parts, which is arranged pretty perfectly and logically. The whole play went through twists and turns. Wilde is good at using language. His language is simple, but artful; humorous, but meaningful. And one of the most excellent part is the character of this play, which is round but paradoxical;ordinary but representative. The main characters of this play is Sir Robert Chilton, Mrs Chilton, Lord Goering and Mrs. Chevely. All of them have particular and paradoxical characteristics. Next I will talk about the duchess Robert that I admired most.
The duchess Robert is a central character in this play. In people’s eyes, he is a clean and honest politician, and an ideal husband. However, when Mrs. Chevely is gradually revealing his scandal, his paradoxical character is unfolding. The main contradiction is about the ideal and reality, which is often the theme of Oscar Wilde’s work. In the first part of this play, I remain a perfect image of Robert, for people’s high evaluation. I remember the dialogue"so all of people, including his wife consider him as a just and considerate gentleman without spots. He keeps this image to maintain his reputation. However, no one could imagine a scandal hiding deeply in his heart that he betrayed the secret of the cabinet and became a rich man. His is clearly aware that it’s a dirty base and will influence him all the time. Therefore it’s the gap between ideal and reality.
Robert's ambivalence is mainly due to the threats from Mrs.Cheveley. When Mrs.Cheveley mentions the swindle about Argentina Canal Project, Robert says it is a disgraceful plan and shows great anger. At that time, Robert is defending against the shameful behaviour. However, he is threatened by Mrs. Cheveley and has to shorten the period, which shows that he has to choose to comprise. All these years, her wife’s expect to him and his demand of himself ask him to defend, but he can’t stand up to the threats of Mrs. Cheveley. He may think if he is determined to resist, he will lose everything, his wife, his position and his treasure. Finally, he chooses to face to them and solve the problem in a proper way. Fortunately, he gets a higher position and strengthens love with his wife. Another contract is his reason and impulse. I remember when Sir Robert enters, Wilde describes him:”The firmly chiselled mouth and chin contrast strikingly with the romantic expression in the deep-set eyes.” From his appearance, we can know his passion contrasts with his reason. It’s evident that the description is a hint foreshadowing later development in the play. Passion means his affective impulse, while reason means his reasoning mind. The paradox of reason and impulse is throughout the text. His reason reminds him to refuse the transaction, which may lead to great harm to the society. However, his passion tells him to compromise the transaction, because in this way, he will cover his mistake he made before and keeps everything he has, including his wife. When he is talking with Lord Goring, he admits he did a shameful thing before. But he then expresses that if one wants to succeed, he must pay the price. It’s obvious that his impulse takes him to find excuses of himself. Meanwhile, when he considers whether to tell the scandal to his wife, his reason tells him to do it,because he hopes to live brightly. But his impulse tells him not to do it, because once he does, he will be disgusted and even loses her wife.
The paradoxical image of Robert has revealed thoroughly: he hopes to live ideally but a scandal is hiding deeply; he wants to defend against Mrs.Cheveley, but doesn’t want to lose his hard-won position; he determines to face to his dirty secret bravely, but compelled by impulse and wants to conceal. Wilde succeeds in modelling the contradictory character of the roles.