A Closer Look At An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband— the title itself seems to suggest the impossible. Can there be such a person? This play looks at Sir Robert Chiltern’s public life and his private life; and the mistake in his past that could destroy both. He must maintain a certain public persona to be a successful politician, and, as the title suggests, a successful spouse, as well.

What makes Sir Robert who he is: The indiscretion in his past, his integrity in the present, or both? An Ideal Husband stresses the importance of a spotless public image and unquestionable personal integrity. But as the play suggests, these ideals of human behavior may in fact be beyond our ability; and they may be less desirable than we think.

For all the wit and humor in An Ideal Husband, there is a real danger to the characters’ lives in the event of a potential scandal. Sir Robert Chiltern is an upstanding man, irreproachable politician, and an ideal husband...or so it would seem. But, Wilde knew the impossibility of a man being completely defined by a perfect persona.

It’s hard not to connect the themes of An Ideal Husband with the very public real-life scandal that destroyed Wilde himself.

He nearly foreshadows his own fate as he seems to understand well the threat of a scandal; and how quickly the public and private lives of any person can be brought to its knees.