An Ideal Husband

An Ideal Husband is an 1895 stage play by Oscar Wilde revolving around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, in "the present," and takes place over the course of twenty-four hours. After The Importance of Being Earnest, it is Wilde's most popularly produced play.

    In the summer of 1893, Oscar Wilde began writing An Ideal Husband; he completed it later that winter. His work began at Goring-on-Thames, after which he named the character Lord Goring, and concluded writing at St James's Place. He initially sent the completed play to the Garrick Theatre, where the manager rejected it, but it was soon accepted by the Haymarket Theatre, where Lewis Waller had temporarily taken control. Waller was an excellent actor and cast himself as Sir Robert Chiltern. The play gave the Haymarket the success it desperately needed.

    After opening on January 3, 1895, the play continued for one hundre twenty-four performances. In April of that year, Wilde was arrested for "gross indecency" and his name was publicly removed from the play. On April 6, the same day as Wilde's arrest, the play moved to the Criterion Theatre where it ran from April 13-27. The play was published in 1899, although Wilde was not listed as its author. This published version differs slightly from the performed play, as Wilde added many passages and cut others. Prominent additions included written stage directions and character descriptions. Wilde was a leader in the effort to make plays accessible to the reading public.

I know this play mostly speaks to English culture and their aristocratic society during Wilde's lifetime, but it is easily comparable to any culture at any time because of its sexist and elitist themes, its critical nature about the overtly moral, and its overarching message of not condemning or labeling people solely on past mistakes. Wilde's work is always mind-opening and before his time, displaying progressive analysis of human interaction and societal growth. Although the characteristics for “an ideal” husband are impossible to meet, Wilde demonstrates characteristics for humans to simply be “tolerable.”