Oscar Wilde: "An Ideal Husband"

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by Laura Lai/ Review

It is recommended that the playwright decides in advance whether its play is written for stage, radio or for television. But some plays are so well written that professionals can play them on stage, on television and broadcast them on radio. That was my first thought while listening the BBC Radio Drama ‘An Ideal Husband’ by Oscar Wilde.  

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) has an Irish family background and an was educated in Dublin and at Oxford University. He was a complex writer, his works encompassing essays, novels, poems and dramas. For what a passionate theater-goer Oscar Wilde was, drama could not miss from his written works! He made his debut as playwright in 1880 with ‘Vera’ (or ‘The Nihilists’).

The play ‘An Ideal Husband’ is a 4-Act play, first published in 1893 and first played in London in 1895. It is mainly a political drama whose starting premise may very well be that ‘An act of corruption is at the beginning of a brilliant political career.’ It is a comedy of manners and a satire of the 19^th century high-society:

lord caversham. Never go anywhere now. Sick of London Society.[…]

mabel chiltern. Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.

The political party at Sir Robert Chiltern’s house (Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs) in the very opening of the play is a great opportunity for the listener to get to know all the characters in the play. However, most of the dialogue focuses on Mrs. Cheveley. The listener learns the most about Mrs. Chevely: she is under 30, that she did not have an honest and human conduct when she was in school, that she was in Berlin, but now she left ‘the brilliant Vienna for the gloomy London’, that she is ‘a genius in the daytime and a beauty at night’, etc. And the listener is given only a flavor of the main plot:

sir robert chiltern. But you have not told me yet what makes you honour London so suddenly. Our season is almost over.

mrs. cheveley. Oh! I don’t care about the London season! It is too matrimonial. People are either hunting for husbands, or hiding from them. I wanted to meet you. It is quite true. You know what a woman’s curiosity is. Almost as great as a man’s! I wanted immensely to meet you, and . . . to ask you to do something for me.

sir robert chiltern. I hope it is not a little thing, Mrs. Cheveley. I find that little things are so very difficult to do.

mrs. cheveley. [After a moment’s reflection.] No, I don’t think it is quite a little thing.

sir robert chiltern. I am so glad. Do tell me what it is.

mrs. cheveley. Later on. [Rises.] […]

The story of the play is around a compromising letter that Mrs. Cheveley had about Sir. Chiltern acknowledging that when he was 22 years old he sold a government secret for lots of money, with which he brought the fame he was enjoying. Using this letter, she is seeking his public support (withdrawing a governmental report) on a political and economical scheme (building of the Argentine Canal) in which she had invested lots of money.

The play starts with a beautiful classical music that settles the place of the action. The topic of the Argentine Canal places the story in its historical framework. The dialogue has its own rhythm and the language is very precise. The play ‘An Ideal Husband’ is another play of Oscar Wilde impressive for the orality and realism of the dialogue. The satirical accents give the play lots of literary flavor.