An Ideal Husband

Act II opens with a critical conversation between Lord Goring and Sir Robert on the ethics of marriage, power, politics, and fidelity. Sir Robert explains his decision to sell secrets with reference to his ambition—something he says Lord Goring couldn’t understand. He says,

Wealth has given me enormous power. It gave me at the outset of my life freedom, and freedom is everything. You have never been poor, and never known what ambition is (239).

Sir Robert’s comment suggests a deeper critique of a moralism dictated by the upper class, most of whom have never known anything but a privileged existence and have consequently been insulated from making hard decisions. It further points to the evolving nature of class in Victorian society, developing the theme of The Meaning of Class and Gender in a Modern World.

Sir Robert also denies that succumbing to temptation represents a weakness of character, arguing that to do so shows courage: “Do you really think, Arthur, that it is weakness that yields to temptation?” (240). He argues instead that to yield to temptation takes strength and courage—a direct challenge to Victorian morality. As societies urbanized and more people gained access to cultural and economic capital than ever before, anxieties about “weak” constitutions and “vices” that could hurt one’s social standing rose. Sir Robert’s remark flips this anxiety on its head, provocatively suggesting that succumbing to temptation requires strength because of the social costs involved. Implicitly, this also calls into question the sincerity of the morals mainstream Victorian society espoused. Although the language of “temptation” is religiously inflected, Wilde suggests that it is not so much “sin” that matters to society as the perception of it.

Lord Goring further satirizes this public morality by poking fun at politics. He tells Sir Robert, “[I]n England a man who can’t talk morality twice a week to a large, popular, immoral audience is quite over as a serious politician” (242). Though he is making a joke, he means it seriously, as does Oscar Wilde. This quote, and Lord Goring’s opinion of Parliament, indicates Wilde’s critique of the hypocrisy of the public’s expectations of their politicians and each other.

In fact, Lord Goring’s character continues to develop as a mouthpiece for Wilde throughout Act II. He tells Lady Chiltern that “life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity. It is love, and not German philosophy, that is the true explanation of this world” (250). Wilde here suggests that love—true, flexible, charitable love—is more important than anything else. This is why Lord Goring must educate all those around him; it is also why his union with Mabel becomes the model for the love that Lord Goring frequently preaches about.

Mabel herself is also a character through whom Wilde satirizes moralism’s harmful effects on loving relationships. For example, when she tells Lady Chiltern about Tommy Trafford’s frequent proposals (a motif that develops the theme of Fashionable Morality Versus Authentic Marriage), she remarks, “I saw by the glare in his eye that he was going to propose again, and I just managed to check him in time by assuring him that I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don’t know what bimetallism means, and I don’t believe anybody else does either” (253). The implication is that Tommy assumes “bimetallism” refers to some unorthodox political or religious philosophy and that this alone is enough to dissuade him. That neither he nor Mabel knows the meaning of the word reveals how hollow and hypocritical a marriage premised on concerns of propriety would truly be.

Lady Markby suggests that this hypocrisy, and its harmful effects on marriage, can be attributed to politics. She tells Lady Chiltern, “This horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since the terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented” (257). Wilde, however, suggests a deeper malaise: a moralism that undercuts not only marriage but politics too. Lady Markby and Lady Chiltern represent two women on opposite ends of the political spectrum (modern and traditional) who both agree that society needs change but miss the true nature of its ills.