An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde - Lord Goring and Lady Chiltern
‘Discuss how Wilde influences the audience to like or dislike characters’ In my paper, I will discuss two entirely different people, both of whom have entirely different personalities but are both the characters in the play, ‘An Ideal husband’- Lord Goring and Mrs. Chiltern. I will also mention the reasons and ways in which Oscar Wilde has managed to make them liked and disliked by the audience.
Lord Goring
Background info: The beginning of the play is set at Mrs. Chiltern’s home. She is conducting a party and has invited many guests, including all of the main characters in the play, Lord Goring. Lord
Goring is an intelligent, laid back 34 year old bachelor
…show more content…
For example: ‘I am not a pessimist. Indeed, I am not quite sure that
I quite know what Pessimism means.’ Responses are also never what the audience expects them to be. For example in Act 1, page 21, when Lord
Goring is speaking to Mabel: Have you missed me? Then I am sorry I didn’t stay away longer. I liked being missed.’
When some tension is in the play, at the end of Act 1 when Robert realizes he is being blackmailed, Lord Goring relieves the tension with his immediate presence at the beginning of Act 2, signaling some hope for Robert Chiltern.
Later, on in the play, when Lord Goring is informed by Robert Chiltern of Robert’s dark past, (he sold a cabinet several years ago and is now blackmailed by Mrs. Chevelry) his personality changes into becoming serious. By doing this, Oscar Wilde influences the audience to like
Lord Goring because although he a comical laid back person, when his friend is in trouble, he will change his character to become what his friend needs, some one serious who understands.
However, the main reason why Lord Goring is still liked although he has turned serious is because this fact is greatly overshadowed by the fact that the change in personality is due to him being a loyal friend and attempting to help solve Robert Chiltern’s problem. Even, when
Lord Goring makes the
in four of the scenes, Act 1 scene1, act 3 scene 1, act 3 scene 5 and
The scene I am focusing on is Act 3 Scene 3; this is the longest and
central to the play. I am going to look at only the first act of the
Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde (1845-1903) lived an outrageous and controversial life which was well publicized and condemned, as his life defied the strict social mores of the time. He was put into this public position due to the success of his plays which challenged Victorian earnestness while being hilariously funny. His plays, in particular An Ideal Husband, 1895 portray Victorian society as viciously hypocritical at it's worst and laughably pretentious at it's best. Wilde expressed this point of view in An Ideal Husband through the rich use of plot development, construction of characters, dramatic irony, hyperbole, witty and epigrammatic repartee and satire.
During the two gulling scenes, namely Act 2 Scene 3 and Act 3 Scene 1,
The playwriter Oscar Wilde sexual philosophies are reinforced throughout his play, The Importance of Being Ernest. Wilde’s characters and choices of stage direction evoke a tone of sexuality and deviance. The characters’ social belief’s and identities are in parallel with the Literary Queer Theory on many key points.
The use of the dramatic element of tension is most evident when Lewis and Nick have a disagreement about the play and the mental patients. Nick’s attitude towards Lewis’ fellow actors enrages him revealing that he deeply cares for them and considers them friends. The dramatic action revealed in the stage directions would impact the audience because Nick is suppose to be Lewis’s Best friend but he betrays him. It is shocking to see men who were once friends, now fighting in such a short period of time over one silly
Also, when the play is coming to the final acts of the play, it is established
The play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde is set in England during the late 19th century during the rule of Queen Victoria and features two bachelors, Algernon Moncrieff and John Worthing, and their struggle to impress the women they want to marry while remaining their true selves. Wilde presents the theme of superficiality through the approach to names in the play and the importance of appearances. (or looks? Gwen and Cecily fight plus dandy).
Staring from the definition found in the dictionary, the decadence is a literary movement especially of late 19th-century France and England characterized by refined aestheticism, artifice, and the quest for new sensations. [1]
here on is where we pick the play up at act 3 scene 1. Before we start
Act III Scene V - This is a very important scene. Select and comment on
This scene is important as it comes midway into the play, marking a turning point, that drives the action towards the tragic end. The scene opens with all three characters relaxed and in a playful mood, but there is an underlying tension that builds throughout the scene with an uneasy sense of insecurity, which is felt by the Duchess as she is aware that her brother has returned to court. The tension continues to increase, with the use of dramatic irony, where the audience is aware of information that the actors on stage do not have. The atmosphere soon shifts from a light hearted one to one of fear. The Duchess, Antonio
in the play. The sudden and fatal violence in Act 3, Scene 1, as well
The genre of comedy, throughout the history of dramatic art has always served to not only entertain audiences, but to make them aware of their own individual flaws, or flaws that exist in society. (Weitz, E.) Comedy has no precise definition, and its boundaries are broad. One function of comedy however has remained the same - to hold up a mirror to the society of the time but through pleasure, inviting audiences to reflect and also providing amusement. Set in the late nineteenth century, the play An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (1895) epitomises comedy, as both a literary and dramatic genre. Wilde was masterful in his ability to combine aspects of evolved comedic traditions and dramatic conventions to critique Victorian society. Drawing on characteristics of Greek and Roman tragicomedy, the choices in the play’s plot involves elements of tragedy as well as scenes that serve as comic relief and give the audience a sense of finality through a happy resolution. (Bureman, L) Focussing on the upper class stratum, Wilde employs a comedy of manners Molière style, of the Restoration Period in the seventeenth century in the play by combining forms of comedy with aspects of realist drama. The portrayal of archetypal figures such as Lady Chiltern and Lord Goring satirize rigid moral value of the time and expose their hypocrisies, through dialogue involving irony, wit and humour. Elements of farce and disguises characterized by ‘commedia dell’arte’, a form of comedy first developed in