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Oscar Wilde surpassed others in a variety of genres: as a critic, poet, novelist and a dramatist. But his most outstanding success was a dramatist. What’s more, it is his social comedy that makes him a great man. English drama witnessed a long period of decline since Sheridan. Luckily, Wilde brought it back to life by the end of 19th century. It is recorded that “The first important playwright in a modern sense was Oscar Wilde with his witty drawing-room comedies. He did much to improve the literary standing of English drama. He brought into the theatre an acute and brilliant wit, which, together with his style and epigrams, made his comedy get beyond the melodrama and become classics in the history of English comedies.” (Wang Lili, 2008:3) His four social comedies, with witty paradoxes and epigrams in the dialogues, have been acknowledged as his most outstanding contributions. In February 1895, he even had two plays, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, running simultaneously on West End stages. His works are interpreted from various angles like modernism, feminism, post-colonialism, culture study, homosexual subculture, dandyism, etc.
1.2 The Story of An Ideal Husband
As one of Wilde’s popular comedies, An Ideal Husband (1895) has aroused readers’, audiences’, and critics’ attentions since its publication and staging. Actually, the story of An Ideal Husband is simple and easy to follow. Sir Robert Chiltern, a brilliant politician with unquestionable integrality, is the ideal husband for the charming Lady Chiltern to the public. However, in a political party held in the Chilterns, an unexpected guest, Mrs. Cheveley, showed up, carrying in her pocket a secret letter of Sir Robert Chiltern, by which he gained the present position and the love of his charming wife. Mrs. Cheveley threatened him to buy back the letter for the price of his public supporting of a fraudulent scheme, the Argentine Canal in which she has invested very largely. Afraid of the ruin of his political career and marriage, Sir Robert almost yielded to her demands. However, Lady Chiltern is a morally inflexible woman who worships her husband as a moral model in both private and public life. Unaware of her husband's past and the blackmail plot, Lady Chiltern insisted on her husband’s withdrawing his promise to Mrs. Cheveley. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cheveley ultimately exposed Sir Robert's disgraceful past to Lady Chiltern. Unable to accept the shameful sin which was committed by her husband, Lady Chiltern felt so disappointed with him that she felt her moral ideal almost collapsed to earth. Sir Robert turned to his devoted friend Lord Goring for help. Once nearly engaged to Mrs. Cheveley, Lord Goring recognized Mrs. Cheveley’s grievous past from the shape of the ruby and diamond brooch and successfully forced her to give up her evil plan. The play ends with the reunion of the couple and a happy marriage between Lord Goring and Mabel Chiltern.