Regenia Gagnier
“a sentimental for his audience and a cynical interpretation for his critics”
Christopher Innes
“Each of Wilde’s comedies ends with the reassertion of moral standards…. Yet by the time these ‘happy endings’ are achieved, everything they stand for has been discredited.
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Wilde’s comedies end with moral standards being reasserted and happy endings, yet these moral standards and happy endings have been discredited
Katherine Worth
“The play moves to the happy ending which , as always in Wilde’s comedies, is deeply equivocal. For Lord Goring and Mabel … the outlook is fine. We may see this couple as embodying Wilde’s ideas on how to live life for the best”
Lord Goring and Mabel are a result of the plays happy ending, and encapsulate Wilde’s ideas on how to live life to the best
Alan Bird
“the basic hypocrisy of English society”
William Archer
“The excellent Sir Robert proves himself one of those gentlemen who can be honest so long as it is absolutely convenient, and no longer”
The first critics of the play
Lady Chiltern was described as “stupidly good,” “rather trying,” “abnormally moral,” and even “unwomanly,”
Curt Guyette
“The woman delights in taunting him” (about Mrs Cheveley and Sir Robert Chiltern)
Elaine Showalter
“the male rebellion against patriarchy did not necessarily mean a commitment to feminism”
Kerry Powell
“simultaneously it seeks to dismantle and to preserve the double standard as it applies to women”
Misehide Kaneda - Binary Opposition
“The binary opposition between men/public and women/domestic is the central issue posed in the drama”.
Masehide Kaneda - Interpretations
“Oscar Wilde’s dramas reject a single interpretation.”
Masehide Kaneda - Contemporary society
“His dramas obviously deal with the disturbing matters in contemporary society”.
Masehide Kaneda - the play
AIH is a mixture of problem play, comedy, and melodrama
Masehide Kaneda - Victorian Ideology
“It simultaneously supports and subverts the Victorian ideology.’’
