Saturday, December 1, 2012

Themes in An Ideal Husband - GCSE essay

The play- ''An ideal Husband' by Oscar Wilde is about London society during mid 80's, this play criticize the value of Victorian society, it can also be seen as a social satire. 'An Ideal Husband' talks about many themes, for example: love, betrayal, trust and ethical compromise. 'An Ideal Husband' is about Sir Robert Chiltern, an up-coming member of England's House of Commons, an Ideal husband in other people point of view. He was being blackmailed by Lady Lauren Cheveley to agree on the Argentine cannel scheme, or she would reveal his darkest secret to the whole society and to his loyal wife, Gertrude. It is also about the love between Sir Robert Chiltern's best friend, lord Goring, the young bachelor and Mabel, Chiltern's younger sister.

The theme of love occurs in the relationship between Robert Chiltern and Gertrude, Gertrude loves Robert with a disarming lack of guile. Robert loves Gertrude so much, he would wreck his whole career, make any sacrifice for her love. Love is also present between Lord Goring, Mabel and lady Cheveley. Lady Cheveley and Lord Goring were in love before, they were engaged at a time but now lord Goring is in love with the free spirited Mabel Chiltern, so he refused the proposal of Mrs. Cheveley. 


Betrayal is the main theme of the play, the start of the play is based on the theme betray. If Baron Arnheim did not betray Robert Chiltern and gave the letter that Robert wrote to him 18 years ago to Mrs. Cheveley, the whole play wouldn't have started. Betray also exist between Robert and Gertrude, Robert tried to hide his past from Gertrude because he knew Gertrude is going to leave him. Mrs. Cheveley betrayed Lord Goring when they were engaged. Lady Cheveley pretended to love Lord Goring just because he was rich and she was poor, she also had a violent flirtation with Lord Mortlake at Tenby behind Lord Goring's back.


The theme trust is needed the most in this whole play. Trust is developed at the end of the play. Trust of lady Chiltern and Robert Chiltern was strong but later on it turned weak because of Robert's past, later on the trust rebuilt again through all challenges they faced together. The trust between father and son appeared in the family tie of Lord Goring and Lord Caversham.. Lord Caversham..

I stole this from a GCSE website - please note, GCSE is below your level and whilst this is written to a high standard this is how you should be aiming to write - and then some!

Notice how nothing is developed - no quotes, no analysis of why or when or how. Try and think about what you would add to this to bring the standard up. She makes good points - do you agree with them, or not?

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