An Ideal Husband

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1895

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Act IVChapter Summaries & Analyses

Act IV Summary

Lord Goring waits at the Chiltern home hoping to speak with them. Lord Caversham is also there, and Lord Goring attempts to avoid him. He is unsuccessful, and when he greets his father, Lord Caversham asks whether he has seen the article in the paper on Sir Robert’s decision regarding the Argentine Canal. Lord Caversham reports the high praise Sir Robert has received for denouncing the scheme, and Lord Goring is relieved. Mabel then enters the room, and the three of them discuss Lord Goring’s “heartless” and unruly disposition before Lord Caversham leaves.

Once Mabel and Lord Goring are alone, he tells her he’d like to propose to her—something Lord Caversham frequently suggests he do. She accepts, telling Lord Goring that she adores him. Lady Chiltern then enters, and Mabel and Lord Goring keep the proposal a secret, Mabel telling Lord Goring that she will wait for him under a palm tree by the conservatory. When Mabel leaves, Lord Goring tells Lady Chiltern that he has burned the letter Mrs. Cheveley planned to use against Sir Robert but that she is now in possession of Lady Chiltern’s letter to Lord Goring, which she plans to send to Sir Robert, claiming infidelity.

Lord Goring tells Lady Chiltern he believes they should be honest about the note and explain the circumstances surrounding it, but Lady Chiltern refuses, telling Lord Goring that they just need to intercept the letter. The pair plan to tell the secretary not to forward the letter to Sir Robert. Just then, however, Sir Robert enters the room holding the letter in his hand. He believes Lady Chiltern wrote it to him in reconciliation.

Lord Goring leaves to see Mabel, and Lady Chiltern tells Sir Robert that the letter containing his secrets has been destroyed. Relieved, he asks Lady Chiltern whether he should now retire from politics, having evaded this scandal. She agrees that he must just as Lord Goring and Lord Caversham enter. Sir Robert thanks Lord Goring for being a good friend, and Lord Caversham surprises Sir Robert with the news that Sir Robert has been offered a seat in the cabinet. Though he does not wish to, he declines the offer, having just decided to leave politics. Lord Caversham is taken aback, and Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern leave so that Sir Robert can write to the cabinet telling them he declines. Lord Goring tells Lord Caversham that he wants his father to speak to Mabel, who is still waiting under a palm tree in the conservatory. Lord Caversham obliges, and Lady Chiltern returns.

Lord Goring then asks Lady Chiltern why she’s behaving so much like Mrs. Cheveley. She doesn’t understand his meaning, so he explains that asking Sir Robert to leave Parliament to atone for the sins of his youth is essentially what Mrs. Cheveley demanded of him. Lady Chiltern agrees that she has asked too much of Sir Robert. When Sir Robert returns with the letter and asks Lady Chiltern to read it before he sends it, she tears it up. Sir Robert is grateful to his wife. Lord Goring then tells Sir Robert he wishes to ask for his sister’s hand in marriage. Lady Chiltern is pleased, but Sir Robert says no.

When Lord Goring asks him why, he reveals that he discovered Mrs. Cheveley in his house last night; he refuses to believe Lord Goring could love Mabel if he’s engaged in an affair with Mrs. Cheveley. Lady Chiltern reveals to Sir Robert that it was she whom he was expecting last night, not Mrs. Cheveley; the letter Sir Robert believed was for him was a request to meet with Lord Goring. Sir Robert is glad to know the truth and tells Lady Chiltern he could never doubt her fidelity. The Chilterns agree that Lord Goring should marry Mabel, who then enters with Lord Caversham. The Chilterns tell Lord Caversham that Sir Robert has decided to accept the seat in the cabinet, and everyone goes off to lunch. The play ends with Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern hopeful for a new beginning together.

Act IV Analysis

Act IV resolves the many conflicts throughout the play, resulting in a happy ending for nearly everyone but Mrs. Cheveley. That resolution includes character growth for both Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern, though the contrast afforded by Mabel and Lord Goring demonstrates that Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern still haven’t quite developed this other couple’s understanding of Fashionable Morality Versus Authentic Marriage. Mabel, for example, will never be as strict as Lady Chiltern is in her marriage. She tells Lord Goring, “[M]y duty is a thing I never do, on principle. It always depresses me” (300). In stark contrast to Lady Chiltern, Mabel rejects the duty-bound expectations of English society and playfully undermines such ideas in her words and actions (as in the case of her many proposals from Tommy). Similarly, Lord Goring tells his father, “I don’t like principles […] I prefer prejudices” (309). Though Mabel and Lord Goring are joking, the very act of doing so represents a rebellion against the social mores of the time. They thus act as foils to Sir Robert and Lady Chiltern even at the end of the play.

Though Lady Chiltern and Sir Robert resolve their conflict and Lady Chiltern seemingly accepts her husband, they still idealize each other. For example, Sir Robert tells Lady Chiltern, “You are to me the pure image of all good things, and sin can never touch you” (316). Sir Robert still holds Lady Chiltern to an impossible standard—specifically, one premised on women’s moral purity. These ideas are distinctly Victorian and reveal the limitations of the growth the characters undergo during the play.

Sir Robert’s initial refusal of Lord Goring when he asks for Mabel’s hand also reveals that his strong sense of “propriety” outweighs the grace and friendship that Lord Goring has extended to him throughout the play. He tells Lady Chiltern that “Arthur cannot bring Mabel the love she deserves” because he found Mrs. Cheveley in Lord Goring’s home (315). Knowing the pair were once engaged, Sir Robert condemns Lord Goring for something that happened in his past without talking to him about it, only forgiving him due to his wife’s influence.

Lord Goring and Mabel are therefore the only characters who consistently practice the compassion and charity the former so frequently asks everyone else to consider in their relationships. This is because Mabel and Lord Goring represent an entirely different reality. When proposing to Mabel, Lord Goring tells her that he is “fearfully extravagant,” and she tells him that she is too. Then, in the final scene, Lord Caversham tells his son he should be an “ideal husband” for her, to which she replies, “He can be what he chooses. All I want is to be […] a real wife to him” (318). Their union therefore rejects moralism in favor of recognizing one another’s humanity.

The final scene ends with Sir Robert wondering whether his wife has stayed with him out of pity. Sir Robert still feels guilt about his past, which Lady Chiltern assuages by affirming that love is the reason she stays. The ending line—“Love, and only love. For both of us a new life is beginning” (318)—references Lord Goring’s comment in Act II that love is really the meaning of life and the only thing of value. The play begins with a tapestry that represents the power of love and ends with this quote suggesting that real love, premised on charity and compassion, might truly conquer all.