An Ideal Husband의 구조와 주제 = The Thematic Structure of An Ideal Huaband

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This is an attempt to study the theme and structure of Oscar Wilde's third comedy, An Ideal Husband by a close examination of the play. Many critics have complained about Wilde's indebtedness and adherence to a tradition that was already established in comic drama; post- romantic French drama and the plays of his English contemporaries. Our superficial understanding of this play might lead to the false conclusion that his achievement lay merely in putting together melodramatic situations, using techniques from the well-made play, and projecting them onto a background of social criticism in the problem play. The real problem of the play is the tension between men and women, the individual and society, between public and private life, and between established norms and their deliberate violation.
The guilty secret which in the previous two plays had been sexual and focussed on a woman is here concerned with money and politics and centered upon a man in the main plot. Yet it is the sub-plot of Mabel Chiltern, Sir Robert's sister and the elder statesman, Lord Caversham which gives the play its chief distinction and delight. And also the shared mask of frivolity between Lord Goring and Mable Chiltern, a preliminary sketch for Cecily and Algernon in the Importance of Being' Earnest, serves as a refreshing contrast to the solemnity of Lady Chiltern's attitude to life in the main plot.. A Wildean idea given especially strong emphasis in An Ideal Husband is that life is as capable of artistic form and meaning as a painting or a poem. The imagery of masks which so permeates this drama and the paradoxes of dandies not only reinforce the life-as-art-form theme but support the plot in several other ways. Even the moralistic plot does not jar so sharply against the anti-philistine and dandiacal elements. This harmony is achieved by making Lord Goring the ally of the principal characters in their struggle against the wicked Mrs. Cheveley and by providing the spectators with a critical perspective through the duality and polarity of plot and achieving ironic dramatic effect. The political satire also helps to dissipate the discord that existed in the earlier comedies between the comic themes and the serious ones.
Despite the fact that Wilde continually touches on the conflict between public and private life, we cannot assign his comedies to the genre of the problem play like that of Henrik Ibsen. The tradition of problem play did not suit Wilde at all, for it ran contrary to his ant-realistic concept of art and he was not really interested in social reform. However, there is no denying that he was interested not only in matters of technique, but also in the themes used by his predecessors. Wilde even yielded to the epidemic temptation to rewrite Ibsen, such as taking over dramatic situations in Ibsen, but more often added something distinctive of his own - a comic twist or a transformation of Ibsen's text to make an effect and a poink uniquely his. Oscar Wilde is less conventional in the mechanics of plot construction in An Ideal Husband than was Ibsen in Pillars of Society. Although the patched-together happy ending, by which the guilty Sir Robert Chiltern retains both his good wife and his good name is subversive, there is a revolutionary nature in the play, which demeans practically every ideal but love itself. To sum up Wilde realized his ambitious self-conception as the 'peer of Ibsen' in An Ideal Husband by producing shock waves capable of reaching us today through shaking the pillares of society.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. An Ideal Husband는 와일드의 초기 희극 중에서 장르의 혼합에 가장
• Ⅱ. An Ideal Husband의 주 플롯은 Mrs.Cheveley가 Sir Robert Chiltern을
• Ⅲ. 2막의 구조는 현실주의자 Robert경과 댄디인 Lord Goring,
• Ⅳ. Walkey는 3막이 잘 짜여진 극들에 흔히 있는 적절치 못한 등장과
• Ⅴ. An Ideal Husband의 종막은 세 편의 희극 중에서 가장 희극적이다.
• Ⅵ. 이 작품은 앞의 두 작품에서와 같이 제목에 아이러니를 포함시키는 극적 기교를