An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Character Sketch - Lady Chiltern

Lady Chiltern is the wife of Lord Chiltern and is the first to be introduced in the play. Wilde describes little about her only saying as much as "A woman of grave Greek beauty". However, Wilde brings forth Lady Chiltern's character through her dialogues and her action in the play. Lady Chiltern is strong-charactered and has a good reputation and position in society. in the words of Lady Markby, "Lady Chiltern is a woman of the very highest principles, I am glad to say." Lady Chiltern is constantly shown as holding up the perfect and what is right. She seems to be the moral figure of the play.

The major story of the play revolves around her idea of her husband being "Ideal" and having the highest morals and actions. She worships her husband which Wilde highlights throughout the play, "We needs must love the highest when we see it" says Lady Chitlern towards the end of Act 1, "To the world as to myself you have been an ideal." among other dialogues which imply that she believes her husband to be most idealistic and a perfect husband for any woman.

Her views are at times shown to be extreme, where she believes any person to be the extremes of whatever character they represent. She refers to Mrs. Chevely as a "thief and a liar" and points out to Robert Chiltern that Mrs. Chevely is the worst kind of person since she has known her since they were young showing that she sees Mrs. Chevely as the extreme of negativity. On the other hand, Lady Chiltern worships Lord Chiltern because she is shown as believing him to be the extreme and perfection of positivity and righteousness.

However, I personally find Lady Chiltern a combination of both within herself. She is shown as an outright righteous and moralistic person, whereas she is also the one who performs acts that force Robert Chiltern to agree to her demands. She is manipulative and black-mails Lord Chiltern. However, these aspects of Lady Chiltern are only shown towards the end of Act 1, where she threatens Lord Chiltern to separate entirely had he had a past of any fraud or dishonesty. However, she does set aside her morals when it comes to herself and her image in front of her husband, when he misinterprets the letter for Lord Goring as for himself and she does not tell him the truth simply to make him believe that she is as perfect as she sees him. These aspect of Lady Chiltern make her more human and perhaps more likeable than an absolute upholder of righteousness and ideals.

Lady Chiltern on the whole is a positive character, upright and authoritative and even unforgiving. She places way too much in morals and is shown to be a strong character with high influences.