1。 Introduction

In 1895, the word, feminism, made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary。 An Ideal Husband, which was first performed in London on January 3rd, 1895, just in the same year that feminism entered the Oxford English Dictionary, was regarded by Oscar Wilde himself as his best play。 This paper mainly focuses on the female characters in this play and their awakening self-consciousness, and further more, how their awakening self-consciousness and their chase of power squashes male characters’ vivosphere from both inside and outside the home under the general circumstance of a traditional patriarchal society。 论文网

Traditionally, compared to their husbands, females in the upper class in Britain are in a subordinate position in their families。 In Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, however, the female characters act in an opposite way。 They talk wisely and humorously, pay much attention to materialistic comforts and enjoy parties frequently, flirting with men and gossip with women。 But it’s not only that。 In the play An Ideal Husband, there are two main female characters, who are typical modern women and try to achieve their self-worth through their own struggle but twisted by material desire and their lust for power, one is Mrs。 Cheveley, the other is Lady Chiltern。

For example, Mrs。 Cheveley, a woman has no morality, accumulates a huge fortune through several porces, and tries to grab more by forcing Sir Robert Chiltern to sell the national interests。 And the opposition figure, Lady Chiltern, a perfect embodiment of ethics, also tries to control her husband, Sir Robert Chiltern, through morality and tries to achieve dominance in the home。

These females act against male dominance and try to win a place for themselves both inside and outside the home。 Pitifully, they chase for wealth and power immorally or in a distorted way。 This is because the social environment does not offer them any right place or appropriate chance to use their knowledge or perform their talents。 They break the traditional female roles but the consciousness of the whole society, including that of themselves, has not overcome the habitual practice of male-dominant tradition。 These females have not got used to their new roles, either, and none of them knows what kind of future the new roles will lead to。文献综述

On the basis of the description of self-consciousness of women that Simone de Beauvoir writes in The Second Sex, this paper mainly analyze the characters in the play, especially female characters, and give a discussion about the living situation of modern women and their way out in a male-dominant society。

2。 Literature Review

Oscar Wilde wrote altogether four comedies: Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest。 These comedies created a great sensation at that time and brought the most astonishing success to Oscar Wilde(Beckson, 1970: 14)。

Since 1970s, researchers who study Oscar Wilde’s comedies have changed their strategy。 Instead of focusing on a particular plot or detail, they study Wilde’s comedies under a circumstance of the specific British culture and society in 19th century。 The Plays of Oscar Wilde written by Alan Bird is quite a good example。 Bird understands Wilde’s comedies from an angle of British politics and economy in late 19th century and comes to a conclusion that different from others。 He regards the end of An Ideal Husband as a victory of money, ambition and corruption rather than a victory of love(Bird, 1977: 150)。

In late 19th century, there a great number of plays focusing on the topic of what is an ideal husband。 Kerry Powell, the British critic, regards them as reversals of common images of ideal wives in Victorian comedies and compliments that the reversals show the awakening self-consciousness of modern women。 When it comes to An Ideal Husband of Oscar Wilde, however, Kerry Powell negatively comments that this play is an appeal for the objection against authority of women in their families and for the forgiveness immorality of men(Powell, 1990: 89)。