An Ideal Husband Women and Femininity Quotes
How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #1
LADY BASILDON. What martyrs we are, dear Margaret!
MRS. MARCHMONT. [Rising.] And how well it becomes us, Olivia! (1.15-16)
Their willingness to suffer conversation with boring men makes these women more attractive.
Quote #2
MRS. CHEVELEY. Certainly, more women grow old nowadays through the faithfulness of their admirers than through anything else! At least that is the only way I can account for the terribly haggard look of most of your pretty women in London! (1.70)
Mrs. Cheveley doesn't have a domestic bone in her body. A steadfast admirer would bore her to death. Maybe that's why she goes after Lord Goring.
Quote #3
MRS. CHEVELEY. Ah! the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. […] Science can never grapple with the irrational. (1.76-78)
Much of Mrs. Cheveley's power – especially in this early scene – lies in her mystery.
Quote #4
LORD GORING. [Turning round.] Well, she wore far too much rouge last night, and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman. (2.81)
"Hello kettle? This is pot. You're black." Lord Goring and Mrs. Cheveley share the award for Most Hours in Front of a Mirror.
Quote #5
LADY MARKBY. I assure you that the amount of things I and my poor dear sister were taught not to understand was quite extraordinary. But modern women understand everything, I am told. (2.240)
It's Lady Markby with the how-things-have-changed report. Probably the most interesting aspect of this quote is the idea that "ignorance" can be taught.
Quote #6
LORD GORING. But women who have common sense are so curiously plain, father, aren't they? (3.114)
Let's remember that in Lord Goring's world, common sense is not a desirable attribute.
Quote #7
LORD CAVERSHAM. No woman, plain or pretty, has any common sense at all, sir. Common sense is the privilege of our sex. (3.115)
Lord Caversham eats these words later, applauding Mabel's common sense in favoring the "real" over the "ideal" in marriage.
Quote #8
MRS. CHEVELEY. My dear Arthur, women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the two sexes. (3.243)
Mrs. Cheveley has full confidence in the superiority and strength of women.
Quote #9
LORD GORING. How you women war against each other! (3.250)
Lord Goring sees Mrs. Cheveley and Lady Chiltern as two black widows of very different natures. He couldn't be married to either of them.
Quote #10
LORD GORING. A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. Don't make any terrible mistake, Lady Chiltern. A woman who can keep a man's love, and love him in return, has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them. (4.246)
Lord Goring advocates for women to remain in the private sphere as silent supports to their men. Lady Chiltern parrots his speech when her husband comes back in. Some critics see the word-for-word repetition as a comic resolution, but we're not so sure. Can you think of another way to interpret it?