Lady Gertrude Chiltern Timeline and Summary

Lady Chiltern recognizes Mrs. Cheveley from her childhood. Shocked to learn that Sir Robert will support the Argentine Canal at Mrs. Cheveley's suggestion. Lady Chiltern immediately insists that Sir Robert take back this unethical position. Lady Chiltern is gently urged by Lord Goring to be a little more forgiving. She finds out about Sir Robert's past from Mrs. Cheveley. Lady Chiltern lashes out at Sir Robert. He accuses her of demanding the impossible, and of putting him on a pedestal. Desperate for help, Lady Chiltern writes a letter to Lord Goring. The next morning, she finds out that Lord Goring has burned the evidence of her husband's crime. Lord Goring also informs her that Mrs. Cheveley may try to frame them in an affair. When Sir Robert offers to leave public life, relieved that he's been saved. Lady Chiltern encourages him. Lord Goring asks her not to demand such a sacrifice from her husband. Instead, Lord Goring says she should continue to support her husband, because that's her job. Lady Chiltern repeats these words to Sir Robert, assuring him that she'll no longer bring judgment to the marriage only love.

Lady Chiltern is the play's upright and earnest heroine, embodying the ideal of Victorian new womanhood Wilde elaborated while editor of the Women's World magazine in the late 1880s. This new woman was best represented by an educated wife involved in women's issues and supportive of her husband's political career. Lady Chiltern certainly embodied these characteristics, and unlike Sir Robert, Lady Chiltern is not self-divided, but perfectly virtuous. Though a poised, charming, and dignified society wife, Lady Chiltern is nave when it comes to the machinations around her. In this sense, she is Mrs. Cheveley's ready victim. Lady Chiltern undergoes a rather simple development through the course of the play, specifically with respect to the theme of marriage and, more precisely, the question of how women should love. Toward the end of Act I, she melodramatically delivers a speech to Sir Robert that introduces the idea of the "ideal husband" and establishes the nature of her love, a love described from the outset as "feminine." As a woman, Lady Chiltern loves in the worship of an ideal mate, a mate who serves as model for both her and society at large. Thus she rejects Sir Robert upon the revelation of his secret past, unable to brook neither his duplicity nor the justification of his dishonesty as necessary compromise. Ultimately she will learn from her counselor, Lord Goring, that the loving woman should not so much idealize the lover as forgive him his faults. Goring will also teach her that Sir Robertas a manlives by his intellect and requires a successful public life. Thus Lady Chiltern will forgo her rigid morals and allow her husband to continue his career despite its ill-gotten beginnings.

Mrs. Laura Cheveley

Character Analysis

Mrs. Cheveley as Non-Conformist

If Lady Chiltern is the good angel of feminine modernity, Mrs. Cheveley is the dark angel. She's as Machiavellian and power-hungry as they come. Independence is her god. She may have to be married for economic reasons, but she won't conform to the role of a traditional wife. "Romance should never begin with sentiment," she says, "It should begin with science and end with a settlement" (3.101). In her mind, the best are those mutually back-scratching arrangements, such as she had with Baron Arnheim. She provided him with sex, he provided her with money. She's hoping for something equally streamlined and mutually beneficial with Lord Goring.

Mrs. Cheveley and Lord Goring

On the surface, Mrs. Cheveley is Lord Goring's match in wit, style, and unconventionality. They are both self-absorbed dandies who circumvent social expectations to gain freedom. They don't care what people say about them. We can imagine how they would have ended up together, as younger folks who knew themselves less well. The problem is: at heart Lord Goring's romantic, while Mrs. Cheveley's pragmatic. Her pragmatism has to do with circumstance: "At that time I was poor; you were rich, " she tells Lord Goring of their engagement (3.221). Who does this sound like? Remember this: "I was twenty-two at the time, and I had the double misfortune of being well-born and poor, two unforgivable things nowadays" (2.21). That's right Sir Robert and Mrs. Cheveley are two peas in a pod. She was poor and ambitious, just like him. Mrs. Cheveley may be the play's villain, but by giving some hints at a motive we can understand, Wilde helps us see her as a human being.

Mrs. Cheveley
Foil to the earnest Lady Chiltern, Mrs. Cheveley is the play's femme fatale: bitingly witty, fabulously well dressed, cruel, ambitious, opportunistic, and, above all, duplicitous. Repeatedly the play describes her as the product of "horrid combinations," evoking her dangerous deceitfulness. Thus Lady Basildon recoils from her "unnatural" union of daytime genius and nighttime beauty; later, Cheveley appears as a "lamialike" villainessthat is, part woman and part snake. Whereas Lady Chiltern is pure and undivided, Mrs. Cheveley is defined by deception, artifice, and falsehood. Cheveley returns from Vienna as a sort of ghost from the past, at once an old enemy of Lady Chiltern's from their school days, the traitorous fiance of the young Lord Goring, and a disciple of the deceased Baron Arnheim, Sir Robert's seductive corrupter. Even more than Sir Robert, she fiercely subscribes to Arnheim's philosophy of power and gospel of wealth, treasuring the domination of others above all.

Thus she unscrupulously wreaks havoc in the Chiltern's married life to secure her fortunes and dismisses marriage as a mere transaction. Thus, within the moral scheme of the play, she stands opposed to the sentimental notions of conjugal life embodied by the Chilterns and Lord Goring. With this in mind, Mrs. Cheveley's undoing in Act III avenges her crimes against the conjugal household. Called to account for a past crime, she finds herself trapped for a stolen wedding giftthe diamond broochby her ex-fianc. The poetic justice in her arrest is clear. Moreover, this undoing also unmasks her as a monster. Once trapped by Lord Goring, Cheveley dissolves into a "paroxysm of rage" her loss of speech giving way to an agony of terror that distorts her face. For a moment, a "mask has fallen," and Cheveley is "dreadful to look at." Her veneer of wit and beauty thus give way to the hidden beast.

Mrs. Laura Cheveley Timeline and Summary

Mrs. Cheveley makes a splash at the Chiltern's party. She blackmails Sir Robert with the Baron Arnheim letter. He promises to do what she asks. Furious that Sir Robert's gone back on his promise, Mrs. Cheveley confronts Lady Chiltern. She exposes Sir Robert, creating a rift in the Chiltern's marriage. Mrs. Cheveley makes a surprise call on Lord Goring. She finds Lady Chiltern's letter on pink stationary and thinks it's a love note. Sir Robert discovers that she has come to call on Lord Goring and curses her, thinking that his friend has betrayed him. Revealing the purpose of her visit, Mrs. Cheveley proposes marriage to Lord Goring. If he agrees, she'll give him the Baron Arnheim letter. No dice. Lord Goring confronts her about the theft of the bracelet and says he'll call the police. Mrs. Cheveley clears out but not before stealing Lady Chiltern's letter. She sends the letter to Sir Robert, but her wicked little plan falls flat.

Mabel Chiltern
Character Analysis Mabel is the third "generation" in the play. While she ends up engaged to Lord Goring, she's not really in his same world (she's probably about half his age). His spontaneity is constructed; hers is natural. This may be what attracts him to her. Lady Chiltern actively fights the dunderheadedness of a Mrs. Markby, while Mabel's simply amused: "I love being scolded by her" (2.196). What she avoids is earnestness, seriousness, and any sort of purpose. She says to Lady Chiltern, "You married a man with a future, didn't you? But then Robert was a genius, and you have a noble, self-sacrificing characterI have no character at all, and Robert is the only genius I could ever bear" (2.193). Unlike Lord Goring, Mabel never reveals a deeper understanding of the world or interest in others. Nevertheless, her last lines embody the message of the play:

An ideal husband! Oh, I don't think I should like that. It sounds like something in the next worldHe can be what he chooses. All I want is to beto beoh! A real wife to him. (4.290-292) In her innocence, totally unaware of the complex power struggles the others have been facing, Mabel reaches this conclusion that acceptance is the foundation of marriage. Wilde seems to be saying that's only natural, and that Mabel has come to this conclusion naturally.

Mabel Chiltern An exemplar of English prettiness, Mabel, Sir Robert's younger sister, embodies what Wilde describes as the "fascinating tyranny of youth" and "astonishing courage of innocence." Pert and clever, Mabel flirtatiously matches Lord Goring's wit throughout t he play and their somewhat unconventional union serves as a foil to the other marriages and would-be engagements that compose the plot.

Lord Caversham
Character Analysis Lord Caversham is Lord Goring's father. He provides a generational foil to Lord Goring, much as Lady Markby does to Lady Chiltern. An old-fashioned public servant, Lord Caversham believes that politics is the noblest profession. He is often unknowingly ironic as he compares his son to Sir Robert: Look where your friend Robert Chiltern has got to by probity, hard work, and a sensible marriage with a good woman. Why don't you imitate him, sir? Why don't you take him for your model? (3.53) Of course, we know that at this very moment Lord Goring is scrambling to save said marriage, due to Sir Robert's being much less than a model. A little dramatic irony shows that perhaps Lord Caversham is not as wise as he first seems.

Lord Caversham Father to Lord Goring, Lord Caversham, described as a "fine Whig type," is a stuffy, serious, and respectable gentleman who is firmly opposed to the excesses of his dandified son. Continually he urges his son to marry and adopt a career, posing Sir Robert as model. Caversham appears as a figure for the old-fashioned against a son who makes and masters the art of modern living.

Lady Markby
A pleasant and popular woman with "gray hair la marquise and good lace," Lady Markby appears at the dinner party in Act I and visits Lady Chiltern in II, both times with Mrs. Cheveley in arm. Lady Markby is emblematic of an older generation of So ciety women, bemoaning the effect of politics and the higher education of women on married life. In this sense, she counterpoises the Victorian new woman embodied by Lady Chiltern.
Character Analysis Lady Markby plays the role of the gossipy aunt. If you want the world to know your business, tell it to her; it's clear that nothing ever ends with her. In the play, she represents the pre-modern woman. She counsels Mabel: "Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern. One is apt to grow oldfashioned quite suddenly" (2.213). It's also interesting that she is the person who introduces Mrs. Cheveley. Decidedly unaware of the tools of warfare in modern life, she doesn't have a clue that she's starting a skirmish.

Lady Basildon and Mrs. Marchmont

Lady Basildon and Mrs. Marchmont are described as "types of exquisite fragility" with an affection of manner of delicate charm, ideal subjects for the French Rococo painter Watteau. Never developed into major characters, these women frivolously banter on a number of topics throughout Act I; notable ones include the dreariness of politics, being serious, education, and so on. Like Watteau's figures, they are perhaps more decorative than anything else, thoughas the insightfulness of their conversations suggestsone can never underestimate the decorative on Wilde's stage.

Character Analysis Relatively indistinguishable from each other, these two ladies fill out the party scene and provide us with some background information on the main characters. These women let us know that Lady Chiltern is respectable, that her husband's a dream, and that Mrs. Cheveley is not a member of the in-group. Their presence helps put the pressure on Sir Robert as someone who gets plenty of attention.

Phipps
Character Analysis

Phipps is Lord Goring's servant, adept at agreeing with his Master. Called the "ideal butler" because of his stoicism and discretion, Phipps also knows how to make a joke. Due to his wit and ability to keep things light, he is the perfect compliment to Lord Goring.

A "mask with a manner" who serves Lord Goring. Phipps is the ideal butler. Absolutely impassive, he reveals nothing of his intellect or emotions and "represents the dominance of form." Phipps appears briefly at the beginning of Act IV in a comic interlude with Lord Goring.