AN IDEAL HUSBAND, by Oscar Wilde

 Character: Sir Robert Chiltern

 Gender: Male
 Age Range: 30-49
 Category: Contemporary, Comedy
 Themes: Frustration, Entitlement, Attention

Scene Synopsis: Robert has been dealing with Mrs. Cheveley's impending
blackmail regarding the origins of his fortune.

Play Synopsis: Blackmail threatens the lives of Robert and Lady Chiltern. Lady
Cheveley plans to reveal secrets to the Chiltern's fortune unless certain demands
are met. Lord Goring steps in to assist his friends, as well as engage in witty
repartee with Mabel. When all looks lost, Lord Goring saves the day and wins the
girl.

Sir Robert Chiltern:

Arthur, do you think that what I did nearly eighteen years ago should be brought
up against me now? Do you think it fair that a man’s whole career should be ruined
for a fault done in one’s boyhood almost? I was twenty-two at the time, and I had
the double misfortune of being well-born and poor, two unforgiveable things
nowadays. Is it fair that the folly, the sin of one’s youth, if men choose to call it a
sin, should wreck a life like mine, should place me in the pillory, should shatter all
that I have worked for, all that I have built up. Is it fair, Arthur? Every man of
ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worships
is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At
all costs one must have wealth.