There is no such animal as the Ideal Husband but there is a play by the same name penned by Oscar Wilde (OW).  Periodically I like to reread OW plays as they are so clever, insightful and humorous.  I am certain everyone has heard of The Importance of Being Ernest, which undoubtedly was his Mona Lisa.

The story of The Ideal Husband rotates around blackmail, an idealistic spouse, and her guilty but reformed husband. Read it yourself HERE on PDF.

Perhaps I can tempt you to read this play with some quotes from it.

Ah! The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us.  Men can be analysed, women ….merely adored.

You think science cannot grapple with the problem of women? 

Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world. 

And women represent the irrational?

Well dressed women do.

All of OW’s plays have the clever one-liners and situations that are so enjoyed on a stage, especially when shared to the audience by a droll actor with the knack for timing.

Wonderful woman, isn’t she. Talks more and says less than anybody I ever met.   She is made to be a public speaker.

Unless you read the play you cannot appreciate it, much as a trailer is only meant to tease the person to watch and not really evaluate the value of a movie.

The idealistic spouse is helped by her husband’s best friend Lord Goring, a wise man of the world, he tells her “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.  I think that in practical life there is something about success, actual success, that is a little unscrupulous, something about ambition that is unscrupulous always.”

The wife put her husband put her husband on a pedestal, and perhaps the lesson of the play could be summed up ”

Why can’t you women love us, faults and all? We all have feet of clay, women as well as men; but when we men love women, we love them knowing their weaknesses, their follies, their imperfections, and love them all the more, it may be for that reason.    It is the not the perfect but the imperfect, who have need of love. 

Interesting how OW wrote about relationships so well, and with insight and humor.

Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the two sexes.

If you want to learn more about Oscar Wilde (OW) – Wikipedia is linked here. 

Here is a wonderful adaption, and I trust you will enjoy it!