In 'An Ideal Husband', the "battle of life" is represented in numerous ways by numerous different characters. For example. Robert Chiltern deceives those around him selling a cabinet secret, and Mrs. Cheveley wears the mask of good intentions when in reality she just wants to make money The only common denominator is the fact that the characters in the play lie and deceive everyone for their own benefit ' no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned" Get an original essay Sir Robert Chiltern's use of deception in the work is by far the highest profile among all the characters.After all, his large fortune, on which the setting of the play is largely based, was all financed by his dishonest method of making money by selling a cabinet secret about the Suez Canal project ", as Mrs Cheveley called her, pushed Robert into government and established his reputation as a true gentleman and esteemed member of Parliament. In terms of Robert using the scam to help him in the "battle of life", he talks to Lord Goring about his life before meeting Baron Arnheim. He tells Lord Goring that he had the "misfortune of being well born and poor" and that Goring "never knew what ambition was" in the way he did, which would have further developed the idea that Chiltern used the means of deception to create a better situation. life for himself. It could be argued that if Chiltern had not taken advantage of the situation he found himself in, he would still be in the significantly less respectable position of Under-Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. This whole story is closely connected to elements of the contemporary historical context, since the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 and "An Ideal Husband" was published in 1895, halfway through its construction. This would therefore mean that the Canal would have been a popular topic of conversation at the time. The fact that Wilde used these popular topics in his work further reinforces his stature as one of the most sought after conversationalists of his time. The way scandals like this have been interpreted has changed over the years, along with people's attitudes towards success. In terms of the public at the time of Wilde's life, they would have been shocked to see that a so-called gentleman had been so dishonest and selfish. On the contrary, in today's society we are used to seeing scandals involving high society people very often. In fact, Robert Chiltern and his actions are almost directly linked to the recent insider trading scandal involving Phil Mickelson, the professional golfer who was involved in a similar incident. This somewhat tarnished his reputation as he lost numerous lucrative sponsors and the respect of many of his admirers. Although Robert Never was publicly shamed for his actions, the social "punishment" would have been equivalent to Mickelson's. Mrs. Cheveley is another character who uses certain poses to succeed in life. At the beginning of the first act, he describes being natural as "a really hard pose to maintain." This implies that his entire personality is based on him being false to others, but he won't change his ways because that's not who he is. In many ways this makes her very similar to Robert in the sense that she was born poor but full of ambition. This idea is developed when she speaks to Lord Goring about why she became engaged to him, justifying it simply by saying "I was poor; you were rich." Speaking in these terms, this tells the audience that he is not a loving or friendly person, butsimply a pragmatic person, who has no qualms about deceiving others. It is this feature of her character that most likely made Goring fall in love with her; he is a romantic. Wilde played on the concept of "opposites attracting" here. This emphasizes that Mrs. Cheveley does not care about people's feelings or trust; only that he succeeds. Further evidence can be seen in the way she almost tears the Chilterns' marriage apart, just so she can force Robert to publicize the Argentine canal project in Parliament and earn her a profit on her investment. Interestingly, Wilde was perhaps expressing his own political views on the authenticity of the Argentine canal project. In the 19th century, women were expected to marry in their early twenties, not based on sexual desire, but instead based on maternal desire. Furthermore, they were certainly not expected to be the ones in the company to earn the money. Ms. Cheveley contradicts all of these stereotypes because in every relationship she has in the show, positive or negative, she is the one in control, which would most likely have shocked men at the time of writing, but empowered women. For example, even though her relationship with Robert Chiltern has soured, she is still the person who tells him what to do. A key example of this is found when Mrs Cheveley first admits to Robert Chiltern that she knows about his secret. She is about to get up and leave, before Wilde writes in the stage directions that she "holds" him, as if he were in a prison, and she had the key. This is Mrs. Cheveley's "weapon", and she uses it to try to improve her life by gaining an advantage over Robert. This idea of ​​being in prison relates directly to Wilde's life, as he spent two years (1895-1897) sentenced to hard labor for being homosexual. In this sense we can clearly see that it is Wilde who shares some similarities with Sir Robert Chiltern, based on the fact that they both kept some secrets that would defame them. The only difference is that Chiltern seems to get away with more, while Wilde doesn't. I believe that these differences in outcomes between Wilde and Chiltern meant that Wilde represented what he hoped would happen in terms of discovering his secrets. In my opinion, this is where the title of the work comes from, but even more significantly the word “Ideal”, for these were the “ideal” results that Wilde desired when his secret was discovered; that in the end everything is fine for him. Perhaps the only character in the entire play to use deception in a relatively noble way is Lord Goring, when he tricks Mrs. Cheveley into showing her the brooch she left in Chilterns. «the house is not his. For example, she tricks Mrs. Cheveley into lying by saying that the brooch was a "gift," and then quickly traps her in her own deception by informing her that she gave it as a gift to her cousin ten years ago. Now that Cheveley could not escape the truth, as she was trapped in Goring's house and trapped with the pin on her arm, she had no choice but to deliver the letter that thus incriminated Robert. This act of deception aided Goring in numerous ways, all of which could be considered to be on the side of "good" over "evil". For example, it freed him from Mrs. Cheveley, which paved the way for him to propose marriage to the woman he truly loved in Mabel Chiltern, and subsequently allowed Robert to take Goring back as his "dearest friend." it's just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In Wilde's mind, he was much like Goring, in the way he lied for a good cause, rather than to gain an advantage over someone..