Wednesday 13 June, 2007

Ideal Husband - Oscar Wilde

After reading couple of Oscar Wilde's works , Iam in complete awe of him.His anectodes, insightful quotes, barbed wit,sarcastic humor and repartees made me a fan of him :) .His thoughts are still fresh and interesting to read even today.

My first read was "Importance of being Earnest" ,and now the play "Ideal Husband" by him.

Following are some of the places I enjoyed reading the play .

Father asks his to son to get married soon

You have got to get married, and at once. Why, when I was your age, sir, I had been an inconsolable widower for three months, and was already paying my addresses to your admirable mother. Damme,sir, it is your duty to get married. You can't be always living for pleasure. Every man of position is married nowadays. Bachelors are not fashionable any more. They are a damaged lot. Too much is known about them. You must get a wife, sir.

Temptation , a weakness ?

Weak? Do you really think, Arthur,that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure,I care not - there is no weakness in that.

Sarcasms about listening to others

It is a very dangerous thing to listen. If one listens one may be convinced; and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person.

Another Witty comment about today's Romance

Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.

Oh This Guy is with Men's side or Women's side ?

LORD GORING. But women who have common sense are so curiously plain,father, aren't they? Of course I only speak from hearsay.

LORD CAVERSHAM. No woman, plain or pretty, has any common sense at
all, sir. Common sense is the privilege of our sex.

LORD GORING. Quite so. And we men are so self-sacrificing that we
never use it, do we, father?

How true! Now News channels can be added too.

spies are of no use nowadays. Their profession is over. The newspapers do their work instead. And thunderingly well they do it.

About a man's love

when a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to love her?

Well Oscar belongs to 1890s.I can forgive him now.

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.

Being an Anglo-Irish , He should be right

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilised.

Other insightful quotes from the play.


Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.

Life is never fair...And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not."

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance


Read the entire play here

6 comments:

Blade bala said...

Very impressive! I now know that you read a wide variety of books.
Nice collection here eh! I very much enjoyed the read.

Venkat C said...

Hey thats a good one...liked the part about love and bachelors .. he he

Twisted DNA said...

Very insightful! I didn't read either but I read "Picture of Dorian Gray." I enjoyed that one. Will try an Ideal Husband. No, no. I won't try to be one. I will just read the book :D

KP said...

Picture of Dorian Gray. - Its in my wishlist :)

Unknown said...

The idea is inspiring !!!
You are always bubbling with exciting things :-)

I enjoyed reading ... will read often :-)

Get....Set... Go............! said...

As others I too enjoyed reading this…
Oscar Wilde is a man with a remarkable vision/thought.
He has spoke about a lot of veracity bitten bitter stuff… seems like he must have faced a lot of letdowns in his life and learnt from all of them…

Thanks for sharing this with us…. !