Review by Edward Tanguay February 24, 1997

Excellent plays. I want to see them all. These plays are clean and refined and sugary, sprinkled abundantly with wit and not without some social criticism but nothing revolutionary or shocking. The characters all live in a fantasy world where the "most important aspect of life is how to tie a tie correctly." If you consider the real social horrors of late 19th century industrial England, it makes these characters stand out ever more brightly and shockingly.

This extreme superficiality and hypocrisy is what makes Wilde's Victorian world delightful. The characters are delightful in their innocence and lightness: 

Lord Goring, you are talking quite seriously. I don't think I ever heard you talk seriously before. / You must excuse me, Lady Chiltern. It won't occur again, if I can help it.

They are living in a fantasy world which is being supported artificially. What is serious is light and what is light is serious. It is enjoyable to live in this world with these characters.

I was surprised to find out that Wilde was not a profound writer. Every play has its own little moral lesson, but none of the moral themes are pressing issues of the time. They entertain but they do not encourage serious reflection on the culture. Most of the moral themes have to do with gender roles, and even have a touch of Victorian approval behind them:  the definition of a "good" and "bad" woman (Lady Windermere's Fan), women and men commit a sin together but only the woman pays (A Woman of No Importance), a woman should not interfere in her husbands career (An Ideal Husband). I had had in my mind that Wilde was a revolutionary writer, but this is not the case at all. His plays are very traditionally structured. I would say that the reason why his plays endure is the personal wit that Wilde was able to dose them with. His characters are masters of conversation. Experiencing and watching their light lives and listening to their quick and light language is simply enjoyable. Here are some quotes I particularly liked:

. . . she went into a convent, or on to the operatic stage, I forget which. (!)

We have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform.

Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found out.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly; but I don't see any chance of it just at present.

We all are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Now I know where this quote originated!)

In the world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. (yes!)

I have given up trying to reform him. It would take a Public Company with a Board of Directors and a paid Secretary to do that.

What are American dry goods? / American novels. (ouch!)

Twenty years of romance make a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage make her something like a public building.

There are a great many things you haven't got in America, I am told, Miss Worsley. They say you have no ruins and no curiosities. / What nonsense! They have their mothers and their manners. (ouch!)

I remember a clergyman who wanted to be a lunatic, or a lunatic who wanted to be a clergyman, I forget which . . . (these are great . . . easy, funny wit)

This is just what I should like to marry. A thoroughly sensible wife would reduce me to a condition of absolute idiocy in less than six months.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! (true?)

I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know?

Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?

The first three plays had this light and nonsensical language mixed with more serious themes, but in Importance of Being Ernest, the fluffy repartee even has a ridiculous plot to go along with the ridiculous language:  The Importance of Being Ernest goes off the deep end into the ridiculous and amazingly floats. I can imagine it is one of the most enjoyable plays to act in. The conversation between Cecily and Gwendolen is classic. They switch on each other two or three times. You try to figure them out but realize that it is only the light, easy, witty conversation that remains in the end--that's the point.

In An Ideal Husband, the descriptions of people that Wilde put in are priceless, something you don't get in the live play:

Rouge accentuates the natural paleness of her complexion. Grey-green eyes that move restlessly. She is in heliotrope, with diamonds. She looks rather like an orchid, and makes great demands on one's curiosity.

Enter Lord Goring in evening dress with a buttonhole. He is wearing a silk hat and Inverness cape. White-gloved, he carries a Louis Seize cane. His are all the delicate fopperies of Fashion. One sees that he stands in immediate relation to modern life, makes it indeed, and so masters it. He is the first well-dressed philosopher in the history of thought.

Wilde's scenes end dramatically, and his plays are such that if acted well, the endings give you a punch of emotion right in the last moment. But its not a deep, moving type of emotion. It is not the kind of emotion that would make you get up and join a cause or start a revolution, instead it is Hollywood emotion: high quality entertainment. An Oscar Wilde play would be a great play for a first date:  no heavy philosophy to discuss, just something light so you can laugh together, plus a couple safe social topics brought up during the play that can be discussed lightly over dinner and wine after the show.

Then comes Salome. This play was placed at the end of my collection of plays which gave my impression of Oscar Wilde quite a twist. I realized that he was capable of more than the standard "modern drawing room play with pink lamp shades." Salome is in a class of its own. It is of course based on the story of John the Baptist found in two place in the new testament:

Mathew 14:1-12: At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, this is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. For John said unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

Mark 6:21-29:  And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; and when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, what shall I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

The passion and evil of this play are apparent. I would like to see it performed as it doesn't come through by just reading the text. Most of what the play gives you is mood. You need the blackness, the shining moon, the voices and the live gore to experience it fully.

Wilde could be one of those authors who is more interesting himself than the works he created. I mean by this that reading a good biography of his person and character might well be more entertaining than reading his plays. His life had genius and tragedy. He had audacity, charm, and wit: anybody who announces at U.S. Customs "I have nothing to declare but my genius" and who arrives one evening unannounced at the house of a distinguished stranger and says "I have come to dine. I thought you would like to have me"--I want to meet him! I think if I could take a time machine back into time to meet the great personalities of history (Bill and Ted style), Oscar Wilde would be one of the first ten. Until this is possible, experiencing his plays allows you to enjoy a bit of his rare personality and unique wit.

Edward Tanguay

Send your thoughts on this book to The Online Reading Club.
Find out which books we are currently reading.