The Perfectionist : Lady Gertrude Chiltern.
In Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Gertrude Chiltern is an upright and honest woman, young and beautiful. She is part of the Woman’s Liberal Association, educated about many ideals of parliament and very supportive of her husbands career (Act 3 and 4). Gertrude always tries to present herself as a perfect woman so when approaches Mrs. Cheveley, she is very polite even though she clearly wants to distance herself. She first comments on the fact that Mrs. Cheveley has married a second time in a distant tone which shows that she frowns upon multiple marriages because it is often means that the person is frivolous and tainted (Wilde 155). From this comment, Gertrude portrays herself as someone who takes everything seriously and does everything to perfection. Mrs. Cheveley further proves that Gertrude is indeed a perfectionist with flawless behaviour when she recalls that “[Lady Chiltern] always got the good conduct prize. I have a distinct recollection of Lady Chiltern always getting the good conduct prize” (Wilde 158). Sir Robert Chiltern, Gertrude’s husband, admits that “my wife is as perfect as all that” and Mrs. Cheveleys states that her writing is “the ten commandments in every stroke of the pen, and the moral law all over the page” (Wilde 180, 211).
As Gertrude speaks to Robert about the Argentine speculation, she displays that she not only requires perfection in herself, but she also wants her husband to be upright and untarnished as well. Gertrude exemplifies that she cannot accept anything dishonourable and impure, selfishly saying that it is unlike his real self to accept the dishonest scheme and that Mrs. Cheveley has mistaken the type of person Robert is (Wilde 178). She also states herself that “a person who has once been guilty of a dishonest and dishonourable action may be guilty of it a second time, and should be shunned” and that she would apply that rule to everyone (Wilde 200). As...