AIH critics

• Kaneda: 'the binary....


  opposition between men/public and women/domestic is the central issue posed in the drama'
• Kaneda: 'it simultaneously... 


  supports and subverts the Victorian ideology'
• Archer: 'the excellent


  Sir Robert Chiltern proves himself as one of those gentlemen who can be honest so long as it is absolutely convenient, and no longer'
• Alan Bird - 'the basic...


  hypocrisy of English society'
• Curt Guyette: 'the woman...


  delights in taunting him'
• Showalter: 'the male rebellion...

  against patriarchy did not necessarily mean a commitment to feminism'
• Kery Powell: 'simultaneously it seeks...

  to dismantle and preserve the double standard as it applies to women'
• How was Lady Chiltern described by the first critics of the play?

  'unwomanly' 'abnormally good' 'rather trying'
• Christopher Innes: 'Each of Wilde's comedies...

  ends with the reassertion of moral standards... Yet by the time these 'happy endings' are achieved everything they stand for has been discredited'
• Eagleton - 'interpretation...


  is endless'
• Regenia Gagnier - 'the sentimental interpretation...

  allowed society to love the playwright who mocked it'
• Powell - 'the late Victorian stage is...

  crowded with Sir Robert Chilterns'
• Ericksen - 'clearly reflecting the views...

  of mass Englishmen of his time'
• Russel Jackson - Wilde "enjoyed...


  discords rather than resolutions"