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Sir Robert Chiltern
Sir Robert’s wife, an icy, fastidious woman who takes pride in her finely tuned moral sense. She always categorizes people into “bad” and “good”, and recognizes no middle ground. Her idea of the good, like her husband’s, is determined more by social conventions than by ethical considerations. But when she finds that she has categorized her own husband as “bad,” she begins to reconsider her system. With Lord Goring’s help, she sees that it’s important to forgive people’s flaws - that it’s more important to see people fully than to sort them according to abstractions.
Lady Gertrude Chiltern Quotes in An Ideal Husband
The An Ideal Husband quotes below are all either spoken by Lady Gertrude Chiltern or refer to Lady Gertrude Chiltern. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Part 3
Quotes
Robert, that is all very well for other men, for men who treat life simply as a sordid speculation; but not for you, Robert, not for you. You are different. All your life you have stood apart from others. You have never let the world soil you. To the world, as to myself, you have been an ideal always. Oh! be that ideal still.
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Lady Gertrude Chiltern Quotes in An Ideal Husband
The An Ideal Husband quotes below are all either spoken by Lady Gertrude Chiltern or refer to Lady Gertrude Chiltern. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1, Part 3
Quotes
Robert, that is all very well for other men, for men who treat life simply as a sordid speculation; but not for you, Robert, not for you. You are different. All your life you have stood apart from others. You have never let the world soil you. To the world, as to myself, you have been an ideal always. Oh! be that ideal still.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
