Monologue

Lady Chiltern Monologue from An Ideal Husband

From An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

female · anguished · 1:34 min

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Don’t come near me. Don’t touch me. I feel as if you had soiled me for ever. Oh! what a mask you have been wearing all these years! A horrible painted mask! You sold yourself for money. Oh! a common thief were better. You put yourself up to sale to the highest bidder! You were bought in the market. You lied to the whole world. And yet you will not lie to me. (SIR ROBERT CHILTERN: Gertrude! Gertrude!) (Thrusting him back with outstretched hands.) No, don’t speak! Say nothing! Your voice wakes terrible memories—memories of things that made me love you—memories of words that made me love you—memories that now are horrible to me. And how I worshipped you! You were to me something apart from common life, a thing pure, noble, honest, without stain. The world seemed to me finer because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived. And now—oh, when I think that I made of a man like you my ideal! the ideal of my life!

About this piece

Lady Chiltern confronts her husband about her shattered ideals and the painful memories associated with their love, revealing her deep emotional turmoil.

30s · sadness · love · betrayal · idealism · disillusionment

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