An Ideal Husband (OCR A-Level English Literature): Flashcards

Satirises behaviours/conventions of a social class

Short, witty statement expressing truth paradoxically

Audience knows what characters on stage don't

Idealism & moral absolutism

Pragmatism & aestheticism

Aestheticist identity marker in 1890s London

rarely pure and never simple

Pleasure derived from others' misfortunes

Reveal hypocrisy through direct comparison/binary oppositions

Visual contradiction - opulence mocks puritanical morality