Oh, How Classy.

Mrs. Cheveley’s speech on page 161 of the play, line 491-505, is quite telling of the social standards expressed throughout the play. It is here, that the audience becomes aware of the real problems that the scandal will entail. Sir Robert cannot destroy his reputation as an honest politician; not even through being honest and admitting the mistakes that he made in the past. It is the idea of perfection, that a person can be without fault that dominates much of the plot so this passage is particularly important in establishing perfection as a theme. The phrase, “remember to what a point your Puritanism in England has brought you” should be said in smug and devilish voice. She is pointing out that the very idea of goodness, which he strives so hard to fulfill, is what will ruin his life. When she begins to reflect on the “old days” and how wonderfully corrupt society used to be, she should speak dramatically, using extravagant hand motions to emphasize the comedic exaggeration of her speech. When she begins to rant that it was “considered vulgar and middle-class… to be a bit better than one’s neighbor,” her tone should be bitter and obnoxious. She snarls at the words, “middle-class,” scrunching up her face into a most unappealing expression.  She seems to be disgusted to speak of lower-class people. Her tone is very harsh and reaches a point of screeching when she begins to discuss the “modern mania of morality.” This line reveals her true opinions moral-standards, that they are somewhat of a fad to the upper-class. Her speech is quite ignorant and she should be blatant in her misunderstanding of morality and virtue, foreshadowing the opinions voiced on Sir Robert’s past decisions by other characters, later on. The fact that the only recognized effects of the scandal would be a tainted reputation, elude to the shallow interpretations of morality that exist throughout the play, in many of the characters.