Activity 3b. Value of different lines + alternative task

Introduction:in these tasks, you’re going to analyse how context, language, form and structure contribute to the impact of lines.

Student guidance:

Things to think about whilst doing this task: why do some lines have more impact than others? Does context, structure, language or form give the line its impact?

Introduction: An Ideal Husband is a play about wealth. So we’re going to use the vocabulary of economics to explore the play in this task. Here’s a whirlwind explanation of the economic terms in the table below: a product is worth a certain amount due to the different costs of its factors of production. For example, labour and land are factors of production. The cost of labour and the cost of land needed to produce the product determines the product’s price.

In this exercise, the product is a line from the text. And the factors of production are context, structure, language and form.

Instructions: give each factor a cost, according to how much power you think the line derives from that factor. For instance, if you think context gives the line the most power, then give this factor the highest value.

Be prepared to justify your valuations.

The production costs should add up to £1.

Version 11© OCR 2016

Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband

Product / The God of this century is wealth
Factors of production / Context / Structure / Form / Language
Production cost / 30p / 40p / 5p / 25p
Justification of production costs / Two contexts at work. Cultural (religious overtones that are emotive because tap into ideas of idolatry). Historical context involves the audience (in 19th, 20th and 21st). / Aligns Sir Robert with Mrs Cheveley which is the most shocking aspect of the line. / Non-naturalistic speech is a feature of melodrama – this arguably makes it more affecting. / The metaphor is dramatic, and arguably hyperbolic. It’s a declarative, stating a truth.
Line
Factors of production / Context / Structure / Form / Language
Production cost
Justification of production costs
Line
Factors of production / Context / Structure / Form / Language
Production cost
Justification of production costs
Line
Factors of production / Context / Structure / Form / Language
Production cost
Justification of production costs

Alternative activity

Student guidance:

An alternative way to approach this task is to give your own valuations to different factors. The overall valuations of different lines will therefore be different.Be prepared to justify why you think Wilde invested some lines with more power than others. You may also want to add factors, other than context, language and structure. For instance: costumes or character worth.

Product / …life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity.’ (Lord Goring; 2:521)
Factors of production / Context / Costume / Language / Character speaking the line / ? / Overall value / Why is this line key?
Production cost / 50p / 50p / 10p / 20p / £1.30 / This line is key to Lady Chiltern’s development. At the end of the play she learns to be more charitable. It’s also the play’s central message to its audience.
Justification of cost / Historical context: Wilde’s own situation at that time makes this read as a plea for clemency from his audience. / In 1992, Martin Shaw played Lord Goring as Oscar Wilde, driving home the fact that these lines echoed Wilde’s own views. / Syntactic parallelism (cannot be…cannot be) adds to the impact of the line. / Lord Goring is uncharacteristically sincere here. This adds impact to the line.
Product
Factors of production / Why is this line key?
Production cost
Justification of cost
Product
Factors of production / Why is this line key?
Production cost
Justification of cost

Version 11© OCR 2016

Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband