Wilde Thoughts on Philosophical Reference in An Ideal Husband: “An Ideal” Versus “The Ideal” Husband

Wilde wrote An Ideal Husband ten years before Bertrand Russell’s seminal 1905 essay “On Denoting,” which explores philosophical reference by examining the difference between “a man” and “the man.” By contemplating the idea of an “ideal” husband—both as a specific person and as a general non-specified person—and naming the play “An” Ideal Husband —when the fact is there is a specific husband in this play who is supposed to represent this “ideal”/“ideal husband”—Wilde artistically investigates and anticipates some of the same issues that Russell and Meinong debate just a very short time after.