The existence of Mrs. Cheveley in this play is a foil to the earnest Lady Chiltern, Mrs. Cheveley is the play's femme antagonist: bitingly witty, unbelievably well dressed, showing her charm and beauty from the outside look; however, unscrupulous, ambitious, opportunistic, manipulative, and, above all, duplicitous. Opposite personalities make up the special female.
As the villain of the play, she arrives at the Chiltern's party with an evil intention. She shows up with the introduction of Lady Markby, “I have brought a much more charming person than Sir John.” In her opinion, the figure of Mrs. Cheveley is positive and she adds that, “she goes everywhere there, and has such pleasant scandals about all her friends.” It is ridiculous to see the word “scandal” modified with “pleasant”. With such a description, the figure of Mrs. Cheveley remains to be vague and complicated. With the development of the plots, there are some comments about Mrs. Cheveley from other characters in this play and the characteristics of Mrs. Cheveley becomes clear.
In the Act I, when Mabel Chiltern asks Lord Goring about what kind woman Mrs. Cheveley is, then the young man describes her as “a genius in the daytime and a beauty at night”. It is an extremely unnatural combination since there is a great distinction between day and night. According to the words from Lord Goring who has ever engaged with Mrs. Cheveley, there must be something different between the internal behavior and her inner essence. Interestingly, Mabel Chiltern bursts out a bad comment, “I dislike her already!” It is unreasonable for readers, at first glance, to look at such a worse diss from Mabel Chiltern who has not known about Mrs. Cheveley. However, when Mrs. Cheveley tells Lady Chiltern about Sir Robert's change of heart concerning the canal scheme with enigmatic words on purpose, and says: “We have both the same interests at heart we shall be great friends” to Sir Robert Chiltern, intentionally, in front of several people including the morally inflexible Lady, Lady Chiltern, then again, Mabel Chiltern could help expressing such words, “What a horrid woman!” It is quite enough to expose Mrs. Cheveley’s being duplicitous. What’s more, in Act III, in Lord Goring’s instruction to Phipps, Mrs. Cheveley is depicted as “Lamia-like”. It is scary to know that Lamia is one of a class of female monsters depicted with a snake's body and a woman's head and breasts. It is not just a description about Mrs. Cheveley’s appearance but a metaphor of her internal quality. The figure is duplicitous not only because she behaves much more different and baleful than her good outside look, but the combination of human quality and animal, exactly, monster quality in her characteristics. A female demon!
In addition, the words from Mrs. Cheveley herself also plays an important role in the expression of her personalities.
In Act I, when Mrs. Cheveley meets Lady Chiltern, she recalls the fact that they were in the same school together in the past. When she was asked about what prices she got then, she replies: “My prizes came a little later on in life. I don't think any of them were for good conduct. I forget!” What she says indicates the weakness in her mind and she cannot accept the failure she ever has. It complies with her duplicitous characteristic, and though she looks like vivid and charming now, her inner mind is not as strong as her aura. During the party, before Mrs. Cheveley attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting her current financial scheme, they have a talk about the religions left to them nowadays and Mrs. Cheveley’s response is very interesting but obscure, “Oh, I'm neither. Optimism begins in a broad grin, and Pessimism ends with blue spectacles. Besides, they are both of them merely poses.” It is very rhyming and brilliant when just looking at the words. However, it is the manifestation of her resistance and self-defense, she doesn’t want to answer the question directly and she just plays the Tai Chi and this reaction shows her being worldly-wise. The most expressive part is when Mrs. Cheveley manages to blackmail Robert Chiltern with a letter that he wrote early in his public career. The words she uses are tough and is very destructive to a man who is afraid of the ruin of career and marriage and finally she makes it. The process is dramatic because various threatening words one by one greatly increase the momentum of Mrs. Cheveley and her art of persuading reflects her good manipulative means; besides her ambition to fortune departs her from morality and she behaves like the snake which is going to swallow its prey without any mercy. This could be regarded as one aspect of the monster quality she has.
Moreover, in the Act III, when Mrs. Cheveley is founded in the drawing-room by Lord Goring and is asked why she is here, her answer is intriguing. “I have a perfect passion for listening through keyholes. One always hears such wonderful things through them.” The words she uses is mean because she cares less about the secret behavior and feel proud of what her has got in such a way. Remembering that they are old friends and what Mrs. Cheveley behaves now is exactly what she really is, the double-dealing of Mrs. Cheveley is so vivid that she could be concluded as the femme fatale that people usually think.
All in all, Mrs. Cheveley, the villain of the play, gradually exposes herself with the plots developing, left a huge gap between she looks like and she real essence. It is no reason blaming such a female just because of her vicious characteristics, in fact, she could be regarded as the slander from the male side due to the impact from the female towards the male conventional positon at that time. The writer uses his writing to repair the image of ideal husband. However, literature is literature after all, the increasing influence from the female in the real world cannot be stopped.
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