Book contents
8 - Vigilant open-mindedness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Summary
There can be no question as to the effect likely to be produced on an individual by his conversion from the ordinary acceptance of current ideals as safe standards of conduct, to the vigilant open-mindedness of Ibsen … What Ibsen insists on is that there is no golden rule – that conduct must justify itself by its effect upon happiness and not by its conformity to any rule or ideal. And since happiness consists in the fulfilment of the will, which is constantly growing,… he claims afresh the old Protestant right of private judgment in questions of conduct as against all institutions, the so-called Protestant Churches themselves included.
The Quintessence of Ibsenism (1891)When the French text of Salomé appeared in February 1893, Wilde sent a copy to Bernard Shaw with a note acknowledging his wise and witty fight against ‘the ridiculous institution’ of stage-censorship:
your little book on Ibsenism and Ibsen is such a delight to me that I constantly take it up, and always find it stimulating and refreshing: England is the land of intellectual fogs but you have done much to clear the air: we are both Celtic, and I like to think that we are friends.
Shaw's reply was just as gracious but, despite national and professional ties, the two Dubliners were never more than wary acquaintances.
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- The Making of Victorian Drama , pp. 229 - 264Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991