Sir Robert is the main character in the full text and he is in the upper class society in England. In the eyes of the public, he is totally a good politician with integrity and honesty, and he is a warm and gentle husband in his life. However, it was such a nearly perfect gentleman that when Mrs. Cheveley revealed his mistakes in front of him, the contradictions in his heart were fully exposed.
In the whole passage, people's evaluation of Robert is extremely high. The second act of Mrs. Markby said: “Gertrude, you married a model husband. If I had such a blessing, I would be fine.” In the sight of all people, including his own wife, Robert has always been a gentleman, honest and upright, and a gentleman without any defects in his life. But under such an appearance, Robert hides a scandal in his heart. When he was young, he sold cabinet secrets to stock speculators, and he made a fortune and a big difference. This is a filthy foundation. Robert himself is very clear about that, but he has been hiding in his heart and living with a bright and optimistic image. This is the first contradiction that Robert showed to us----ideal and reality. He is ideal in the eyes of others, and he wants to live like people's ideals. All people respect and admire him. On the one hand, he shows a good image to everyone. On the other hand, various factors of reality make him obliged to do something against morality. He wants to rebel against reality, but he also feels that he does not do too much. For example, he once expressed such thoughts that what he does is not dirty; it is obtained through the price paid. Robert is such a person living in front of the world with a paranoid personality.
The second contradiction of Robert is resistance and compromise. Resistance refers to Robert's resistance against the threat of Mrs. Cheveley. Compromise refers to the mistaken that he has ever been made in order to maintain his innocent image and all that he has. The contradiction of Robert's character is mainly reflected in his attitude towards Mrs. Cheveley. It is not difficult to see from the article that when Mrs. Cheveley first proposed his swindle to support his Argentinean canal project, Robert responded that it was a particularly shameful act and that he was quite angry and the attitude at this time was rebellious. And it is very determined. But under Mrs. Cheveley’s continuous threats, Robert said that he will consider this matter and reducing the time from one week to three days, it was easy to see that Robert had compromised the filthy secrets of his heart. In the first act, his contradictions between rebellion and compromise have already emerged. His political morality over the years and his wife’s harsh ethical standards does not allow dealing with this scam. He wants to resist and wants to be an honest politician as always, but his resistance could not bear the threat of Mrs. Cheveley. If he insists on rebellion, then Robert may lose everything he has now, high social status, respect of others, loved wife, so he wants to choose compromise.
Robert was introduced in this way when he shows up: The firmly-chiseled mouth and chin contrast strikingly with the romantic expression in the deep-set eyes. The variance is suggestive of an almost complete separation of passion and intellect, as though thought and emotion were each isolated in its own sphere through some violence of will-power. The description of his appearance lay the foreshadowing of his contradictory character. Passion can be understood as his emotional impulse. Intellect can be understood as his thoughts. The contradiction between his intellectual and emotional impulses is the main contradiction of Robbie's personality, which throughout the text.
When faced with Mrs. Cheveley’s threat, his sanity told him to choose to reject the deal because he understood that it was only a speculative scam that would harm the society if he agreed; but his emotional impulses told him again to choose to accept that transaction, because only in this way can he cover up the mistakes that he made before and keep everything he has now.
When faced with the mistakes he had made, his rationality told him that it was a dirty thing, shameful and disgraceful. But his emotional impulse prompted him not to admit the dirty thing of what he had done before. In the second act of Robert's conversation with the Viscount Goring, he initially admitted that he had done a shameful thing, but finally he expressed that he actually did not do that. He paid a price for himself. Robert's emotions drove him to deny the mistakes he had made. Although emotionally, Robert does not think how serious and irresponsible he was when he first made mistakes, but the last reason also told him to fight with Mrs. Cheveley for the mistakes he had made.
When faced with whether he should tell his wife this scandal, his mind told him that he needed to tell his wife so that he could live a bright life. However, his emotional impulses told him that he could not tell his wife because he was afraid that his wife would know this matter and then disgusting or even despise himself, at last he would lose her. When Robert spoke with Viscount Goring about fighting against Mrs. Cheveley, he stressed several times that he would not let his wife know about this matter. His emotions told him that he still did not want to lose his wife. But in the end, he said that he wanted to tell the truth and wanted to live in a down-to-earth way. "If I can tell the truth, then let me see God." It can be seen that Robert's heart still wants to tell the truth.
The contradictory performance of Sir Robert's image is shown here: He wants to live in an ideal image, but reality has hidden a dirty secret, and tries his best to justify the secret of his reality; He wants to fight against Mrs. Cheveley, and he do not want to lose his hard-earned social status, thus tend to compromise; He wants to deal with the dirty secrets of the past but it is driven by emotions to hide. He has lived in such a paradoxical image, and his behavior has also affected his wife, Lady Chiltern. (1080 words)
